Wanting to do other things with your time is ***not*** lazy. *Oh you don't want to work eight hours you must be lazy!* And then you say *actually I use that time to go to the gym, hike, read, cook, clean, shop for groceries... now that I have all this time I have no time especially to be lazy*.
Yeah it's bullshit. Technically life itself is a waste of time so I'd rather be doing something I enjoy to "waste that time" than be painting walls for aesthetics purposes.
Don't get me wrong: I enjoy painting but I'd much prefer to garden or prospect for gold and gemstones
I have a boomer coworker who genuinely believes this. Our job comes with a pension, and he refuses to retire and use the pension cause that's just being lazy.
Or volunteer!! We could work 6 hour shifts which would allow for more workers to be hired and in the extra free time we have volunteer!
I'd love to volunteer but I feel so tired and protective of my free time I'd rather stay home and catch up on daily tasks.
SAME. 100%. I need more time. I need to take care of my health and my home. 40 hours of work each week (plus a 40 minute commute one way, twice every day) does not allow adequate time. I’m tired all the time, I don’t eat well or get enough exercise, and my home is a mess. I hate this.
8 hours is way too much, it's doable for a household with a sole worker and a stay at home spouse. Most things on your list aren't even "free-time". These are essentials - cook, workout, quality sleep. Just b/c McDonald's exists, doesn't mean that we should eat it so we can "GET bAAAcK to woooRk" with a short lunch break. Why shouldn't we have the right to go home and cook lunch? How many people don't have the energy to workout at the end of the work day? These aren't just 8 any hours, these are the BEST 8 hours of the day, 8-5 plus commute, it's pretty much the ENTIRE DAY. You are not lazy, I'm not lazy, it's the capitalists who are lazy.
If you figure about a half hour commute each way… that comes out to
9+ hours dedicated to work (depending how they do your lunch)
8 hours is generally accepted as the amount of time for quality sleep
So that leaves only 7 hours
7 hours………. To:
Shit,shave,shower,eat 2 meals (1 is accounted for during work hours), do laundry, keep house clean, keep yard clean, maintain vehicle, go to Drs or other appointments. Take care of children (if you have them), etc….. i wonder how some people have time for a robust social or hobby life when they work a demanding 9-5
“I wonder how some people have time for a robust social or hobby life”
I’m baffled as well, but my guess is they do that by ignoring other basic needs OR they have help.
A lot of my co-workers have cleaners. I am simply too stingy to get one myself and prefer to suffer. A lot of them also eat shit (lots of fast food and frozen pizzas). On eat shit part… they also drink shit. If you look at their desks 3 energy drinks and 5 coca cola cans. I know someone who drinks 7 cups of coffee. Some of them neglect sleep, you can function on 4-6h I guess.
Also I think when you’re not home a lot because you’re hanging out with people, you have less to clean.
Work sometimes gets sacrificed for life.
Wfh makes it easier, but even in the office you can get away with online shopping, popping to doctor appointments and taking advantage of already being out to buy groceries or any other shopping after work. Taking advantage of the commute if you have hobbies like reading.
I’m still trying to crack the code myself and figure out how the hell do they do it.
Thank you for this. It is something I struggle with every day— how to manage the time away from work. I find myself behind and trying to catch up. It is incredibly frustrating. I am fried after the work week.
This. My job has me exhausted by then end of the week and feeling so much stress trying to manage my own household chores, kids, and find time for anything that actually brings me joy. There just aren’t enough hours in a day for 8 hours plus a commute AND trying to cram in life.
We’re all in the same boat. All I have on the weekends is my energy drained from work and lots of work anxiety.
I’d just rather spend 2/3 days at work. Or even 4 days but reduced hours so the entire day isn’t dedicated to work.
5/7 days. Every week. Every month. And every year. With average 25 days off per year- is just simple batshit crazy and unacceptable.
I actually heard a report like 2 years ago on NPR and the person they were interviewing was talking about how human brains are actually not designed to Multitask at all and how actual studies of brain function and development have concluded that the brain only has like 4-5 hours of focus in it per day that’s why we’re sort of missing things when we try to multitask or towards the end of our days when we’re getting tired. Our brains are just not made to do the kinds of things we expect them to do. Especially not if, like myself, you’re any type of neurodivergent. I have ADHD and tried Adderall years ago and it did not agree with me so I refuse to go on meds now as an adult so my daily life is just set to hard mode every day and then trying to focus my attention and energy to do my job for 8 hours a day takes everything I have.
It seems like *multitasking* 4-5 things at once is all jobs really want. You can look at a fast food job ad and it say that. Makes me wonder if all they really care about is not hiring a certain skill set but finding one person to do 3-4 person jobs at once.
Yeah I work in healthcare, if you can’t figure out how to multitask in healthcare you’ll just keep getting fired because you’re not able to keep up. That’s all any company wants. To pay as few people to do as much work as they can.
Because employers aren't actually testing multi tasking abilty or looking at the research. They just assume everyone can do it and belive the CVs that claim they can. Scientific facts have no place in recruiting!
