What about a 35-hour workweek? I’ve though of a few reasons why I think it would be a Good Thing:
It would make a lot of people, myself included, very, very happy. (Don’t snicker – I think net human happiness is a worthwhile goal for any society).
Those who choose to work 40 hours would be working overtime and would be compensated. Many people would end up making more money under a 35-hour week than a 40-hour week because their normal hours would suddenly turn into overtime.
Employees would get more sleep, suffer less stress, and be more productive in general.
Moms and dads would have five extra hours a week to spend with their children.
Employees would be forced to use their hours more efficiently. How many people are truly 100% productive during every minute of an 8-hour workday? You could probably shave off an extra hour without doing too much damage.
We’d see a significant economic boom because each person would have an extra 250 hours (or eleven days) a year to purchase the goods and services that drive the economy.
Fewer hours per employee means that companies might have to hire more employees to the do the same job. The unemployment rate would fall.
It seems to be working fine Germany (and other nations??).
That’s all I can think of. Convince me that I’m wrong.
–Incitatus (currently suffering from the Nine-to-Five Blues)
If people are working 40 hours now, and it, as you imply in your point 2 above, they can choose to continue working the same number of hours and get five hours overtime every week to boot, then your number 7 point is wrong. If anything, the unemployment rate may in fact rise, as employers would want to decrease the amount of overtime they were paying by having fewer employees. Given that, your point number 6 is also wrong. With fewer employees, producers would not be able to meet the increased demand for goods and services anyway.
erl’s Rule of Thumb: Just because it works in [blank] doesn’t mean it will work in [blank].
Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to mention my desire to have the ten-hour work day, with three days off a week. Greater than ten hours in one day is time and a half, while working that fifth day is double time. (except for us salary schmoes who always end up getting the shaft on the work week :()
There is a sense among many people who study recreation and leisure (stop laughing–it is so a profession), that time has become the real commodity of value. Note–this is a long response to a short and pointed OP.
In reference to shortening the workweek, it appears that decreases in weekly (and yearly) hours worked have not adversely affected the economy.
The first documented effort in the U.S. to shorten a work week occured in the 1780’s, when skilled artisans pushed for a 10 hour day. In 1840, textile workers in New England (mainly women) also fought for work days shorter than the standard 13-14 hour day. From 1850 until the early 1990’s the average workweek has diminished by almost half. From a high of approximately 70 hours in 1850 to about 39 in 1990. The biggest drop came in those years preceding WWI when a small number of powerful industrialists, such as Henry Ford, saw the wisdom in an eight-hour day. An upturn in hours worked occurred during WWII, but steadily declined afterward. As a result some of the most productive times in American history have occurred during downward shifts in average weekly hours worked (Shore, 1991; Zeisel, 1958).
The following data is taken from the a book (Robinson and Godbey, 1997) that specifically recounts how Americans spend their time.
Time studies generally categorize activities into a small number of general descriptions. The data I have at my fingertips, describes four categories of time.
Contracted Time: The time we spend at work and commuting.
Committed Time: Housework, childcare, shopping.
Personal Time: Sleeping, eating, grooming, medical.
Free Time: Essentially anything that doesn’t fit into one of the categories above.
Certainly there are some gray areas and fuzzy boundaries between these four categories, but they seem to work pretty well. As a result, here’s are some summary points.
American Men (first figure is 1965 data, second figure is 1985 data)
1. Contracted Time: 42.6 hours/week–35.1 hours/week
2. Committed Time: 11.5 hours/week–15.7 hours/week
3. Personal Time: 73.2 hours/week–74.5 hours/week
4. Free Time: 35.7 hours/week–40.4 hours/week
American Women (first figure is 1965 data, second figure is 1985 data)
1. Contracted Time: 18.4 hours/week–22.7 hours/week
2. Committed Time: 40.2 hours/week–30.9 hours/week
3. Personal Time: 74.6 hours/week–75.8 hours/week
4. Free Time: 34.0 hours/week–38.9 hours/week
(Rounding errors and miscelaneous travel account for fewer than 168 hours total.)
