The 30 Hour Work Week

BelovedAunt

Good folk of AH,

I spend a good three hours a day dossing online when I'm in work. It's madness. When will we have a shorter workday, measuring our value in output rather than hours served?

Mr. Incognito

Enda Kenny- Is that you?

A_Sober_Paddy

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-introduces-six-hour-work-day-a6674646.html

Winterlong

I would be happy with a shorter work week.

But not so happy with a corresponding smaller pay packet.

ScumLord

Winterlong wrote: »

I would be happy with a shorter work week.

But not so happy with a corresponding smaller pay packet.

I'd assume the pay packet would stay the same. Even paying people the same, as long as they produce the same amount (or more) it's going to save costs for the company. Being able to shut down the factory, or just run with minimum staff means you're saving on electricity and all the other costs associated with having people to worry about.

I think it would work here, tell people you just have to hit this target and you can go home. Why even bother with a set working week?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Give the OP a 30 hour week and I guarantee he'll still spend 3 hours a day online. Three hours a day is 15 a week! Great work if you can get it.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

I want a one hour working week.

MeatTwoVeg

I'm pretty happy with mine.
36.25hrs with a 30min lunch.
I think the 1hr lunch break is a bit stupid, much rather getting home a half hour earlier.

jester77

Plenty of lads in my team do an 80% week, a few others do 90% taking every 2nd Friday off. I might consider 90% when kids are a bit older. A 4 day week every week would lose its appeal very fast unless all my mates were also doing it, would get bored out of my mind.

BelovedAunt

I'm incredibly envious of people who say they would be bored without work. It's a mindset I don't think I'll ever be able to have.

astrofool

I would just work 10 hours more for extra pay, and/or sooner promotions.

eeguy

BelovedAunt wrote: »

Good folk of AH,

I spend a good three hours a day dossing online when I'm in work. It's madness. When will we have a shorter workday, measuring our value in output rather than hours served?

Thousands would lose their jobs if such a system came into place.

MeatTwoVeg

MeatTwoVeg wrote: »

I'm pretty happy with mine.
36.25hrs with a 30min lunch.
I think the 1hr lunch break is a bit stupid, much rather getting home a half hour earlier.

I disagree I take over an hour for lunch and it absolutely flies. My stroll down to the shop for a sandwich and back is about 20mins on its own. I couldn't deal with a 30min lunch.

jester77 wrote: »

Plenty of lads in my team do an 80% week, a few others do 90% taking every 2nd Friday off. I might consider 90% when kids are a bit older. A 4 day week every week would lose its appeal very fast unless all my mates were also doing it, would get bored out of my mind.

I'd love a 4 day week or even a 3 day week (even if it meant working all the hours of the week in 3/4 days). Only having 2 days off per week just isn't enough particularly if you drive a few hours home at lot of weekends or want to get something done while still being able to have a late night or two and a good sleep in. I don't know how people would get bored so quickly. Its not being on the dole with nothing to do from one week to the next its an extra day or two per week to do the thing you want to do or just do nothing when you feel like it.

Letree

It has to be the future with automation etc. Besides the World's economies can't be expected to keep growing and growing and growing. Producing more and more consumer goods. Spread the work around and let people do 30 hours or so. 4 longer days or 5 shorter days.

Autonomous Cowherd

The irony is that people don't seem to be noticing that in spite of automation the population are working longer hours at present (productivity deals under 'austerity', remember?) for comparatively less pay than formerly (factor in house price to income ratios from the 60's and 70's compared to now) and with greater job dissatisfaction (endless mindless form filling and databases to be fed, for example). 2 days off a week to live a life, and see your children, and catch up on sleep, is positively Victorian, but somebody somewhere (witness the shift of wealth steadily up the pyramid) is benefiting nicely from us drones.