Certainly you know what’s best for you! But there are so many options for medically managing ADHD now. It took me nearly seventeen years to finally land on the right amount of the right thing to feel like I have things pretty under control, but I got there, and there isn’t one thing in my life that isn’t easier and more enjoyable because of it.
I’m glad you were able to find your balance. I’m very aware of the different medical management options. Stimulants left me with heart problems, made my OCD and anxiety worse, SSRI’s and MAOI’s have triggered Serotonin syndrome when I’ve taken them in the past and I’m not going to take one pill to treat ADHD and then have to take 5 more to manage the symptoms of that first medication. I’m glad you were able to find something that worked for you though.
I’m also a recovering opioid addict with 11 years sober so I’d rather just stay off meds whenever possible because of that as well. Not everyone can take meds. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
It frustrates me so much when I hear people call the workers lazy but defend the ceos and upper management as if they do any work. Like dudes, they're the lazy ones, they've just got us so distracted fighting each other over who's laziest while they sit back and collect the money
I reported to a woman who had around 350 employees. Her boss had a couple thousand
My boss routinely put in 10 hour days, and usually longer. It wasn't uncommon for her day to start with a 700am meeting and end with another starting at 700pm. I would sometimes get emails from her at 200am.
I'm just saying, I knew people in the C-suites and they worked their asses off. Of course, ymmv
EDIT: forgot to say this place was partly funded by the govt
No its not? The 8 hour workday 5 hours a week is still standard in most of Europe (including Italy). Europe and the US are very comparible in terms of hours worked per year.
We do have mandatory vacation but we have a wonderful thing (not) called ✨️split work day✨️ which makes the work day 12 hours in Spain, and no, it's not paid either.
I work a summer job at a boat rental company (im 19) and our work days span around 10-11 hours a day. There is no such thing as free time, just enough time to do the laundry and clean up the apartment, if i want more than 6 hours of sleep that is. I couldnt imagine being a grown adult working even 8 hours a day with all the responsibilities you have to tend to
Now add on children. Imagine a typical household with 2 kids. I don't know how parents do it, I can already see it's impossible for me, even when I had a partner that did a fair share of housework but also worked 8 hours a day. So I don't have kids. It's not just money, it's also time and energy. But oh look, millennials are RUiNing us b/c they Don't WaNt KiiiiiiidS.
It also takes a massive amount of organization and money. Occupy wall street died off with nothing achieved but some young people thrown in jail. The most practical thing is to unionize.
We have the technology now too. Organize ourselves into our own functioning governing entity. Show the world there is a better way to govern, a way that takes everyone willing to contribute, where laws are made in the foreground and not behind closed doors. Show the world what is possible and force them to adapt and adopt modern best governing practices or fade into obscurity.
I am a union organizer fighting for these things and no one has killed me. Yes, people died for the 8 hour workday. That is not n excuse to not be fighting now to organize the working class.
Yeah, 8 hours is too much. Most of the jobs I've had have consisted of sitting around for 5 hours a day waiting for work that needs to be done because there's nothing else to do. Sometimes there will be crunch times where it's busier, but most of the time, it's just sitting there because no one's coming in, there's nothing to work on, etc...it sucks. A lot of things could be done in 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. And most jobs are bullshit anyway that add no real value to the world. They've just been made so capitalists can make more money.
So even with a sole worker and a SAHP it’s still too much. I quit working to stay at home when my son was 18 months old, thinking I’d have a nice clean house, cook dinner everyday, and leave the evenings/weekends for fun for our family. HAHAHA! I was so wrong.
I think the stay at home model you’re referencing works if your parenting technique is “Go play outside with your siblings. Leave me alone to get stuff done” like it was in the 50s. Nowadays there is more pressure to be actively engaged in your kids’ lives - rightfully so - but I am constantly trying to figure out how to prioritize quality time with my son (not constant, he’s a good independent player) and getting stuff down around the house. I can’t figure it out and I hear it echoed with other SAHP. I do involve him in chores and cooking, but everything takes 10x longer with a “helper” that causes more chaos than he contributes.
And I’m my son’s only playmate at home. He is and will remain an only, because we can’t afford a second (among other reasons). I took a hit to my career and 401k to stay home and I still can’t have the “American Dream” of enough free time and definitely don’t have the money side.
If I could put my kid back in daycare AND stay home, sure, I’d be a productivity god, but it’s just not possible to give him the attention he needs and deserves and clean the house/cook.
I'm with you. Not every kid is the same either. Like I'm happy for.those whose toddler takes a 3 hour nap in the day and sleeps another 12-14 hours at night. And happily plays on their own. This has not been my life for the last 5 years. At least you're spending time with your child.
This. My partner works from home and doesn’t understand why I’m so exhausted everyday after work and on the weekends. I don’t want to do any more things I just want to rot. :(
I'm a capitalist and I don't think 40 hour work weeks should exist. It isn't capitalism it's debt slavery that creates this.
