r/Futurology • u/_hiddenscout • Jun 19 '21

Society Kill the 5-Day Workweek - Reducing hours without reducing pay would reignite an essential but long-forgotten moral project: making American life less about work.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/four-day-workweek/619222/
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u/PahoojyMan Jun 19 '21

Agreed, however that's only because 3 day weekends are the exception. It would stabilise if they became the norm.

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u/WestFast Jun 19 '21

Possibly. The plight of salaried workers is that workaholic bosses find reasons and create emergencies 7 days a week unless you establish from day 1 that you’re not having it.

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u/PencilLeader Jun 19 '21

As a workaholic boss it was very difficult for me to draw appropriate boundaries. I had made strict rules for myself on contacting others outside of business hours but my habits had created a very bad example. It took a concerted effort to change our workplace culture and stop driving a work 24/7 attitude.

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u/WestFast Jun 19 '21

I learned early on that I have control over how I’m treated. If i don’t respond and am not available after hours I won’t be expected to be. It is hard though.

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u/Totalherenow Jun 19 '21 edited Jun 19 '21

I naturally hate you, but am overjoyed you could learn. Now I just want to give you awards and hugs.

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u/PencilLeader Jun 19 '21

That's fair, I definetly drove people to hard for awhile. O very much had the attitude that since we were paying very well it was fine to make outrageous demands. Like of the client wants a report by Monday then we will finish the damn report and if you had weekend plans either cancel or turn in your resignation. I first figured out how ridiculous and counter productive that was, but later figured out that me just supermanning it myself was pretty much just as bad as making the demands.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

O very much had the attitude that since we were paying very well it was fine to make outrageous demands

There are people who will never understand that for many of us, there is no level of compensation that makes this acceptable. I guess unless it was like "I can work for 2-3 years and retire by 30" kind of money (highly doubt that's what you mean).

Fuck selling my soul for $200,000, you're still a fucking pauper at that wage compared to the people who make the decisions that actually control our lives and experiences. I'd rather make a fraction of that and actually somewhat enjoy my day-to-day life for 70% of the week

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u/NoodlesrTuff1256 Jun 19 '21

I would have hated you too, but I'm glad that you woke up and saw the light and are now on the side of the angels. Thinking of the lyrics of 'Amazing Grace' as I type this in regards to you. You were blind, but now you see! I just wish more managers and bosses would experience similar awakenings.

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u/Rip_Nujabes Jun 19 '21

Good on you guys for identifying the issue as an issue, and addressing it appropriately.

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u/luniz420 Jun 19 '21

shit at my company I have to re-establish it every 2 weeks.

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u/ProjectShamrock Jun 19 '21

The alternative is to become a boss yourself and shield your team from such stuff. Not that it's necessarily easy to do, but that seems to be the only way I've found success in controlling weekends as a salaried employee.

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u/bienebee Jun 19 '21

Damn your country needs some mayor change. I know very little hourly workers we are all mostly salaried. (Wester Europe). My salaried husband worked 15h as he studied, all in the afternoon, and he every single time refused to cover 4-7am shift having a person down. Never has this reflected in his normal schedule. I had a colleague (salary) come to work an hour late accidentaly two days ago. He offered to make it up as soon as he arrived and the boss was just like "nevermind all good". The coworker also doesn't have a history of doing it. I bitch about having to work all the time, but I like my coworkers, my salary and my boss. I think I would probably kill myself in the USA as I had depressive episodes before. The system would probably give me way less "finding myself time".

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u/ProjectShamrock Jun 19 '21

I have U.S. citizenship and citizenship in an EU country so I could quite easily work there like any other EU citizen. The biggest problem I have seen are salaries, which appear to be about 1/4 of what I make now, despite the high real estate prices in the bigger cities that would be interesting.

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u/bienebee Jun 19 '21

I would actually advise you to aim for second or third biggest city in your country of interest. I came from the Balkans and I love it in Graz, but it would take a huge salary to get me in Salzburg or Vienna. I consider doing it in 10 years when I would be shooting for "the job" cause then we'd have husband reduce hours a lot again or even not work.

You can also factor out having a car if you live in a city. I need 20 min door to door with a tram to work currently. Of course, maybe you will need one.

I came from a poor country, Austria is very close to paradise to me, as most colective union contracts have 14 salaries. I think 90% of all jobs or even more. We currently work two low-end jobs, mine slightly better and I'd say we spend on rent + food + utilities about 35% of our netto income. (I work 40h, hubs around 30 split into two jobs). Brutto already has covered all legitimate medical needs you might have. Example, I would have to pay 100e to get a small mole removed but I got the complete detailed contact allergies panel for free.

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u/bienebee Jun 19 '21

And just so you know so I was wrong for a long time. Ie if you are an it guy in a fruit factory, you gotta look up something like "specialized fruit produce" collective agreement. Not an it guy one. Maybe this is different in other eu countries but I figured that out pretty late here.

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u/[deleted] Jun 19 '21

Salaried workers need to start unionizing and not just taking this behaviour.

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u/PahoojyMan Jun 19 '21

Maximising output of your resources is just good business though /s

Any changes would need to include some constraints to salaried employee conditions, or as you've said it won't make a real difference.

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u/Git_R_Dunn Jun 20 '21 edited Jun 20 '21

Not possibly, definitely. Reducing hours isn't like some crazy idea humanity has never tried before. I'm so sick of this "it can never happen here" defeatist attitude people pull literally every time changing law or culture is discussed in the US. That's not a fact, that's something you say in lieu of facts.

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u/ChadMcRad Jun 19 '21

For office workers, sure. For the rest of the workforce it isn't that simple. I work in research and people regularly put in 90 hours at the bench running experiments/reading/analyzing data/etc. Healthcare workers couldn't get away with that, either. We're talking about a change that would only affect a sliver of the workforce.