40 Hours?
“Lost time is never found again.“~Benjamin Franklin
Have you even thought much about why the standard work week is 40 hours? In all the years that I was punching a clock I found ways to fill those hours. A lot of that time was filled with chatting with co-workers, email, reading the newspaper or other online news. I also used to drink a ton of coffee and water just so I had a reason to get up and walk around.
What if workers were giving the opportunity to work less hours? I would wager good money that if a worker was asked to produce the same amount of productivity in 30 hours, they could do it. Wouldn’t a great way to entice talented people to work for your company be to pay a typical 40 hour salary for only 30 hours of work. The workers would become more efficient and finish the same or more work in less time. Not only would this make the company a desirable place for talented people to work but it could also save the company money by closing the office one day a week or just less energy bills with people in the building for only 5 or 6 hours at a time.
Not only would a shorter work week be desirable to the individuals (for obvious reasons), the company (for the reasons in the previous paragraph), but it would also be a major improvement for the community that the workers live in. It is well documented that people choose not to volunteer at their child’s school, get involved with charity work, or other community activities because they just don’t have the time. Would an extra 10 hours a week help? I think so.
I imagine a world filled with too many little league baseball coaches instead of such a hard time finding anyone to do it. I envision community gardens filled with people working with their neighbors to feed themselves healthy meals. I believe in lower crime rates, lower teen pregnancy rates, and higher high school graduation rates due to an increase in parent involvement in schools and other activities in their child’s life.
If you think about it, it really is simple. The complex problems in our world are at least partially due to the lack of time and commitment we all have available for ourselves, our families, and our community. I think that freeing up the time we all use slacking and watching the clock tick could be much better used. What could you do with an extra 500 hours each year?
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”~Carl Sandburg
I love this! It used to infuriate me how much time I wasted at work, forced to sit in front of a computer to wait for my 8 hour day to be done, even though I had finished my work long before. As a journalist too, it seemed ridiculous to be trapped inside an office building when the stories were all outside waiting to be discovered….if only we could get out there to discover them. I tried hard over the years to convince the managers to implement more flexibility but it never happened. So I left, and the freedom is astounding and shocking and financially-challening and life is so much better for me as a human, as a mother, as a person.
I am more productive now, as a freelance writer, than I ever was in that big office. And I rarely work more than a 6 hour day.
Thanks for the post!
[...] Yesterday’s Post, 40 Hours?, I discussed the current standard 40 hour work week and made a personal observation that a lot of [...]