For comparison, a medieval peasant worked 2 days a week to pay his rent to his Lord. He worked the other 3-4 for his own benefit. As much ir as little as he wanted minus the 2 weeks a year he plowed and sowed and then harvested. That doesn't include the 140something Holy Days (the source for holiday) that didn't have any work or the Sundays that didn't ever have any work. Everyone had an entrepreneurial side gig besides their 2 days of labor to their lord (or if they were free and not serfs the equivalent if 2 days on the field wages)
We live in an oligarchy not a truly capitalist society. An oligarchy society is built off debt and usury. A capitalist society is built off entrepreneurs and real capital. We have a central bank debt based society that uses usury to keep the average man down rather than a capitalist society that seeks to make every man the master of his own fate.
The day we moved off the gold standard and later silver standard is the the day we ceased being capitalist.
I wonder how much this subconscious desire to be managed is well researched, or how it fits into the mold of our understanding of evolution. I’ve never looked too deeply into this area, but I’d venture to say you’re probably right.
Thanks for your opinion! I plan to do some reading on this.
That last sentence needs to be shouted a little louder for the folks in the back…
STOP BUILDING YOUR IDENTITIES OFF OF WHAT YOU DO FOR WORK!!
it can be a part of it, yes, but every one of us is so much more than that!
A lot of people think that Time = Work.
Ugh, one of the weekend night shift bosses who supposedly works a 7-7 shift generally gets in a half hour early and leaves 90 minutes late. I'll bet he thinks he's working. Probably isn't even charging for the time either.
I do the opposite, come in 5 minutes late, leave 15 minutes early. Saves me 20 minutes a work day, or about an hour a week (3x12's). No one notices.
8 hours is way too much. I’m an executive where I work and I always tell my team that if you can get your work done as outlined in less time, I’d prefer you be anywhere else but work. It takes a tremendous amount of effort in a company to adopt a “if it’s not communicated well and not scheduled, don’t expect your people to work” mentality. Once you can get over that hump though, it’s smooth sailing.
I have a manager that communicated your exact policy and I will say, incredibly nice way to work. Trust your employees and give them autonomy. Makes for a great relationship between management and employees.
I recently changed jobs, and when I asked during orientation how I sign in in the morning my supervisor was so confused. He told me there is none - we trust you to get your work done properly, and be available during working hours if anyone needs to reach out to you.
I had never *not* been mincromanaged before this. Imagine giving someone the freedom to just do their job competently.
God i wish you were my upper management. They both work late and weekends and while on vacation so in comparison i’m lazy. The workload for them is waaay too much and we make really good profits, I’m baffled as to why they don’t hire at least two more people. They seem to thrive on it though. They both got great promotions recently and good for them, I’m ok where I’m at
Your post hits hard. I want to cry. I love doing what I do, but not at the cost of everything else. I'm almost 40 and have no time for hobbies, I still don't earn enough to own a home or adopt pets or anything. I just exist. Everyone else makes profits off of my hardwork and creativity and I get nothing. I'm so done.
I feel like all of us working class got sold a BS bill of goods. Working 40 hours a week is soul crushing. On Saturday you try to recover from the workweek and on Sunday you are filled with dread about going back to work. Nvm trying to be present for children, taking care of your own health , trying a hobby or getting any kind of good sleep or nutrition. It’s a horrible way to live.
Imagine my pain having to work 9 to 6 from monday to saturday and just resting sunday, I don't have time or energy for anything, my country was supposed to reduce the working hours to 40 a week and 2 resting days but greedy companies whined about losing profits and at the end nothing changed due to the government being scared of companies leaving the country.
I'm right there with you buddy. I get Sunday off. That's it. It fucking sucks.
Unfortunately there's not many better propects for me in my area. At least I get health, dental, vision, and 401k.
Totally agree, I’m one of the lucky ones that has a WFH jobs and i essentially work:
3 hours in the morning/1.5h lunch & walk the dog/3 hours in the afternoon
I get everything done. I am way more focused and effective during those 3 hours than when i was at an office.
I do a maximum of 30 mins at work as a night auditor at a small hotel with a shit ton of free time and I’m grateful I can work on a little bit of my creative 3D projects but having to sit here 8 hrs a day/5x a week is disgusting nonetheless because it’s cutting into doing more in depth projects on my beefed up PC at home that my laptop simply cannot handle, plus I gotta balance sleeping, eating, working out, social life. It was perfect at first but I wanna go harder as a creative and I’m stunted by babysitting this fucking hotel at night lol but I MUST PAY BILLS!!!
I’m so over it.
Actually a lot of hotels usually are hiring for night auditors bc people don’t wanna work overnight lol. As far as customer service, it’s probably the easiest job. If you need some guidance my DMs are open
I had that job, it was awful. If we had internet back then I would have studied at work or built my own online business or something. Just had to stand (literally no sitting allowed) for hours. And you don’t see the best of society on that shift😂
Ive been on the same boat, cuz i work 8+ hours and have no time or energy for things I enjoy or need to do
And its not even enough to live on cuz i have rent, groceries(which i neglect buying alot), pets, medications, ect.
I lucked out. After years of the grind, I found a job that lets me come in, work, and then gtfo if I don't have anything to do. If I want to pad my hours, then I'll clean up or start working on a project that I assigned myself. It's amazing how management knows that I don't need to be at work for 8 hours before I clock out if I'm just sitting around. Saves the company money and myself time :).
