Workplace -- Beating the Clock:
Managers Who Switch Coasts Must Adapt
To Different Approaches to Use of Time
By Joan E. Rigdon08/14/1991
The Wall Street Journal
PAGE B1
(Copyright (c) 1991, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.){Last of a Series}
You know the stereotype: Pasty-faced East Coasters punch clocks while
West Coast wrist-flickers are more likely to be checking their tans than
the time.People who have lived on both coasts know that isn't always true.
Manhattanites may be harried, but summers bring a spate of three-day
weekends in the Hamptons. And for every San Franciscan who whiles
away hours climbing rocks, there's a Silicon Valley executive who puts in
exhausting hours climbing the corporate ladder.But overall, there's some truth to the perception that time is used
differently in the West and the East. Executives who have worked on
both coasts say that Westerners, who enjoy temperate climates, can
afford more of a (manana) perspective: They really do spend more time
enjoying themselves than Easterners, who are driven indoors six months
of the year.Indeed, the two cultures have different priorities when it comes to time:
About 48% of Westerners make time for their ideal weekends,
compared with 38% of Easterners, according to a recent study
conducted by Hilton Hotels Corp. And 72% of Westerners say personal
goals, such as vacations and hobbies, are among their top priorities for
the '90s, compared with 55% of Easterners.Easterners, it seems, are always working -- carrying beepers to
restaurants and the theater and calling late meetings, for instance. In some
cases, the emphasis on putting in long hours at the office is so great that
people stay late or work weekends even when they have no work to do.Paul Levy, a Xontech Inc. technical group manager in Los Angeles,
witnessed this at his former laboratory job in Boston. His colleagues
would come in "even if all they had to do was read the latest {trade}
magazines," Mr. Levy says. "They felt pressure to be there."These cultural differences are likely to affect more managers as an
increasing number of people shuttle between coasts on business.
Easterners will have to understand that many Westerners consider
themselves on time when they're only five minutes late and rarely act
frantic even when they're pressured. Easterners must also appreciate, as
John P. Robinson, director of Americans' Use of Time Project, puts it,
that "Westerners know how to spread their jollies out more."A look at two managers who recently switched coasts shows how hard it
can be to adjust.EAST TO WEST
After moving from suburban Boston to San Francisco, Marc Carignan
slowed down so much that he stopped popping antacids.Back east at Digital Equipment Corp., "people think everything has to get
done right away or the whole company will fall apart," says Mr. Carignan,
a 27-year-old software engineer. "Career was supposed to be No. 1."And it was hard to blow off steam. Plans for hikes in the White
Mountains degenerated into afternoons at the movies when the weather
turned foul. Stressed out at work and cooped up on weekends, "I was a
little too up-tight," Mr. Carignan recalls.Now a senior software engineer at Verity Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.,
Mr. Carignan has learned the Western attitude toward time. Since the
weather's usually sunny, he can make planned getaways to wine country
and the Calistoga Hot Springs. And work is different, too. "People here
are motivated and driven, but not to the point of physical pain," he
explains.Consider his schedule when he first came to the West Coast a few years
ago to work for Oracle Corp. in the San Francisco suburb of Redwood
Shores. He was expected to be in the office during the core hours of 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. Otherwise, he came and went as he pleased, as long as he
got his work done. Sometimes that required back-to-back marathon
sessions of 8 a.m. to 3 a.m.; but that entitled him to "miss a Friday or
two" later on. "They had a work hard, play hard philosophy," he says.The flexible schedule introduced Mr. Carignan to a new technology: the
snooze button. "I still had my alarm clock, but I didn't take it as
seriously," he says.Sometimes, though, he wishes other West Coasters would take their
alarms more seriously. He still gets annoyed when people are late to
meetings. When he first landed at Oracle, he made the mistake of
showing up for 10 a.m. meetings with his boss at 10 a.m. But his boss
"wouldn't even walk in the door until 10:30," he says.Thinking that hour might be too early, Mr. Carignan told his boss he
would rather meet at 11 a.m., but that didn't help either. Finally, Mr.
Carignan hit on a solution: He fixed it so he was never his boss's first
appointment of the day. After that, Mr. Carignan says triumphantly, "he
would only hold me up five or 10 minutes."There's no risk of that happening at Verity. That's because the
90-employee start-up company has no formal meetings. Instead, he and
his fellow engineers are expected to attend a group lunch every
Wednesday at noon (or shortly thereafter). Pizza is served. During lunch,
anyone can take the floor to make an announcement -- as long as it lasts
two minutes or less.WEST TO EAST
When native Southern Californian Cheryl Heuton Falacci moved to
Manhattan last year, she expected a rough work schedule. But she didn't
think she would have to give up her meals, too."Nobody thinks anything of taking your breakfast, lunch and dinner for
meetings. They don't think that maybe I'd like to have my dinner meetings
with my husband," says Ms. Falacci, the 34-year-old managing editor of
the trade magazine Inside Media.So far, Ms. Falacci has managed to fend off evening invitations, but she
has compromised on breakfast. For her first job in Manhattan, as a writer
for the now-defunct Channels trade magazine, she sometimes met with
investment bankers as early as 7:30 a.m. Over bowls of oatmeal, "I had
to ask these guys a lot of penetrating financial questions," Ms. Falacci
says. "But all I wanted to know was where my second cup of coffee
was."Indeed, East Coasters seem to have little reverence for sleep. Ms.
Falacci discovered that several years ago when she flew to New York on
a red-eye for a conference. Ignoring her protests that she needed time to
nap, the conference organizers scheduled her first meeting for an hour
after touchdown.Ms. Falacci's new colleagues are equally demanding. Evening meetings,
which rarely took place in Long Beach, are "de rigueur" in New York.
And at Channels, Ms. Falacci recalls, a writer was curtly turned down
when he asked for compensatory time to make up for days of overtime
when he worked on a special project. Instead, editors told the writer to
plan his work hours so he wouldn't feel as though he needed time off, Ms.
Falacci says.Perhaps most difficult of all is the East Coast insistence on punctuality,
come hell or high water. Once, when Ms. Falacci arrived late at a
luncheon meeting because her subway stalled for 20 minutes between
stops, her guests were frosty despite her explanation. But "on the West
Coast," she says, "you can walk in and say I was stuck in this horrible
traffic jam, and people sympathize with you."Despite these changes, Ms. Falacci is hardly the frazzled New Yorker.
Back in Long Beach, she spent most of her free time stuck in traffic. It
took her an hour to drive 20 miles to work. Figuring in driving and
parking time, grocery shopping could take two hours, and eating out
could take all evening. But in Manhattan, restaurants and delivery services
abound, attending movies can be planned on the spur of the moment and
grocery shopping is a breeze: "You just swing in the store on the same
block you live in, grab something and you're out in 10 minutes," Ms.
Falacci marvels.Best of all, Ms. Falacci has managed to maintain her West Coast
fascination with rock climbing. In Long Beach, she and her husband had
to drive 45 minutes to go climbing at a site featuring broken glass and
graffiti. But now they climb together two or three times a week after work
in Central Park.-30-