On Fri, 2 May 2014, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
I think that as a society we should have a goal to minimise work. Why not consider a 24 hour week to be a full-time job?
That seems reasonable, but of course those of us who want to devote more time should have the opportunity to do so. Some people have a passionate commitment to their work and wish to give it all of their time outside of family responsibilities and reasonable recreational activities.
If they can work effectively and want to do that then they should be allowed to. But I think that once shorter hours become normalised employers will try to determine how productive people are being and discourage people from wasting time at work when it doesn't improve their output.
There is research to show that on average productivity decreases for menial work when the workers are employed for more than about 40 hours per week.
I'm entirely supportive of minimizing menial work, or spreading it out over the people who are available for it, as long as they're adequately supported financially.
That doesn't just apply to menial work, it's merely that menial work has the best research. There are some surprising counter-examples for more skilled work. For example having doctors work unreasonably long hours at hospitals can lead to better results. An over-tired doctor who knows the patient's status can often make a better decision than a well rested doctor who doesn't know the background and relies on reading paperwork. A similar thing could apply to some coding work, someone who knows the code well and is over-tired can outperform someone who is well rested but new to the project. On Fri, 2 May 2014, Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au> wrote:
The challenge is to do so in such a way that doesn't mean the people who work reduced hours feel guilty for not contributing enough to the company or people who work longer hours feel get unfair advantages.
"Last week I worked XX hours, you only worked XX hours, therefore I should get more say in this issue."
I think that already happens to some extent.
Could be difficult though, the person who works longest is more likely to become familiar with various systems and procedures that others don't have time to learn, making him/her the most qualified. Hence this person could get overworked and overstressed as a result.
Yes that's a problem too. But I think that if shorter and variable working hours becomes the norm then managers will learn to deal with these issues. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/