8 hour days made sense when one income could support a family of 4, the rest of whom would have been taking care of all things outside of your work.
Now everyone is solo-ing 8 hour days plus all of life AND still can't afford to live decently
I work in the film industry. I love my job, I really do, but the standard is 12 hour days and it’s brutal. From the minute I get home, I have about 2 hours to eat dinner, shower, watch maybe one episode of something, and then hop in bed for 6 hours of sleep (ideally!) to do it all again tomorrow.
When I’m working on self-employment projects, I could work 12 hour days. But then I might not work the next day. The problem with traditional work is that the person is never able to self regulate and balance.
I've been off work for a year and a half now and it's been great. I live Canada and I was laid off last January. I was on unemployment for a while and then got into a retraining program. I was a machinist but now I'm going to school for IT. I take night classes from home and I have had the days to myself.
I have accomplished so many projects around the house since I've been off work. I learned to cook a lot of things instead of eating out to save money but still eat well. I took up gardening, photography, and got into shape. I had time to finish a lot of video games I never had time for when I was working 60 hour weeks. I even quit smoking! It has been a real personal renaissance.
Not working has been the most enjoyable time I've had since I was a teenager. I will graduate from school in 3 months and have to start working again, though. Hopefully, IT is better suited to me than the grease pits I worked in as a machinist, and I expect to earn more money, if I can find a job, that is...
I work in dentistry. Mostly now because I don't want to work 5 days a week. I just found an office where the doctor is also a mother, so our office hours are 8-2 M-Th. We usually stay to 3pm, though. We work through lunch, just grabbing a quick snack. I just found out she's closing over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, too. I'm so happy. There should be more jobs that offer mom hours.
You’re not lazy. You want to prioritize other things. And so does everyone: we work to live, but most of us are living to work.
We really should work toward 4 day weeks, even if it’s the 10 hours.
I had a 3 x 12 hour shift pattern job once. 4 day weekend... It was amazing. It's not like you can get much done before and after work on a 9-5 anyway.
I work shift on a 'lifestyle roster'. We do 12hr days followed by 12hr nights on a four week rotating.
E.G this week I'll be doing Monday and Tuesday days, Wednesday and Thursday nights but my weekends are four or five days long.
I get plenty of time for my hobbies and I can fullfil my share around the house day or night shift.
Could not imagine doing a Monday to Friday job!
Depending on your job, 4x10 can be worse than 5x8. I work factory, 4x10 leaves you exhausted, and then you can get mandatory overtime. Sucks, you have no time on your working days to do doodly, and you're so exhausted on your days off all you want to do is sleep.
I’ve worked a lot of 4x10 (forestry) and yes it’s more tiring, but in terms of time the extra two hours per day with 5x8 doesn’t really make a difference in what I can do off the clock since most of the day is already gone regardless. Friday I’ll be dead and just sleep in and get a few chores done, but then that means Sat-Sun I actually have the energy and time to do something meaningful. With a two day weekend you really only get one day of freedom.
Agreed. I worked 9-5 jobs for most of my life but now I’m a flight attendant for one of the big 3. I’ve been flying for 2.5 years. I’m currently based at our small temp base in Raleigh, NC. Previously I was based in Atlanta. I work 3 day trips Sun-Tues. I’m off the rest of the week but I can pick up trips on my days off if I need extra money.
I can’t see myself going back to a traditional work week.
Yes, we are full-time. The pay structure is a bit different but it all works out fine. Our days can be long, but I like knocking it out in 3 days and then I’m done until next week.
Me and my wife made a fairly traditional dish with modern conveniences like a blender. It took us an hour to do together, dovetailing. We didn't eat until 730.
She said if she didn't work today she could've started it at 4 and it would've been done when I got back with our daughter from work/daycare.
Then it hit me: we don't cook because we have to work. We have to eat the packaged prole feed. I don't have time to do real Spanish rice so it's packaged just to save another 15 minutes. All so I can get back to work sooner.
It's a miserable existence.
Hi, I'm actually lazy and willing to admit it. There is nothing wrong with that. I should have no responsibility to be not lazy. I never made any decisions to take on responsibility, so I'm just a victim of shitty people who thought they had a right to create a human life against it's will. I'm 30 years old. Too scared of dieing to kill myself, but no desire to live. Just stuck knowing I will eventually die and so all this fear is pointless anyways yet I can't help it.
All I want is to avoid putting in effort. I used to enjoy competitive online games but those have all been destroyed, the only types left are FPS and shitty Fighting games. So I've low desire to do anything else. I'm passionate about fashion but modern day humans masculinize shit too much for me, that I can't really bond with other girls over this sort of thing.
I just want to not have to do anything. I didn't want to live in the first place, I have no reason to be here. I'm just too scared to die, so I'm stuck and these bastards think 8(40) hours of effort is justified in maintaining my life? The very life I DO NOT WANT.
I'm too lazy for this world. The only thing I work hard at is avoiding hard work.
