A 40 Hour Working Week - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
It’s everywhere in traditional culture, it brings a sense of consistency and normality to a business. But is the 40 Hour Week getting a little outdated already?
Too many of us are hoping week-in week-out that Friday will come along as quick as possible - it’s something that is definitely not keeping us happy.
The vast majority of working people in the UK hate Mondays, it sounds & looks dull anyway - what if we worked only 4 days a week, or even 3? Would productivity show enough gains to provide evidence that less means more?
Well let’s date back to the good old days, when manufacturing and production were the main driving forces in the UKs booming economy. It wasn’t uncommon that workers would have to go through 12-16 hour working days. Imagine 16 hours of doing the same thing… Nowadays that would seem inhumane, but then it was the only way to really afford to live. With current technology everywhere, it can be very hard to concentrate for even 30 minutes. I can’t recall the amount of times I’ll go onto BBC News or check my phone for notifications during the day, as it’s very addictive.
An eight hour working day was defined as : 8 hours work, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest. Realistically, this isn’t made possible, with travel times included, we only have the evening to use for recreation - this will usually be 6pm until 11pm.
A more attractive alternative is to introduce a 30 hour working week, this reduces the cost per employee per week, and will generally increase productivity, as tasks will have to be squeezed into 6 hours of the day instead of 8. It’ll also improve your happiness and overall work ethic - you have more time to plan things to do outside of working hours.
Studies show that the average Brit is only truly focused for 2.5 Hours of the day - Our shortening attention spans have brought rise to less hours being worked.
Remember, less means more - and the less work you have to do a week, the happier you’ll probably be, right?
Written by Harrison Jones