Lord Thrappleper The 49th
Member
Here I'm sitting with my 19 hour days just fiddling my thumbs wondering if I could afford an 8 hour shift everyday, let alone 6.
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In Sweden, an Experiment Turns Shorter Workdays Into Bigger Gains
- Thread starter Dalek
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In the US they would have to hire two people to do the job of one. It is cheaper to pay one employee rather than 2.
They earned the same wage as a regular 8-hour employee. The idea is you get the same pay, work less but more efficient hours, get more time to spend at home and therefore are more motivated to work without having to worry about reduced income.
JadedWriter
Member
I can actually picture a room full of stiff ass, soulless, heartless ass Republicans laughing exactly like this.
This week, having done a 24-hour shift and then going to sleep and then doing a 12 hour shift and having seven hours to sleep and doing another 12 hour shift and going to sleep for 7 hours and doing another 12-hour shift with no overtime pay...
Sure would be nice if I got the exact same paycheck for that job working 6 hours a day, but my job doesn't qualify for overtime pay and I like having the money from the extra hours. Basically, my paycheck is as big as the hours at work rather than being set.
Sure would be nice if I got the exact same paycheck for that job working 6 hours a day, but my job doesn't qualify for overtime pay and I like having the money from the extra hours. Basically, my paycheck is as big as the hours at work rather than being set.
chicko1983
Member
my most productive hours are the first hour I am in at work and the last hour I am in at work.
Im mainly in the office for 10hrs a day. My most productive hours are when there are no others around to bug me, ask questions, etc.
Im mainly in the office for 10hrs a day. My most productive hours are when there are no others around to bug me, ask questions, etc.
JadedWriter
Member
I'm a heavy sleeper. I slept through a car crash outside the house once.
If you let me, I'll sleep for 12 hours straight.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
That's the point. You are supposed to be getting paid the same amount but work less hours.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Living in Sweden and this is the best thing ever. We have a policy of working 9 to 5 but no one is actually working them. Most people just work 6 hours a day. It's only if we have a strict deadline or a project. The owners are thinking of instituting 6 hour days officially.
Milly Osworth
Member
I like it.
But then you'll cut two hours.
That will be four hours. But then you'll cut two more hours.
Finally, you'll only work two hours, but then decide to work zero hours.
In the end you'll all be on welfare, you lazy Swedes!
(I love Sweden.)
Vicetrailia
Member
They'd be exempt of course. More proof that office life is the best life.
US companies will compensate by making everyone work Saturday too!
PdotMichael
Banned
Well, there is a reason why the most economcal successful countries in Europe have the lowest working time.
PdotMichael
Banned
Espencially in manufacturing and construction are short working days useful. The productivity sinks in the last hours and also the risk of work accidents increases rapidly in the 8-10h working days they have now.
Lol never. Just look at the scorn people get around here for not wanting to stay late and work even more. Americans by and large have bought into the corporate structure of hours spent being the main measuring stick of how hard of worker you are.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
And we just instituted one lab day per week. So unless we have a strict deadline we can do whatever we want one day of the week.
It's awful I tell you.
Well, presumably at 4 hours you have lunch, so you're not really watching the clock I guess.
But I imagine over time it'll devolve into what happens with 8-10 hour workdays.
spazchicken
Member
Get to work.
Chat with co-workers about "work related issues".
Turn on youtube to an 80's B movie like Man's Best Friend or The Perfect Weapon.
Go to lunch.
Start getting ready to go home for the day.
It says no paycut.
Somehow, I managed to convince the management to let me work 7-4 instead of the 9-6 shifts they have for most employees. It's still 8 hours of work (+1h lunch break), but starting and finishing the work day earlier made such a huge difference in my energy levels and overall well-being. Six hours of work sounds heavenly, but guess I'll make do with what I have for now.
Meus Renaissance
Member
I envy those working only 55 hours a week.
Monocle
Member
Well duh. Anecdotally, I was always way more productive when I worked a series of short shifts. I have loads of energy, but who's going to do better than decent work on the seventh hour of their work day? The 40 hour work week is obviously not designed to promote efficient performance and the well being of employees.