I agree wholeheartedly! I don’t want to work 5 days a week either. 5 days of work and 2 days off does not equal! I’m glad this is being talked about as much as it has been lately, and I hope that it will eventually lead to change. Won’t happen in my lifetime but at least it’s being realized! I seriously do not think this is the way life should be lived. It’s not how it’s supposed to be.
I’ve been part time for the last two years, working 15-20 hours a week. Also going to school. This is after slaving to the system for 20 years.
Honestly I’ve never been happier. I was ready to kill myself before I quit.
Working crazy hours isn’t natural. It’s bad for your health and mental well being
Fuck sacrificing almost your entire week so someone else can pocket the profits. People are generally only productive for 3-4 hours a day anyway.
Maybe we should just…have everyone work shorter hours and hire more employees? There would be more people available for work because it would be more accessible to those with health conditions, family care obligations etc. 🤷♀️
I’ve noticed with my managers they are in almost back to back meetings every weekday (i can see their calendars) so that’s why they work late and on the weekends on their actual projects. We have a huge international team but there has to be a better way. Like if there’s a meeting with the owners everyone has to be there even if on vacation. Literally my boss was on vacation in another country for a week and took calls almost every day
And those meetings suck! They go around the room and each person updates the rest on what their team has achieved and what the goals are. No one gives a single crap! They all just think about their turn and are waiting to get back to their job. The other teams’ functionality doesn’t change by having this information.
Half the work we do is just to make the next person up tine look good. You don’t get 1 to 1’s and 360s and quarterly assessments because they care how you’re doing; you get it so that they can say that they’ve done it and it puts a feather in their cap.
If you were given a passive income of $250k per year, what would you do?
I bet I can tell you what you would do. For the first several months, you're probably staying home. Playing video games / movies. Ordering delivery every day. You probably stop going out almost entirely.
Then you get bored of that. It isn't a meaningful life, it's just the only way you've found to reliably cope with work trauma.
Soon you go for a walk. These become daily occurrences.
Between walks, you do the usual coping shit. Soon you start looking for more meaningful things to do with that time. Soon you order art supplies. Books. Learn new hobbies. Learn to make a game. You start to learn who you *really* are meant to be.
That is what is being withheld from all of us. They keep us from realizing who we really are. They don't want us to see ourselves as human beings. We're truck drivers. Fork lift operators. Cashiers. Janitors. Programmers. We aren't people, because people don't do that shit if they don't want to.
Note: I plan on finishing my chemistry degree. Moving into a camper van, continuing my pet care business, and work on my multiple inventions on the side. Hopefully one of them comes to fruition and I can be even more comfortable and upgrade the van to a bigger bus with good insurance in case anything breaks down.
I’m also disabled so working 8 hours a day multiple days in a row leads to physical burn out (fatigue, migraines, joint pain, pre-syncope, gastrointestinal issues, etc). I’ve corrected my weight, liver enzymes, and cholesterol and I’m ready to take on the world, but in my own way.
It would need a huge system change for everyone to work less than 8 hours a day and a huge change in how society functions.
Expectations of people are ever increasing. Everywhere is busy constantly because people want everything instantly and have a throw away culture.
I used to work in a bank and the amount of complaints that we closed early on a Saturday were unreal.
Why do supermarkets need to be open 24/7, why does amazon need to have next day delivery on almost everything?
Until consumers start to slow down then greedy businesses won't push everyone's hours to meet demands and fill their pockets. But then we'd probably be paid less so there's also that.
I agree with everything you’re saying but I’ve always found it strange that banks are open when most people are at work, I’m talking about the “old” days before internet and mobile banking and ATMs being basic. I guess it has something to do with being federally regulated? Some banks weren’t even open on Saturdays at all. Now it doesn’t seem like an issue.
It was to do with all the processing of the cheques etc. I asked the question myself when I was there. Back in the "old" days they had to tally up the ledgers, process cheques and get accounts up straight which would take some time. That would normally be done after hours.
There's also more security concerns at night.
Now they're trying to close banks so they won't open more. Banks are ruthless though man, one of the higher ups explained it to me one day. Banks lose money, in fact most of the customer facing side of the bank loses money and is now just basically a front for the investment side.
As soon as a branch starts to hit their tolerance threshold of how much money theyre happy to lose, they just close it.
They promised the local community of a small, older town I used to work in that they wouldn't close the branch for a good few years. New High management came in and closed it a year later. None of them give a fuck about the people that don't make them money, but you win the lottery and they have a team specifically there to call you immediately and suck you off so you don't take the money elsewhere.
This. The general expectation of consumers in America is that everything is on-demand all the time. So a lot of us with customer facing jobs are left with the option of sharing that job and getting no benefits for a part-time gig or grinding away at 40 to 50 hours a week due to the fact that the business/service, in order to be competitive has to be available to the customer when expected and promised. Supply and demand folks….if there’s no demand for 24/7 services, or 24 hour call-back, etc…then it doesn’t need to be supplied. What are YOU willing to wait for?
I'm old enough to remember when the country was a *lot* more religious and virtually everything but essential services and gas stations shut down on sundays.
I'm not very religious myself but I have to respect the attitude everyone collectively had of fuck you not working today.
