Reducing Workday hours

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Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

"The early bird snatches the worm", so they said for generations.

Waking up early, beginning work early and going on for at least 8h per day is still practiced on regular basis in most countries of the world. Although today it's widely known that you just can't turn on the switch for the majority of people who aren't early birds (part of it genetically) and will perform worse early and thus late, too. Productivity and social lifes suffer from that. Even Henry Ford in 1914 noticed that productivity shrinks after 40 hours per week and Sweden (SWEDEN! NEVER FORGET!) already started some pilot project in some regions (around Gotenburg) to lower the hours per workday to 30 (while maintaining the regular salary).
They found out people are in general less ill and the overall performance level has risen within those test weeks.

I also think it's the right thing to go for in the future as there are so many ppl struggling to find decent work they also want to do, maintain their performance level, caring for their families and keep being happy at the same time. Some traditions are just bad, the 8h workday is one of them.

That's my conclusion after having to wake up at 5:40am today. Whats your opinion on that?

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Poland pecelot
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by pecelot »

I'd imagine 8 hours are for a reason, with less companies' productivity would decrease, which would in turn affect people's everyday lives, right?
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

No thats exactly the point of this. productivity increased. The effective time you are productive at an eight hour workday isnt higher than if you cut it down. That's what the studies found out.

Ofc it needs larger scale confirmation and re-testing. But still, I think the point stands.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by deleted_user0 »

Tbh it really depends on the type of work you do
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by momuuu »

Waking up early is murder.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by XeeleeFlower »

I feel like I am more productive when I work 6 hours instead of 8. The less time I'm at work, the less time I have to accomplish things so working more efficiently and minimizing distractions is very important. 6 hours seems to be my sweet spot. Anything less than 6, I find that I don't have enough time. More than 6, I feel like I have plenty of time so I'm more easily distracted. Granted, I am able to set my own schedule somewhat and can choose to come in as early/late as needed and stay for as long as needed. All that really matters is that shit gets done and that it gets done correctly.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by site »

I've pulled two 16 hour shifts this week alone.

Tell me how to upgrade to this magical workday of even 8 hours. I usually do 12.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Mace »

I think 8h/day should be the std.
In France it's 7h/day but it's really nothing lol.
That's probably why we don't do too well actually.
Funny thing is that some want to reduce that to 32h/week lol
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by fightinfrenchman »

site wrote:I've pulled two 16 hour shifts this week alone.

Tell me how to upgrade to this magical workday of even 8 hours. I usually do 12.


Shorter work days can't apply to us scrubs working in retail
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

@XeeleeFlower actually 6h was exactly what the pilot project did and it worked out exactly as It would for you I guess. for nurses the example was easier shifts, more motivation and in general happier everyone. Its basically a positive snowball effect
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Laurence Drake »

The question to answer is why firms don't implement reduced working hours themselves. They must be gaining something from forcing their employees to work to the point where they lose out on productivity.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by bobabu »

Switzerland voted against having 5 weeks vacation. The people voted against that.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by deleted_user »

Laurence Drake wrote:The question to answer is why firms don't implement reduced working hours themselves. They must be gaining something from forcing their employees to work to the point where they lose out on productivity.

Because maximized efficiency =/= maximized output. I can work at a higher level of efficiency if I only work 35 hours a week but I'll sure as shit get more done if I work 50 hours a week and firms want shit done, especially if you're salaried. The hourly employees this might apply to are the low end of the earning spectrum so it's not very expensive to work them to increase output usually.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

deleted_user wrote:
Laurence Drake wrote:The question to answer is why firms don't implement reduced working hours themselves. They must be gaining something from forcing their employees to work to the point where they lose out on productivity.

Because maximized efficiency =/= maximized output. I can work at a higher level of efficiency if I only work 35 hours a week but I'll sure as shit get more done if I work 50 hours a week and firms want shit done, especially if you're salaried. The hourly employees this might apply to are the low end of the earning spectrum so it's not very expensive to work them to increase output usually.


