Marriott Hotels attempts to banish the long-hours culture

Abstract

Managers at Marriott Hotels typically worked more than 50 hours a week. The prevailing idea was that the more hours one put in, the better. “See and be seen” were the watchwords. But by the mid‐1990s, the company was having increasing difficulty recruiting talented people. Some of its best managers were leaving, often because they wanted to spend more time with their families. Munck describes how Marriott therefore introduced a six‐month pilot scheme at three of its hotels in north‐eastern USA, to help managers to strike a better balance between their home and working lives.