Milksheikhs
Member
I literally just got into an argument with my father in law about this tonight. He said I was too much of an idealist.
But basically my "novel idea" was that there is a hidden cost to treating employees like shit. Both retail and people who work yearly salaries.
Say you work a yearly salary person like an animal. They are more likely to get burnt out and be less productive.
Say you treat your retail/food service employees like shit, then they are more likely to quit. After all you sent the message to them that they are disposable. But the hidden cost is that you are gonna have to spend more time and resources hiring and training someone new to replace them when you could've just treated them with respect.
Isn't it just a totally radical idea that if we great people with dignity and respect that they will be happy. And happy people are generally productive people.
But basically my "novel idea" was that there is a hidden cost to treating employees like shit. Both retail and people who work yearly salaries.
Say you work a yearly salary person like an animal. They are more likely to get burnt out and be less productive.
Say you treat your retail/food service employees like shit, then they are more likely to quit. After all you sent the message to them that they are disposable. But the hidden cost is that you are gonna have to spend more time and resources hiring and training someone new to replace them when you could've just treated them with respect.
Isn't it just a totally radical idea that if we great people with dignity and respect that they will be happy. And happy people are generally productive people.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
Could also be attributed to something known as the Hawthorne Effect.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
DontBeThatGuy
Member
We spend too much of our damn lives working but the US is too irrational about shit like this to ever make a go at it. It's gross.
If you have kids, 8 hr work days is almost madness. Literally no time for anything. I'm amazed people even have families. Seriously
Single? You can deal. No other responsibilities. Work and then have fun.
Kids? Then you work, come home and do more work essentially. More people in the house means more maintenance, groceries to get, food to make, trash to clean, and things to do at any moment.
Single? You can deal. No other responsibilities. Work and then have fun.
Kids? Then you work, come home and do more work essentially. More people in the house means more maintenance, groceries to get, food to make, trash to clean, and things to do at any moment.
I think this is a pretty fab idea in theory, and glad Sweden is going to be the one to collect all that valuable data that policymakers can trot out for the next however many years.
I can think of lots of industries where this is not going to work at all, but even in the most competitive, high-hour law firms, it's ridiculous that a culture is promoted which is completely anathema to how human beings actually function.
I can think of lots of industries where this is not going to work at all, but even in the most competitive, high-hour law firms, it's ridiculous that a culture is promoted which is completely anathema to how human beings actually function.
Yeah it's weird. There's a strange anti-scientific strand of thought that people idealise bad things and want them to be true. Some people seem to want torture to work. Somr people seem to want hitting your kids to be the best way of bringing them up. They want gruelling work hours to be the best thing going.
Prime crotch
Banned
There's a very visible gain though, paying them increasingly less.
So true, I work in IT after the first 5-6 hours I become way less productive even when there's work to be done. I honestly believe that if I worked 6 hours I'd have the same output.
Silent Chief
Member
I've done this, as an engineer, and nobody noticed because my work was getting done, but it's not good for promotions when as you go up the ladder the "work" becomes meetings and producing Office documents which takes forever.
I work as an IT consultant, and the 8 hours does feel most of the days like just extending 6 hours of actual work time into walking from a place to another, getting coffee, going to the bathroom, chitchatting with others, looking at the clock, going 15-30 minutes early to home anyways, or just looking through some old emails.
There are, of course, some days when the 8 hours is busy as hell when having meetings, going to the client, developing something or building concepts and demos, but this happens maximum 1-2 days a week.
So, for me a six hour "normal day" and 8 hour busy "overtime" day would be pretty much optimal already.
There are, of course, some days when the 8 hours is busy as hell when having meetings, going to the client, developing something or building concepts and demos, but this happens maximum 1-2 days a week.
So, for me a six hour "normal day" and 8 hour busy "overtime" day would be pretty much optimal already.
JadedWriter
Member
That would be great, but don't see that happening here. Politicians and and suits would have to become highly enlightened for that to happen.
evilromero
Member
I've been saying this for a while now but we need to get some jobs, salaried probably at first, to six hours as the expectation. Hell, I'll usually leave at 7.75 hours just because by hour 6 my brain is done.
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