Well maybe we should stop thinking the change can happen overnight. It will need a proper large scale confirmation of its usefulness first and then states to make it attractive to change the running system for some trial time at least. That wont be an immediate switch of all at the same time, it will have to prove better for some global players changing completely over as a role model and then slowly gain acceptance (depending on the state we're refering to that might take a longer or shorter time span) since its a pretty big change for a smoothly running coop. It's linked to a whole new organization of workforce and logistics.
The role models would be sure to lose some initial money and a smooth transition would surely be a hard task - plus only one of many dimensions
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by pecelot »

But that was the case in the future, people used to work 10 hours per day, now it's 8, after a couple of years they'll want to work only 4?
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Goodspeed »

6 hour work days
Yes please. Working 2 hours less per day I am sure I would need the same amount of weeks to finish a project as I currently do. Probably less, even. Days where I'm productive for 8 hours are very rare.
And we'd be gaining 400 hours a year to enjoy life, plus probably a couple of extra years from reduced stress and generally being happier. Seems like a no brainer.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Laurence Drake »

deleted_user wrote:
Laurence Drake wrote:The question to answer is why firms don't implement reduced working hours themselves. They must be gaining something from forcing their employees to work to the point where they lose out on productivity.

Because maximized efficiency =/= maximized output. I can work at a higher level of efficiency if I only work 35 hours a week but I'll sure as shit get more done if I work 50 hours a week and firms want shit done, especially if you're salaried. The hourly employees this might apply to are the low end of the earning spectrum so it's not very expensive to work them to increase output usually.

But why have one person working 50 hours a week on a $60,000 salary, when you can have two people working 25 hours a week on a $30,000 salary whilst being more productive?
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Goodspeed »

Most people wouldn't want to work half the time for half the pay. I sure as fuck would, but yeah. The great part about the 6h work days is that the salaries wouldn't change. They wouldn't need to because productivity would increase.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

@Laurence Drake As you're able to read my post you can easily see that the workday is being shortened WHILE MAINTAINING the 8h salary.

@kami_ryu actually this programm isnt aimed at intellectually demanding jobs alone, let's take hospitals as an example bc it fits well:
Nurses are really stressed out due to long shifts and lack of personell. If the shifts get shorter they are more likely to spend a fair amount of time on all tasks equally while not getting overworked that easily. Also the patients will profit bc they get a more chill nurse actually having the nerve to care about individuals more.
When it comes to doctors it saves even more since doctors are generally underpaid for the workload they have to accomplish. A relaxed doctor will be more successful, thats just logical here - and that applies for any demanding job, may it be demanding for your brain or body - it doesnt matter.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by Laurence Drake »

jesus3 wrote:@Laurence Drake As you're able to read my post you can easily see that the workday is being shortened WHILE MAINTAINING the 8h salary.

This is mainly due to rising productivity and workers' decision to opt for more leisure time.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by pecelot »

So what do you suggest for doctors? Reducing their number of working hours, keeping their salary unchanged, and then presumably hiring additional doctors to do the same? Where will you take all the money from? :hmm:
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by jesus3 »

@pecelot I'm not a part of the research team but if this gets reality sometime there will be adjustments necessary. They will prolly still need to stay on alert for emergencies but the general workday can easily be reduced since I imagine they're not constantly at a surgery.


In general I'm just excited for change of work organisation (or work life balance if that term is more comfortable) since I don't really see the sense in those 8 hours nowadays, they seem more like a self fulfilling prophecy. Don't accept the status quo just because "its there" or a "tradition" if it doesn't make sense according to studies.
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Re: Reducing Workday hours

Post by pecelot »

Isn't that the case now and at the same time the reason for their overload? I would tend to agree here about doctors, but money issues come here, I'm afraid. Other than that I think it's just employer-dependant, I'm not really a fan of regulating such matters :?

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