The general opinion of late is that the workweek is not some drain on our overall freetime (as was once the case). The problem is our hyper-extended lives that push and pull us into sometimes vastly different directions which results in the feeling that we’re always in a rush and never have enough free time to do much of anything. The paradox is that many people become involved in several different leisure activities which likewise contribute to a sense that we’ve lost time. So the proposal of shortening the workweek sure sounds good, but if work is not the major force inhibiting our satisfactory pursuit of leisure, then perhaps our efforts should be directed elsewhere.
References:
Bammel, G. and L. L. Burrus-Bammel. 1996. Leisure and Human Behavior (3rd ed.). Madison, WI: Brown and Benchmark Publishers.
Shore, J. B. 1991. The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. New York: Basic Books.
Robinson, J. P. and G. Godbey. 1997. Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University.
Rybczynski, W. 1991. Waiting for the Weekend. New York: Viking Books.
Zeisel, J. S. 1958. The workweek in American industry 1850-1956. Monthly Labor Review 81: 23-29.
For many months I have been trying to put forward the idea of a 4 day / 40 hour work week. The staff really like the idea and I have built a staffing model that looks great. The idea of having three days off in a row every week has great appeal to everyone and no-one has said they would mind putting in a few extra hours four days of the week.
Upper management will not consider this idea and they really don’t give any logical reasons for it.
The money for this would come from the money trees that must also be part of your plan.
OK, I’m only going to tell you this one time, and I expect you to remember it. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Often seen shortened to TANSTAAFL. From Robert Heinlein’s book The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Probably the number one most ignored economic principle.
I do think shorter work weeks are a good idea and it could even be feasible for some people and some businesses. Certain businesses that rely on customer service wouldn’t be able to let all of their employees have a 3 day weekend because it would be bad for business. At my company we have people that rotate a 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. shift because we have to have someone here to answer the phones until 6 p.m. If everyone was gone on Friday and our client’s had to wait an extra business day to talk to someone they’d probably get pissed and eventually do business with someone else. But, I’m sure there are people out there who don’t want to work ten hour days and would be more than happy to work five days a week so I think things could balance out.
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I am only required to work 37.5 hours a week (I try to put in 38-39 though) and I like it. It’s only 2.5 hours a week so I don’t really notice it too much but I’m glad I don’t have to work past 4:00!
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I don’t think this is true… at least not where I work. I only have to be here 37.5 hours a week but if I work 39.8 hours I only get paid my normal hourly wage. If I work 40 hours or more I get time and a half for all time above 40 hours. I think most companies are like this. If I got paid overtime for anything over 37.5 I’d probably work 40 hours a week just to make 2.5 hours of time and a half. It wouldn’t save the company any money at all.
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I think people would have more stuff to do and would be even busier and more stressed because they’d have more free time and would feel pressure to use that time for something productive. I have an extra 2.5 hours a week and I don’t feel like I have any extra time. I’m just as stressed and haggard now as I was when I was working 40-50 hours each week.
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Same as above. I don’t think those extra hours will really amount to that much extra time for people.
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I think a lot of goofing off would still occur but yeah, most people could probably cut an hour out of their job. All the little time-consuming things we do each day that don’t really pertain to our job… for example, people like me who read/post on this message board instead of working.
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I haven’t given much thought to this one yet… could happen I guess. Kind of like our tax refund is supposed to boost the economy because people will be getting back $300-$600 and will more than likely spend it. Makes sense I guess.
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Why not just make everyone work 40 hours a week instead of hiring more people.
At least in my country, the US, some of the largest employers are the service and retail industries. In addition to running an around-the clock cycle, these industries also rely on a number of “tricks” to keep hours and benefits low. They include the 29.5 hour “part time” work week and slave wages, compensated by tips.
Since you’ll want to remain competitive, three days off a week makes for a non-uniform weekend (half with Monday off, half with Friday off), essentially four weekend days and three work days. It seems to me that allowing the 9-5 contingent more free time would require that a certain part of the service and retail industries must work that much more to cater to those of us who actually have three free days a week. For those unfortunates that may mean getting up earlier and working later, still for chump change.
And then there is the Big Lie. What is this you speak of, this four-tee-hour week? I’m salaried. That means that The Man owns my soul, and I work in my sleep.
