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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Joe Robinson

Aired June 15, 2003 - 09:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Think you work too much? Probably so. We're going to look now, at how you can enjoy life and work both. Sound difficult? Well, maybe not. Helping us along is Joe Robinson, he's the author of this book, "Work to Live." Robinson founded the Work to Live campaign, in fact and Joe Robinson is lobbying for a minimum of three weeks vacation for all Americans. He joins us now from Los Angeles, you look very well rested, Mr. Robinson.
JOE ROBINSON, AUTHOR, "WORK TO LIVE": Nice to be here bright and early on a Sunday morning.

COLLINS: Yeah, how about that? Hey, I want to start by asking you, Joe, you know, as Americans we work more hours, longer days, everybody seems to be OK with that, right now and some people, in fact, very proud of that work ethic, if you could call it that. What are some of the downfalls?

ROBINSON: Well, you know, it is -- you're right, very important, you know, the work ethic, we're programmed with that. We are among the most productive countries in the world, but it has a downside when there's never any time to recover and you can see that stress is rampant, burnout is rampant, depression has skyrocketed, and we see skyrocketing medical costs as well, company health plans going up double digits every year. So, there's tremendous costs to be paid to personal health, as well as, to family life. We have many homes where parents just aren't in the house because they're working all the time.

COLLINS: Well, that's certainly wanted to touch on and that is some of the losses that children, I'm sure, tend to see.

ROBINSON: Excuse me?

COLLINS: I just wanted to ask a little bit more about children -- and it looks like you're having a little trouble with the earpiece there, so I'll repeat the question. You know...

ROBINSON: There we go.

COLLINS: It seems like children certainly have a lot to lose when parents are working longer days and taking less vacation to spend with those kids. Talk about that for a moment.

ROBINSON: Well, that's true. You know, really, one of the main family values issues, I think, has to be how much time that parents can spend with their kids and, you know, in so many houses these days, we're averaging 50 hours a week, almost 40% of us, there's just not enough time for, you know, quality time with the kids and many families can't even get a quorum for dinner.

COLLINS: So, what is the proposal? What is the work to live campaign exactly?

ROBINSON: Well, we have proposed that we have a three-week minimum paid leave law in this country. We're the only industrialized nation that does not have a paid leave law, in Europe, it's four or five weeks by law and in Japan, it's two weeks, even the Chinese have three weeks, but...

COLLINS: That's right, in fact, I'm looking at your book right now and it talks about all of the different countries and days by law, as you mentioned. Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, on, and on, and on, at the very bottom of the list, a big fat zero for the United States where we are granted no days by law.

ROBINSON: Well, you know, this is true and this is one of the reasons why it feels so illegitimate when you take a vacation or it's so hard to get one because it feels, you know, actually illegal because it isn't a law like it is in other countries and we feel if we had a minimum paid leave law, like they do in other countries, it would be a lot easier to take your vacation because it would actually be legalized.

COLLINS: Exactly. We were just looking at another graphic that talked about, you know, different countries where vacation rule and some of them, Sweden, my homeland, they get five to seven weeks where they are taking just, kind of on average, five to seven weeks a year, as we mentioned, Belgium earlier, five to six weeks. 30 days in Austria, Denmark, Germany, 25 days in Australia. I mean, that, for some people, is a huge amount of time in comparison.

ROBINSON: Well, there's no question about it and people really have time to live their life when they have a few extra weeks like that, in the year. I talked to an American who worked for a German company for a number of years, he had six weeks off and he was telling me how more he would do with him family and his personal life than the two weeks that he gets now, working in an American company.

COLLINS: So why don't companies get it? I mean, why don't they see that, you know, a happy worker is someone who is taking this vacation and really making a good run at a balance of work and life away from work?

ROBINSON: You know, I think it just takes some education and awareness because of the studies -- the science shows that people who take vacations come back more productive and overwork is counterproductive. If you work seven 50-hour weeks in a row you'll get no more done than seven 40-hour weeks in a row and MRI images of fatigued brains look exactly like ones that are sound asleep. So, it's a question on just getting this information across, and getting out of this rut that we've been in.

COLLINS: And it is a rut. It's a little depressing, actually. Joe Robinson thanks so much for writing this book, it will be one that I keep on my bedside for quite some time, called "Work to Live." Thanks again, Joe.

ROBINSON: Thank you.

