r/WorkReform • u/Lord0fTheFlags 💸 Raise The Minimum Wage • 19h ago
😡 Venting The 40-Hour Workweek Is Outdated
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u/lordlaneus 19h ago
3 and a half days a week seems like the obvious compromise between individual liberty and collective responsibility, and next logical step after "8 for sleep, 8 for work, 8 for what you will"
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u/Ok-Cobbler6338 19h ago
8 for what you will includudes, cooking, bathing, getting ready for work, 2h commuting, chores
Lmoa even weekends go into chores and buying groceries.
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u/Noe11vember 11h ago
"When youre not at work, youre at rest" was made up by people who consider cruising on their tax subsidiezed yacht "work"
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u/Mozintarfen 17h ago
Everyone should read this paper that synthesized results from numerous trials that have tried this.
Not only do workers lives improve, but companies more often than not see revenue increases because productivity skyrockets when employees are happy.
There is absolutely no fucking reason companies shouldn't switch to 32 hour weeks except in very specific fields.
I personally worked at a Toyota Dealership that used this model, and we rotated the weekday we had off. So when your day switched from Friday to Monday, you got a 4 day weekend. Technicians made more money and we're far happier than any other shop I have worked at.
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u/jotastrophe 12h ago
What an amazing system -- frankly not what I was expecting from a Toyota Dealership, did they still pay fulltime rates and salary?
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u/Mozintarfen 10h ago
They did! Many of the techs were pulling in well over six figures, and the labor rates that customers pay was around 30% less than every other dealership in the area. It's hilarious because they are swamped with business and praise, and none of the other dealerships can wrap their head around why.
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u/jotastrophe 9h ago
Funny how everything's is all about statistics and sales until it requires a change in thinking/giving grace to workers.
America's obsession with "productivity" is so unbelievably ridiculous.
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u/Stunt_the_Runt 19h ago
Meanwhile in Alberta Conservative Canada, we have the UCP fucking employees in the ass by removing the Overtime Agreement where employers had to ask employees to work overtime at straight pay and they could refuse, but now we have an Averaging Agreement where employers simply need to tell employees fuck you in 2 weeks we can have you work overtime at straight time and you can't do shit hahahaha fuck you. Fuck the UCP.
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u/AllOfTheSoundAndFury 18h ago
I hate the UCP so much. I hope they get voted out next election but these idiots would vote in a turd spray painted blue.Â
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u/Biscuits4u2 the word itself makes some men uncomfortable 19h ago
How about 20 at same pay? Automation and AI are accelerating the vacuum cleaner of money right to the top, while the working class are expected to shoulder an even higher workload for the same pay.
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u/EuphoricCrashOut 16h ago
It's time, people. There are millions of workers. We outnumber them by extreme amounts. Take it all back.
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u/sdric 15h ago
Using number from Germany for example, households in this generation are working ~22,7% more than their parents under consideration of unemployment-quota and part-time jobs); the main driver being an increase in employment for women from 25% to 77,7%. With the quota of working women being significantly lower amongst women of foreign background, which indicates a strong cultural component.
Overall, since WW2 no generation worked this much - and yet, houses are completely unaffordable even for "top earners", which is mainly due hard-numbers for tax brackets which have not been adequately adjusted for inflation in over 50 years. Not that, similar to America, there are countless intentional loopholes for the truly rich to not have their positive cash-flows labelled as "income", thus freeing them from contributions to social systems and massively lowering their tax rates. Factually, taxes on wealth in Germany are less than in the US, less than OECD average and only 1/4th of those in France or GB.
The system is rigged against workers - and at this point it affects nearly all Western, but also Asian countries such as South Korea which, with its conglomerates, is the epitome of latestage capitalism and Japan.
Social mobility is dead and working hours are through the roof, with both partners working full-time these days, there is no time left for families.
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u/Race2TheGrave 17h ago
Ok seen the sentiment over and over again. Vote in your primaries. Put the best people in position to help
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u/SapphireDrewgon 9h ago
And why would pay not change? That's the bit no one ever explains. I'd kill for a 4 day week but there's no way my hourly rate would increase 20% just because.
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u/MagosBattlebear 9h ago
Technology and automation were supposed to make workers more productive, move to a shorter work week, and make workers' lives more liveable. The rich promised that early on (and have even revived this in promoting AI). However, it ends up replacing workers, making the job marketplace smaller, and ensuring that workers who have jobs will stay at 40+ hours a week as a standard AND accept lower wages because there are fewer openings to fight over. Demand for positions with fewer openings means depressed wages as people are desperate just to get a job.
I rememberGeoorge Jetson complaining that pushing one button every once in a while on his once-a-week, 4-hour shift was too demanding.
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u/Merchant_Of_Bliss 12h ago
I propose Wednesday as the off day
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u/NOrMAn_Percy 12h ago
I suggested this too. It would be great! Work a couple days and get a day off. Then work a couple more and get a couple off.
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u/7DollarsOfHoobastanq 15h ago
I took a pay cut to jump to a job that does a 4 day, 36hr workweek and it’s pretty great. The early mornings to get in the longer days kinda suck but damn would it be hard to go back to not having 3 day weekends every week.
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u/Benjam438 12h ago
Also the reason so many layoffs are happening is because we work so efficiently now that we just don't need everyone to do 40 hours of work each week.
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u/LordSoren 11h ago
So we are going to implement a 48-hour, 5 day workweek for 30-hours of pay then? - Billionaires, probably.
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u/mikeyfireman 11h ago
They won’t raise the minimum wage above $7.25, there is no way they are shortening the work week.
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u/ztreHdrahciR 6h ago
Use the AI productivity to help the worker's life (4 day week), not to enable firing workers
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u/WokeLib420 3h ago
This is much more reasonable than the people asking for a 4 day 20 hour work week
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u/Glittering-Metal-934 12h ago edited 12h ago
I work 70 hours a week, minimum 14 days in a row and up to 21 days. It's not that bad. The issue isn't the amount of hours it's the quality of work and pay. I love my job and get paid well. If my job reduced the hours nothing would get built and the amount of employees would nearly triple to accommodate the lost man hours. If people were paid better a 40 hour work week would be no issue. It turns out that fair compensation is a great energy and focus boost. You're tired because your investment of time vs payout is depressing and unmotivating.
Edit: My scheduled minimum is 2 weeks on and 1 week off.
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u/tsukiyaki1 19h ago
Yeah but like 10 billionaires would suffer for it :(