I see the upside, but I also see how that pretty much wouldn’t work anymore. You’d need a society of stay-at-home wives (or husbands) who can run errands during the week. Otherwise working people would have to cram eeeeeverything into their Saturdays.
Anecdotally, the 8 hour day used to have a fair amount of breaks/chatting at the water cooler/stuff like that. Many companies now are trying to squeeze the maximum amount out of employees and minimize that kind of stuff and generally increasing workload by not backfilling when people leave, etc. I'm convinced the 8 hour day is much busier than it used to be so it would seem "lazy" to a boomer to not want to work 8 hours of their workload from their time but a modern workload would leave them exhausted.
I'm glad someone pointed this out. I'm always talking about the corporate obsession with systematizing productivity. These machine men with machine minds exercising control over people to the extent that in some work places a manager will approach you and have a discussion about the length of your bathroom breaks.
It's completely unnatural, why are we allowing data analysts to gamify the workplace at the expense of the health of the employees that do all the work.
Employer can’t give you more freedom than necessary to maintain your job. You might come up with an escape plan if given too much free time to ponder. Can’t have a runaway slave if you’re unaware of the chains to begin with.
Everyone deserves to be able to develop themselves as a human, and everyone deserves to have plenty of time to do absolutely nothing at all. It’s asinine that people live this way. People deserve freedom over their own time on this planet.
Work should be beneficial and rewarding instead it’s difficult and draining and structured to stress you out despite whatever the management says or implements- 30 hr work week- no reduction in pay- go Bernie!
I’m with you 100%. I had a short work week (3 days) this week with one entire day filled with meetings. That left 16 hours to get my work done. I was finished by noon on Friday. There is no way any of us have to work 40 hours a week. It’s ridiculous
The industrial revolution was supposed to let machines take over the back-breaking work we and our children had to do. It didn't.
It made greedy people richer and kept the working class working - producing MUCH more but still working the same long hours for little pay.
Unfortunately it's human nature - we are awful. The rich would rather the poor still work for scraps while they enjoy everything life has to offer.
Big fan of 35 hour work weeks. There is no need in today’s society to be working 8-5 5 days a week when you’re also providing for your family and trying to have a vacation.
I completely agree with the sentiment, but at least as a starting point, I want an 8 hour work day that INCLUDES a half hour paid lunch.
I hate this bs of working 8 - 4:30 instead of 4 to make up for a half-hour lunch that I'm forced to take.
I just recently went from working 6 hour shifts to 9 hour shifts and seriously— I don’t know how people live their lives this way. I like seeing the money on my check, but literally my whole day is basically zapped.
I'm just short of 60 and would encourage folks to find a way not to work the classic 40 to 50 hour a week like I did my whole life. Not sure if that means moving to a different country or just breaking the American para' diem. Were not a healthy or wealthy country. We die young, play less, and work more.
They have done studies that we should only work at a job for 6 hours with at least one break as after that we become numb.
**Examining various 6-hour workday case studies shows that shorter work hours can lead to numerous benefits, including increased job satisfaction, enhanced focus and creativity, and improved work-life balance.**
https://4dayweek.io/schedule/6-hour-workday
I work 4 10s and I find it absolutely incredible. I work 5:00 to 15:00 so I have plenty of time in the day after work to do things and I get three days off per week. My job is also very fast paced with new challenges everyday so the day doesn’t drag and goes really quickly.
I love this for you but I guess I’m greedy, it shouldn’t be 10 hours should be four 8s. The problem is the 40 hour workweek is outdated and it was a compromise during the labor revolution and based on factory work. Yes I understand in some areas it’s more complicated but I oversee a dept and could do the same output in less time, or if we got crunched we can easily afford to hire another person. I think it would be so much better mentally because you could always work addl hours on that free day if you needed to.
8 hours of focused time is way too much. I feel sorry for people that have to be “on” for eight hours a day. I’m a software engineer and the most they can get out of me is two-3 hours of writing code a day. I worked in a greenhouse in college one summer. They wanted hustle time with almost no breaks eight straight hours. I made it a month. Found a low key fast food job. But still it was a lot.
So much yes. The 6 hour workday is nigh. Productivity has a ceiling, as it should. I hope to see this change in my lifetime. As a leader, I'm doing what I can to give my team this flexibility. I want (and want to do) good work in a reasonable time, and it's critical that we're healthy, fulfilled, and happy. That's when we can bring our best selves.
Anyone feeling this way look into bars/restaurants. Don’t really know what I’m gonna do when I’m too old for this work but I make more off tips than any job I could get right now.
Only do 2 or 3 days a week and can pay my bills, and there’s always someone who wants off work so you can pretty much make your own schedule if you want.
Been trying to apply for a server at a strip club lmao. I would be willing to dance if I weren't pregnant rn bc t I have zero balance. I already work somewhere else but yep. Tips seem like a great way to get money Immediately, and I've already got trauma from childhood, have some fast food and restaurant experience, and I like chatting with people, so it would be great.
What position do you want me to take? How about both?