COLLINS: We appreciate your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 15, 2003 - 09:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Think you work too much? Probably so. We're going to look now, at how you can enjoy life and work both. Sound difficult? Well, maybe not. Helping us along is Joe Robinson, he's the author of this book, "Work to Live." Robinson founded the Work to Live campaign, in fact and Joe Robinson is lobbying for a minimum of three weeks vacation for all Americans. He joins us now from Los Angeles, you look very well rested, Mr. Robinson.
JOE ROBINSON, AUTHOR, "WORK TO LIVE": Nice to be here bright and early on a Sunday morning.

COLLINS: Yeah, how about that? Hey, I want to start by asking you, Joe, you know, as Americans we work more hours, longer days, everybody seems to be OK with that, right now and some people, in fact, very proud of that work ethic, if you could call it that. What are some of the downfalls?

ROBINSON: Well, you know, it is -- you're right, very important, you know, the work ethic, we're programmed with that. We are among the most productive countries in the world, but it has a downside when there's never any time to recover and you can see that stress is rampant, burnout is rampant, depression has skyrocketed, and we see skyrocketing medical costs as well, company health plans going up double digits every year. So, there's tremendous costs to be paid to personal health, as well as, to family life. We have many homes where parents just aren't in the house because they're working all the time.

COLLINS: Well, that's certainly wanted to touch on and that is some of the losses that children, I'm sure, tend to see.

ROBINSON: Excuse me?

COLLINS: I just wanted to ask a little bit more about children -- and it looks like you're having a little trouble with the earpiece there, so I'll repeat the question. You know...

ROBINSON: There we go.

COLLINS: It seems like children certainly have a lot to lose when parents are working longer days and taking less vacation to spend with those kids. Talk about that for a moment.

ROBINSON: Well, that's true. You know, really, one of the main family values issues, I think, has to be how much time that parents can spend with their kids and, you know, in so many houses these days, we're averaging 50 hours a week, almost 40% of us, there's just not enough time for, you know, quality time with the kids and many families can't even get a quorum for dinner.

COLLINS: So, what is the proposal? What is the work to live campaign exactly?

ROBINSON: Well, we have proposed that we have a three-week minimum paid leave law in this country. We're the only industrialized nation that does not have a paid leave law, in Europe, it's four or five weeks by law and in Japan, it's two weeks, even the Chinese have three weeks, but...

COLLINS: That's right, in fact, I'm looking at your book right now and it talks about all of the different countries and days by law, as you mentioned. Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Netherlands, on, and on, and on, at the very bottom of the list, a big fat zero for the United States where we are granted no days by law.

ROBINSON: Well, you know, this is true and this is one of the reasons why it feels so illegitimate when you take a vacation or it's so hard to get one because it feels, you know, actually illegal because it isn't a law like it is in other countries and we feel if we had a minimum paid leave law, like they do in other countries, it would be a lot easier to take your vacation because it would actually be legalized.

COLLINS: Exactly. We were just looking at another graphic that talked about, you know, different countries where vacation rule and some of them, Sweden, my homeland, they get five to seven weeks where they are taking just, kind of on average, five to seven weeks a year, as we mentioned, Belgium earlier, five to six weeks. 30 days in Austria, Denmark, Germany, 25 days in Australia. I mean, that, for some people, is a huge amount of time in comparison.

ROBINSON: Well, there's no question about it and people really have time to live their life when they have a few extra weeks like that, in the year. I talked to an American who worked for a German company for a number of years, he had six weeks off and he was telling me how more he would do with him family and his personal life than the two weeks that he gets now, working in an American company.

COLLINS: So why don't companies get it? I mean, why don't they see that, you know, a happy worker is someone who is taking this vacation and really making a good run at a balance of work and life away from work?

ROBINSON: You know, I think it just takes some education and awareness because of the studies -- the science shows that people who take vacations come back more productive and overwork is counterproductive. If you work seven 50-hour weeks in a row you'll get no more done than seven 40-hour weeks in a row and MRI images of fatigued brains look exactly like ones that are sound asleep. So, it's a question on just getting this information across, and getting out of this rut that we've been in.

COLLINS: And it is a rut. It's a little depressing, actually. Joe Robinson thanks so much for writing this book, it will be one that I keep on my bedside for quite some time, called "Work to Live." Thanks again, Joe.

ROBINSON: Thank you.

COLLINS: We appreciate your time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com