A widely shared definition of “freedom” is tough to agree upon, but until the 1930s, a broad group of Americans, from poets and architects to business owners and conservative politicians, shared a vision that capitalism would deliver on the hazy idea in a very concrete way: more and more leisure time for all.
In their view, economic progress would carve a path from the grueling factories of the Industrial Revolution to a not-so-distant future largely free from work. As the British economist John Maynard Keynes put it in 1930, “for the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, his permanent problem — how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure which science and compound interest will have won for him.”
I’m an XRay Tech in a hospital. I LOVE my 3, 12 hour days! It’s only an extra 4 hours each day. Then I have 4 day weekends, EVERY WEEK! It’s amazing! I could never go back to 5 day work weeks.
Let’s make that 3 x 12 hour week into a 3 x 8 hour week - that’s what the article is suggesting we should think more about. Because 36 hours is basically a full work week condensed into three days - a 4 day work week refers to 4 days of 8 hours of work (32 hours per week), and the article wants to go further than that by pointing to the productivity gains we’ve made. Here are the top countries by least hours worked per week:
And remember, averages are skewed meaning that most people could be working less than the average. These countries are able to stay comfortably afloat despite their shorter workweeks.
When we’re talking about productivity there are so many cool things we can do: unions increase productivity, 4 day work weeks increases productivity, public/free healthcare increases productivity, fast public transportation increases productivity… all these low hanging fruits that can increase our labor output per hour - they’re not radical scientific advancements, they’re boring things we can do right now if we put in the resources to achieve them.
When I worked EMS I did 7 days/80 hours/7 days off. A lot of people hated it but I loved it. Worked 80 hours (plus some for OT getting held over for calls) in 7 days, then had the next 7 days off. Rotated every 2 weeks. By the 7th day I’d be tired and ready to be done, but it really wasn’t too terrible. I worked 2 8 hour shifts, 4 12 hour shifts, and finished with a 16 hour shift. Usually picked up 2-10 hours of OT on average every rotation from getting dispatched out on 911 calls at the end of the day before relief showed up, which always was an annoying end to the day, or from taking early 911 calls for the previous shift if I was there early so that they didn’t have to stay over. I also got 160 hours combined PTO/sick to start, so every year I’d burn 80 of those hours on a 7 day rotation and end up with a 3 week chunk of time away from work. Heaven for an American wage slave like myself.
Yep, did that for years, had four full weeks of vacations + chose when I would have my days off for the 13 holidays but they were all paid 8h/day, I still took the hit on my paycheck to have 10 weeks of vacation a year!