*4 day work week, even lower wages
I've been noting the rise in the push for this from neolibs, generally proponents of Keynesianism.
I see it more too, but all the time with "4-day 10-hour" workweek, which literally kills its meaning.
Eh, you're right but I'd gladly take that deal at this point. Managers I've spoken to about this oppose it because people will 'not have presence in the office' on Friday or Monday so they are against it even if the hard evidence shows that it increases productivity. They consciously know and understand that it really isn't about productivity, it's about control.
If your commute is long that can make better sense than 5 days a week - esp nowadays.
the concept of sitting in front of a computer in an office, surrounded by the same people for eight hours is already insane to me
I really do wonder how much productivity the average office worker eking out of the final two hours of an eight hour shift, nevermind the last two of a ten hour shift?
There is no productivity. I think it's generally the case that after 4-5 hours, worker productivity takes a complete nosedive. The rest is just bullshit busywork in the way of browsing reddit or being on your phone all day. This isn't restricted to office jobs either. I've done a ton of manual labor jobs, and downtime makes up most of your hours.
Takes an hour to get going, do work for a couple hours. Long stretchy lunch and bull shit meetings that shouldve been emails. Fire off a couple more hours then piss around until it looks like you can leave without raising eyebrows. Stick to that for a few months and some light automation of tasks you can and you will, no shit, be the most productive employee in an office job.
I mean for me personally it's better too, but i know a lot of people who laugh at the idea.
Maybe in the rich EU countries, certainly not in the US ever let alone the third world. IMO the 9-5 is part of the civil religion just as much as voting and gun rights. Maybe some professions will get away with benefiting from this but certainly not on a large scale.
Given the choice between mass unemployment, poverty and hunger all risking mass revolt vs simply cutting hours by 1/3 and giving everyone a job and a salary, the choice is obvious, pick the one that will make you the most money right now.
Capitalists will never do what is necessary to save capitalism which is why it is doomed, it does mean we will all suffer more as a result though.
my chud filled workplace has actually started to demand 4 days, but in true American fashion they're asking for a negative thing to compensate for the good thing. They want a four day workweek, but increased hours (12 hour days) and reduced benefits. They strictly do not understand they can simply ask for something good.
Big reason for why it's being demanded is their children. All the workers who have kids have an increasingly hard time taking care of their kids, often taking PTO just to go to the doctor or they simply can't afford daycare anymore. I don't have kids but some of that is hitting me too. We're always at work during the only available hours for various services. I can't go to the bank, doctor, can't talk to a realtor about a house, can't take my pets to a vet. Can't even go to a post office unless it's on my lunch break.
I guess people used to have wider family units or something, or more friends who could do favors, because managing personal life stuff seems impossible when you're already at work 45 hours a week.
Yes there's only been a short window where our society couldn't simply make women deal with managing the house, because a large number of them are working
The 5x8 schedule was designed for single income families where the wife spent a shitload of time doing work at home, and new technology hasn't compensated for the difference.
honestly I think American kids are more closely monitored than in other places too
like when I've been to China and Japan I would see really young kids riding the train to school unsupervised and that would never fly here
It kind of already is in a lot of places. Hourly workers get refused enough hours to be considered full time workers, and are then forced to work multiple jobs for sub living wages and no benefits - I think the push for services like UberEats is the natural evolution of this, allowing every worker to work for every corporation simultaneously while the corporations collectively pay the workers subsistence wages.
But for things like tech employees, where there is a lot of scientific data to back up increasing productivity by reducing hours, I could see the neoliberal push be to reduce hours and cut pay. Then once the tech workers have more free time and also need more money, their demotion to a lower tier of wealth will be complete when they all start looking for side work. Whether by this road or another, it's a process that will inevitably happen as the current tech bubble fills in, the same way it did for the physical trades back in the 70s and 80s.
The ACA requiring employers offer healthcare coverage for employees that work a certain number of hours kicked off a lot of restaurants cutting hours for full time workers.
a liberal regulation to capitalism created a perverse incentive that hurt workers
:shocked-pikachu:
Better then a 5 day week but still shitty because the job is still soul crushing.
A 4-day workweek but only after embracing the Erisian calendar.
Work from Boomtime through Setting Orange and only get Sweetmorn off.The days of the week are named after the five basic Discordian elements: Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange
Kingdom of Loathing ass religion
Expect 4x8 to be limited to some desperate tech industry people, who knows if it'll spread beyond that
Yeah the only place I’ve seen any real success in 4 day work weeks is in labor aristocracy places like tech sector. A lot fo the time they keep the same salary just work one day less, I can’t imagine retail workers and such being offered something like that since conditions are kept in a way that they can keep filling the role quickly from the labor pool
Worling time has been declining in many countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time
Not sure about in China
chinas been doing a pretty big investment push on limiting workplace injuries as of late, usually through automation
still has pretty standard working times similar to places in europe in the industrialized areas. farming in rural areas is regularly the issue for high working hours because only in some areas is it industrialized
Standard working hours of countries worldwide are around 40 to 44 hours per week (but not everywhere: from 35 hours per week in France[2] to up to 112 hours per week in North Korean labor camps)
Source? DC think tank :fedposting: says prisoners can work up to 16 hours a day. Wikipedia spooks say week 16*7 is 112 so that's the standard work week
And dude think about it that's just the standard week, imagine the longest one
Congrats everyone on the 4 day work week.
And a 20% pay cut
They totally would do that
The good version would happen where there is strong labor power or as part of a coherent state solution to underemployment that ensured the same pay for less work.
So the good version is not going to happen any time soon.
A version that could happen would be a pay cut and redefinition of full-time employment to address underemployment. This would still be a fight with some bourgeois interests, as even though many workers are just as productive with fewer hours, the control is the point.