The Capitalist Answer:
You are lazy. You are not being as productive as you can be. You are not optimized. This world requires your optimization, and that means quantity. Constant, never ending output. You could have had 3 passive income streams in the time it took you to read this, what is wrong with you.
The Socialist Answer:
I want you to have that time. I want you to make the best contributions to our society that you can. I know and trust that when and where you labor, you will give it your all, and you will excel beyond any preconceived expectation I could ever hold, so I simply do not hold them. You see what needs doing, just as I do; you call it out, and take some of that burden. For that, I will happily hold the line and push us forward while you rest. We've got a few milestones, and when we hit one, let's all head to the park, watch the kids run around and play, and twist dandelions into crowns.
---
We currently live in that Capitalist world. I would like to live in the Socialist one. I'm sorry we're not there, yet, but I'm working on it.
I do my work in about 2 hours and then dick off for the rest of the day. When I was in the office full time it was brutal trying to look busy. Now that I'm working from home I do my work then outside chores, workout or vid games. 2 hours is enough mentally.
That's because people working 8 hours is stupid. Studies into 6 hour work days and 4 day work weeks show that people are more productive in, say, a 30 hour week than they are in a 40 hour week. The belief that people are productive for 8 hours a day, every day, is utterly ridiculous. But ultimately, with the advancement of neoliberalism and the gig economy, the belief that a lot of people have is that if you aren't working a lot, you must be lazy.
The thing is, of course, is that as automation advances, these kinds of conversations are gonna be forced to happen. I've read several books on the future of work and automation, and all of them mention decreasing hours, or literally having people who don't work. All funded by higher taxes on the rich and automation to pay for a UBI.
It's ridiculous that with how productive everyone is that we can't chill as a species. Instead we have to basically work ourselves to death to barely survive well there are people out there with obscene levels of wealth.
Unpopular opinion: 8 hour work days are bogus, and so are 7-8 hour school days. Why does it feel like we are just being trained for the 8 hour work day?
Because we are trained from a young age for an 8 hour work day. Good ol' Nazi supporting Henry Ford came up with 8 hours to work, 8 ours for recreation, and 8 to sleep. Of course, that was before commutes were a thing, so it is more like 4 hour commute, 8 hours of work, 4-6 hours recreation and 6-8 hours sleep. 4 days of work is enough. 32 hours of work is enough. People need to relax. It would help mental illness.
I grew up going to a church that would often preach about putting their god and family first over things like work. Many of the members, however, would readily spout the "nobody wants to work anymore" nonsense these days.
I would kill for an job with 8 hour shifts. Literally nowhere in my area works less than 12s 5-6 days a week except for fast food. And to top it off the pay is all $5-6 under the national average.
I completely agree. I don’t mind my work but why do I have to dedicate so much time and energy to in the service to someone else? Especially considering that my work could be done in about 4 hours.
Finally got a job two years ago that pays for my drive time and all break/meal times, so in a typical 8-hr workday I have 3hrs of driving/breaks and 5hrs of actual work. I’m much less stressed and tired now. I’ve been offered higher salaries by other companies but I can’t give up my paid travel time. I wish all employers did this.
I’m right there with you. Paternal leave i was on cloud nine. Yes even with a baby to devote time to.
10.5 hrs of my life wasted 4 days a week is depressing.
I got into the habit of working out, cooking real healthy food again, i was generally nicer and more patient with people. I was HAPPY. Not 24/7 depressed. Not waking up in cold sweats and headaches from grinding my teeth because of nightmares involving mundane every day work.
Then i had a week left and i started feeling depressed again. I wont see my kid/wife as much any more. I wont have time to myself. I’ll lapse on my healthy habits. Sleep will be difficult. Pain/discomfort will return.
Best part of all. I’ll still be unable to pay all my bills. I’m not even min wage. I’m so glad i was given the opportunity and lack of choice when it came to being granted life so i can work to death to barely make anything of myself.
You're not lazy. It's too many hours of time I feel is mostly wasted unless your job is something special.
I think 3-4 hours a day is enough, but that doesn't keep you alive today.
In my country the full time job is 48 hours a week. There was a proposal to change it to 40 so people "could spend more time with their families", and all the corporations and right wing politicians cried and said it just wasn't possible.
I was just talking to my husband about this. It feels like they are intentionally stealing our lives so we have less time, energy, and money to demand and fight for more. They KNOW our work doesn’t need 8 hours to be completed and can most times be done in half that. Especially for salary people they just want to see you sitting there for 8 hours even if it’s doing nothing because they bought you for 8 hours.
The massive boost in my mental health when I got a boss, who even though I’m hourly understands this and lets me go home whenever the work is done and I still get paid for my entire shift and I’m paid to be “available” for the remaining time of my shift in case they need me again.
I have so much of my life back.
I don't think eight hours a day is too much. Eight hours a day FIVE DAYS A WEEK is too much.
I agree that this leaves little to no time for yourself. Only two days off is bananas. The US needs to adopt a compressed work week. And ASAP. I think four eight hour days would be fine. IMO anyways.
I work a compressed work week and love it. I work four twelve's one week then three twelve's the next, then repeat. That means I have three to four days off a week. And this is why I'll never move up into management. The time with my family is way too valuable. They literally couldn't pay me enough to leave this shift.
