Nathan Bowser, 22, of Pawtucket, R.I., has just gotten home at 6:30 p.m. from working a 10-hour day at Gem Plumbing and Heating in Lincoln R.I. He briefly talks with his wife of three years about their work days and then he takes care of their newborn baby, Ian, while his wife cooks dinner. After dinner, Bowser and his wife put their baby to sleep, watch a movie and then go to sleep themselves. But his cell phone is never far away as he occasionally has to troubleshoot phone and computer problems at work. Seven hours later, he will wake up and repeat the day.

“I feel overworked because there never seems to be enough time to do much of anything,” said Bowser, who is an information technology specialist. “I go into a day or weekend with certain expectations of myself and things I hope to accomplish. I don't feel that I accomplish as much as I should all the time.”

Bowser is one of many twentysomethings who feel pressure over a lengthening work day in the United States and the financial burdens of transitioning into adulthood. With new technology allowing people to easily work from home and companies increasingly downsizing to save money, young employees struggle to balance work and life and stress over their job security.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based economic-policy group, Americans work longer weeks while other industrialized countries are shortening their work weeks. Between 1970 and 2002, annual hours per capita rose 20 percent in the United States, the highest among the 19 countries surveyed by OECD. However, annual work weeks declined by 23.5 percent in France, 17.1 percent in Germany, and 16.6 percent in Japan.

“It’s hard enough to make the transition into the real world,” said Cathy Stocker, co-author of the “Quarterlifers Companion,” about the lengthening work week. “The biggest challenge is finding a balance when work takes up a majority of the day.”

Bowser is also one of numerous twentysomethings who face financial burdens even though they work more hours. Debt from school, increases in living expenses, and a newborn are just a few of the costs Bowser and other young people face for the first time as they leave the safety of their schools and their parents’ homes. These costs sometimes make it impossible for twentysomethings to escape from their stressful work weeks, said Penelope Trunk, a career advisor who writes for Yahoo Finance and the Boston Globe.

“It is causing serious issues,” said Trunk about young people overworking and not finding time for a social life. “There is more debt than ever and salaries have not increased proportionally. Young people should assess what their needs are and then look at what works financially.”

Additionally, the longer work week and financial problems has made it difficult for young people to escape from work. In 2004, OECD surveyed full-time employees and companies across the world on vacation time. United States employees, even though they are working more hours, received a mere 3.9 holiday and vacation weeks off a year. On the other hand, Italy’s full-time employees received more than double the time off compared to Americans, 7.9 weeks. United Kingdom employees received 6.6 weeks off a year while French workers got 7 weeks off of the job.

Adding to the stress, a survey in 2004 by the Families and Work Institute, a non-profit research center on the American work force, found 36 percent of Americans will not use their vacation time. The same survey found about one in five people do some amount of work during vacation.

One example is Becky Heon, 27, of Thompson, Conn., who is a purchaser for Gem Plumbing and Heating in Lincoln, R.I. Heon said she would never cut a vacation short or work on a holiday because she values family and friends over work. However, last year, she had scheduled a week off from work, but when Gem Plumbing and Heating fired another purchaser, she had to cancel her vacation. Since Gem fired the employee, she has not been able to take more than two days off in a row.

Consequences of overworking

While more hours worked means more work completed, the negatives of overworking out may weigh the positives. A Families and Work Institute study found that overworked employees dread their jobs and employer, make more mistakes, have higher stress levels, and are more likely to become depressed.

Cathy Stocker, co-author of the “Quarterlifers Companion,” said many young people who feel overworked will not participate in activities, such as sports, dancing and painting, that helped reduced their stress once they leave school. Twentysomethings cut those activities out of their daily routine because of a lack of time, access or money, Stocker said. And sometimes young people replace those habits with drinking and drugs, which only make the situation worse, she said.

Along with that study, the American Institute of Stress in New York found workplace stress has cost the nation more than $300 billion a year in health care costs, missed work and poor production.

Penelope Trunk, a career adviser, said this new, always-connected career has lead to the quarterlife crisis, where young people around 25 years old consistently job hop, delay family life, and face loan debt as they struggle to transition into the “real world.”

“When you are in your twenties, people think its OK to not know what they want,” Trunk said. “But by 30, people still searching think they are losers and panic. They become less experimental and not innovators.”
These burdens have not just affected production at work, though.

Stocker said the Quarterlife Crisis web site polled twentysomethings on how debt and finances might affect their goals. A majority of the people polled said money would keep them from reaching their goals or significantly postpone their goals. Stocker said other research from a little more than a decade ago found that the average person got married, had children and bought a home in their mid-twenties. Now, the average person waits until their late twenties.

Stocker said transitioning from school into the real world has become a difficult time for most people in their twenties. She said in school, young people see their friends every day, know the rules and know how to succeed, and participate in extracurricular activities that help reduce stress. But once they graduate, many young people find it difficult to keep this same pattern of life while working all day.

“It is a time in someone’s life when the world should be their oyster and where they can explore different avenues,” said Stocker about people in their twenties. “But they are already feeling boxed out. Instead, they feel lonely and develop bad habits.”

Becky Heon, works over 45 hours a week but that does not include the hour commute to and from work. After work, Heon spends her free time taking care of her horses, doing household chores, and answering any phone calls from technicians or managers who need help buying parts. Because of work and responsibilities around the house, she only relaxes and spends time with friends on Saturday night.

Preparing for the future

Even though Trunk and Stocker said future generations will struggle through the same transitions, being overworked and overstressed is something that does not have to last throughout someone’s lifetime or even at all. Trunk said many young people do not know what they want when they are young and often make mistakes that cost a lot in student loans and time.

Trunk, though, suggests young people approach work with a trial-and-error system. If the job is too stressful and requires someone to work too many hours for not enough pay, look for another job, she said.

“There is not just one perfect job for people like there is one perfect mate. The perfect job is a thriving one,” Trunk said. “Long hours do not make for a bad career. What’s bad is a long commute, no control over the hours, and a comprised ability to get results.”

Trunk gave this example: a 22-year-old investment banker will probably dislike the monotonous and long hours, but a 22-year-old who owns a business, will enjoy working long into the night.

Nevertheless, Stocker said young people should start preparing for the future before they are out of school and even as early as high school to avoid falling into the quarterlife crisis. She said young people should know their financial situations, what they want from a career, and what they want socially.

“Everyone has to take responsibility,” Stocker said. “There are lots of tools out there to keep people educated.”

Jonathan Larson, 23, of Boston, is one young person who has not felt overburdened by adulthood. Larson said when he was at college and going to class, participating in extracurricular activities, and working, he had no free time. However, now that he has graduated and works 40 hours a week as an economic researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank, he has the opposite problem.

“I have got all this free time, and it’s like what do I do with it,” said Larson adding he likes to ride his bicycle during his free time. “I started taking a class and that’s keeping me real busy now. But I still wouldn’t say that I’m overworked, overburdened, or overstressed.”

Like Larson, Jen Selinger, a sophomore theater major at Emerson College, has found school stressful. Selinger said class, research papers, and work give her anxiety. To cope with all the work, Selinger procrastinates and drinks coffee even though she knows it does not help. Even so, she said her experiences, including anxiety in college, will be worth it when she is an actress.

“Stress is necessary,” Selinger said. “It is a rite of passage. It makes you a stronger person.”