Before we even consider a 35 hour workweek, returning to a state where the 40-hour week applies to all but an elite would be the appropriate first step.
When the 40-hour week was made law, the main exclusion was for ‘professionals’. In an era when factory jobs dominated the workforce, this was sufficient to ensure a decent workweek for almost all Americans: those not actually covered by the law were a relatively small and valuable group, who were generally either in management or directly worked with management; the law didn’t proptect them because they were part of the relative minority running the show, and needed no protection.
Things have changed a bit since Roosevelt was president. We’ve got a lot fewer strong-back-weak-mind jobs, and a lot more ‘professionals’ sitting at a computer in a cubicle. Instead of being a small elite, ‘professionals’ are the rank-and-file in many corporate workforces, as expendable and interchangeable as the factory workforce (which is now in Indonesia).
I’d advocate rewriting the law so that everybody gets time-and-a-half after 40 hours: if your base pay is in the lowest, say, 75% of the workforce, then you get your time-and-a-half after 40. If you’re in the top 25%, then you get the time-and-a-half of the guy at the 75th percentile.
I beleive I have found the perfect summer job. Firstly, I’m a student footing the bill for my own education so making as much money as possible in 4 months is very important. That being said, my friends hate me. I got a highly unionized (read: outrageously high paying) job in a steel mill that has great hours despite being shift work. I work 2 day shifts 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM, get 24 hours off and work two night shifts 6:30 Pm to 6:30 AM. Then I get 4 days off. Equal time off for time at work is great. I have lots of leisure time but I still get a full paycheck. What really angers my friends is that I am able to read for about two thirds of the time I spend at work because my job is essentially packaging the coils of steel to be shipped. It take about 10 minutes for a coil to come and about 3-4 minutes to band it and write it up. High pay, great hours, easy work. I am a very lucky person.
I highly recommend that all intersted in this subject go out and buy The Overworked American today. You may not agree with all of it, but it is good reading none the less.
In Southern California, 4/40 or 9/80 schedules are encouraged in an attempt to decrease air pollution by lowering the number of commuters.
However in some jobs, it’s just not feasible. I work in a public library and a 4/40 or a 35 hour work week just won’t fly. First of all the library is open more than 40 hours a week. It’s open 60. So you have to stagger people’s schedules to cover the open hours. If you start having people coming in fewer days, the strain is even greater. You basically would have every employee doing nothing but working the public reference desks when they are in. I’m sure other public service jobs would have similar problems.
(If we were a university, we could just put up a sign on the reference desk that said, “No reference service available”, but that’s a different story).
I have no cites for this (sorry) but I did read a month or so ago (from a respecable source) that American employees now work 400 hours a year more than their German counterparts and 200 more than the Brits – that’s ten and five weeks more, respectively (hours, vacation time, national holidays). France, as has been mentioned, now has a mandatory 35-hour week for companies employing 5 or more workers.
If you add in the way health insurance is often tied in with employment and the more limited unemployment ‘safety net’, the picture doesn’t look great. From the outside it can look like the American employee is, comparatively, overworked but that it is just a personal and superficial view.
What’s odd is that American workers are not financially better off than Europeans despite the extra working time and have fewer benefits independent of their employment.
Presumably, the money is going somewhere.
Perhaps George, his predecessors and the Corporations like it that way (oh no, it’s a Conspircy Theory !) ?
Hell, I’d like more free time. I took the entire summer off from work and I find out a couple of things:
Not working AND getting paid is more fun than working.
You don’t realy get bored like people say. At work when ou get bored, you have to look busy or work on something you hate. When you get bored at home you can turn on the TV, read a book, take a nap, walk around town, or whatever.
I spend a shitload of money just getting to and from work, eating in the corporate cafeteria, and going to corporate events.
I have more time to spend with my real friends. No after work happy hours with people I don’t really like. No company picnics. No late hours.
You can enjoy movies like Office Space more when it is not a documentary of your life.
A career is not a source of spiritual fulfillment (unless you are in the clergy).
Based on daytime TV (talk shows, live news shows, and court shows) there appears to be a significant segment of the population who has found a way to not be at work during the day.
