News

Meet the new Canadian workaholic: the teenager.

While they may not be carrying briefcases or punching timesheets, most Canadian teens are carrying a heavy workload, according to a study released yesterday by Statistics Canada.

Researchers tallied the hours that teens aged 15-19 spent at school, doing homework, working part-time jobs and doing chores, and found that they did an average of 7.1 hours of unpaid and paid labour per day in 2005. That adds up to a very adult 50-hour workweek.

This is no surprise to Mississauga teenager Dannielle Gauci. She attends high school from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then she plays team sports most afternoons until 5. Up next is either night school until 9:30 or her part-time job at a pet store, where the aspiring veterinary technician works in the reptile and fish department until 9:30.

Once home, Ms. Gauci squeezes in dinner, taking care of her menagerie of pets, including two dogs and two geckos, and doing her homework.

Most nights, she falls asleep by 11 and her parents turn out her bedroom light.

Some days, she's out of the house for more than 13 hours.

The Statscan findings fly in the face of the stereotype of the lazy, lounging teenager, says Katherine Marshall, an analyst with the agency. She found the total hours worked virtually matched those of Canadians aged 20-64. "I didn't expect to find teens this active," she says.

After school attendance, homework was the most time-consuming unpaid activity for teens, who reported spending an average of 9.2 hours per week on it. Housework consumed an average of 23 minutes a day. Twenty per cent of the teens polled worked at a paid job for five hours on the day the survey was conducted.

The study was part of Statscan's general social survey, and polled 700 teens on the details of one 24-hour day. Compared with nine other countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that collect similar data, Canadian teens worked the most paid and unpaid hours during the school week, followed by teens in Belgium, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Norway, Germany and Finland.

When asked about their workloads, 16 per cent of the teenagers polled said they considered themselves workaholics; 39 per cent felt under constant pressure to accomplish more than they could handle, and nearly 64 per cent said they'd cut back on sleep to get things done.

"I've learned to take more naps," says Ms. Gauci, who considered dropping sports but felt "too committed" to her teammates to do it. Finding time to see her friends and family hasn't been easy.

"It actually hurts family time a bit," says Ms. Gauci, who has already been accepted to Sheridan College for next fall. "We only have dinner all together twice a week."

Stress is a concern for teens working long hours, Ms. Marshall says. One in 10 regularly felt very stressed about not having enough time in the day.

In her case, Ms. Gauci says she's happy to be on a path to her chosen career and would never complain about her long hours. "My parents see how drained I am, but they've had a long day too. But they've been working for 25 years!"

Nigel Mansell, a classmate of Ms. Gauci's at John Cabot Catholic Secondary School, is another multitasker. He juggles school, homework, a part-time job in a shoe store and boxing four nights a week.

Being busy helps him to stay organized and to know how precious time is, he says. "Before I was boxing and working I'd sleep more and get nothing done," says the 17-year-old, who hopes to study business at York University. "I look back and it was time wasted. I could have been doing homework."

Students aiming for higher education say part-time jobs provide more than a sense of responsibility. "I know I don't want to work in a pet store all my life," Ms. Gauci jokes.

But aren't they afraid of having a midlife crisis at 24?

No, they say. Busy teens like Mr. Mansell say they feel they'll be well equipped for the hectic schedules that come with adult careers. "Except, we'll be getting paid."