The length of our work week is obviously arbitrary and unnecessarily long. People in the future will look back with curioisity on us living during a time of material plenty and all opting (from their viewpoint) to only have 2 days off a week. 80% of the pay for a 4 day week sounds great to me - just never take upon yourself the outgoings requiring a 5 day week in the first place (in fact, after a while of everyone working only 4 days, things will balance out because everyone will be in the same boat, and this will mitigate any price increases due to decreased productivity). If many people only work 30-32 hours a week it will "free up" work for people to do in the future when "computers do most peoples jobs". I know people in the 1950s said the same thing but now it *does* look like this is going to happen .. more than it did back then. The quality of each of the weekend days then is enhanced because you get to go to bed on Friday evening after haivng the day to yourself knowing that even the next night you won't be worrying about work the next morning.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=98971542

Also, the whole thing of needing to work in Dublin just to get decent pay, and then having to pay massive rents/mortgage just to live in Dublin, or else commute such a distance that it isn't even worth it, needs to stop somehow. Technology and GDP might be growing but I doubt quality of life is (in my opinion it definitely isn't).

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

Letree

In our parents time one wage could raise a family and provide a roof over their heads. Now with both parents working it really only provides enough for the same thing. As I mentioned in another thread if the average working week became 60 the same thing would happen. That extra money would be gobbled up with living expenses, rent, mortgages, food etc. I'd imagine if the average working week was 30 hrs living costs would drop too.

BelovedAunt

FizzleSticks wrote: »

employees who feel entitled to get paid for hours when they're not working is as bad as employers feeling entitled to get their staff to put in overtime without pay.

You're missing the point completely. In a lot of modern jobs there isn't 40 hours of actual work to be doing a week, hence surfing the internet to fill out the hours.

Jayz we're busy all the time lately. Barely enough hours in the day

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

puppieperson1

work 40 hours a week can do my job in 20 read all the newpapers and chat to my colleagues some people are quicker than others and can get their work done but its the stupid middle managers who fail to recognise thsis. I could do double the work they give me but i wont .... i hate working

JustTheOne

Letree wrote: »

In our parents time one wage could raise a family and provide a roof over their heads. Now with both parents working it really only provides enough for the same thing. As I mentioned in another thread if the average working week became 60 the same thing would happen. That extra money would be gobbled up with living expenses, rent, mortgages, food etc. I'd imagine if the average working week was 30 hrs living costs would drop too.

People want more and more nowadays.

Phones laptops New cars, 2 family cars, holidays tvs in each room etc

Back years ago people lived a much simpler life.

We'll be lucky to have 30-hour weeks, if the future according to Carlos Slim & Richard Branson comes true.

Mexico's richest man Carlos Slim says we may soon have a three-day work week

Billionaires Carlos Slim And Richard Branson Want A 3-Day Workweek

Dohnjoe

Autonomous Cowherd wrote: »

The irony is that people don't seem to be noticing that in spite of automation the population are working longer hours at present (productivity deals under 'austerity', remember?) for comparatively less pay than formerly (factor in house price to income ratios from the 60's and 70's compared to now) and with greater job dissatisfaction (endless mindless form filling and databases to be fed, for example). 2 days off a week to live a life, and see your children, and catch up on sleep, is positively Victorian, but somebody somewhere (witness the shift of wealth steadily up the pyramid) is benefiting nicely from us drones.

Working hours in general across developed countries have decreased
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#Gradual_decrease_in_working_hours

On aggregate there's more job mobility, opportunities, better real income (on aggregate), better safety, more rights, more equality, increasing number of people coming through third-level education, more women on the work-force, and so on

Even from an anecdotal point of view, the average worker from the 60's/70's would not believe the hours, the level of benefits, holidays, free time, teleworking options, flexibility options that thousands of workers in my company have today

Mint Sauce

Quite happy with my 42hr average week.

Giacomo McGubbin

No one ever looks back on life and wishes they spent longer hours at work . . .quite the opposite in fact

eeguy

Giacomo McGubbin wrote: »

No one ever looks back on life and wishes they spent longer hours at work . . .quite the opposite in fact

Depends.

I love my job and I do my own projects in my spare time.
I've taken a weeks holidays from work to do other work.