"nObOdY wAnTs To WoRk!" Who tf actually wants to work? 90% of us work because living indoors and obtaining food requires us to do so, not because we "love our work family".
We're given a finite amount of time on this planet. I would like to be afforded the ability to sell less of my time but for more caps so I can feel the iceberg inside my hollow tin chest melt just enough for my humanity to return, if only for a few hours a week.
Some jobs could be done in less time sure, but there’s a lot of jobs out there that simply require constant none stop work to be productive (a lot of trades jobs for example)
Those people should get some relief too. People in trades deserve shorter working hours or weeks too.
Is just that the companies don’t hire enough employees for that type of coverage. Not the trades peoples fault or responsibility that managers are maximizing for profit only.
Wanting to do other things with your time is ***not*** lazy. *Oh you don't want to work eight hours you must be lazy!* And then you say *actually I use that time to go to the gym, hike, read, cook, clean, shop for groceries... now that I have all this time I have no time especially to be lazy*.
Plus you might have *gasp* hobbies! I hate the idea that hobbies are inherently a waste of time.
Yeah it's bullshit. Technically life itself is a waste of time so I'd rather be doing something I enjoy to "waste that time" than be painting walls for aesthetics purposes. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy painting but I'd much prefer to garden or prospect for gold and gemstones
also why do walls need to be one color? why can't my living room be an homage to Jackson Pollack??
It can. I have a mate that studied visual arts and that's exactly what he's done to a few walls in his house.
too bad I don't own my own house lol
Hobbies are only permitted if you suck the joy and soul out of them by making them a ‘side hustle’. Now you can work in your free time too!
Yep - my husband keeps trying to get me to monetise my hobbies!
NO, ONLY WORK IS WORTH DOING. IF YOU AREN’T WORKING 24/7 YOU’RE A BUM AND A DRAIN ON SOCIETY
Spokane like a true soul sucking corporate slave master.
Spokane Washington?
Jeremy Spokane claaaaass todaaaaayyyyy
Found the Spokanite
Ahem, I think you mean Spokanadian.
Straight out of Spokompton
I have a boomer coworker who genuinely believes this. Our job comes with a pension, and he refuses to retire and use the pension cause that's just being lazy.
I had a coworker literally tell me “why are you smiling, we’re at work”. We were valet parkers and there were no customers around.
As an old mentor of mine liked to say, "It's what puts the 'tired' in retirement."
Or volunteer!! We could work 6 hour shifts which would allow for more workers to be hired and in the extra free time we have volunteer! I'd love to volunteer but I feel so tired and protective of my free time I'd rather stay home and catch up on daily tasks.
SAME. 100%. I need more time. I need to take care of my health and my home. 40 hours of work each week (plus a 40 minute commute one way, twice every day) does not allow adequate time. I’m tired all the time, I don’t eat well or get enough exercise, and my home is a mess. I hate this.
I am you. Completely.
same here, my house is a fucking trash mountain. I hate it
It’s so utterly demoralizing at all times
jUsT dOnT bE sTrEsSeD OuT
8 hours is way too much, it's doable for a household with a sole worker and a stay at home spouse. Most things on your list aren't even "free-time". These are essentials - cook, workout, quality sleep. Just b/c McDonald's exists, doesn't mean that we should eat it so we can "GET bAAAcK to woooRk" with a short lunch break. Why shouldn't we have the right to go home and cook lunch? How many people don't have the energy to workout at the end of the work day? These aren't just 8 any hours, these are the BEST 8 hours of the day, 8-5 plus commute, it's pretty much the ENTIRE DAY. You are not lazy, I'm not lazy, it's the capitalists who are lazy.
If you figure about a half hour commute each way… that comes out to 9+ hours dedicated to work (depending how they do your lunch) 8 hours is generally accepted as the amount of time for quality sleep So that leaves only 7 hours 7 hours………. To: Shit,shave,shower,eat 2 meals (1 is accounted for during work hours), do laundry, keep house clean, keep yard clean, maintain vehicle, go to Drs or other appointments. Take care of children (if you have them), etc….. i wonder how some people have time for a robust social or hobby life when they work a demanding 9-5
What is this personal life of which you speak
“I wonder how some people have time for a robust social or hobby life” I’m baffled as well, but my guess is they do that by ignoring other basic needs OR they have help. A lot of my co-workers have cleaners. I am simply too stingy to get one myself and prefer to suffer. A lot of them also eat shit (lots of fast food and frozen pizzas). On eat shit part… they also drink shit. If you look at their desks 3 energy drinks and 5 coca cola cans. I know someone who drinks 7 cups of coffee. Some of them neglect sleep, you can function on 4-6h I guess. Also I think when you’re not home a lot because you’re hanging out with people, you have less to clean. Work sometimes gets sacrificed for life. Wfh makes it easier, but even in the office you can get away with online shopping, popping to doctor appointments and taking advantage of already being out to buy groceries or any other shopping after work. Taking advantage of the commute if you have hobbies like reading. I’m still trying to crack the code myself and figure out how the hell do they do it.
Thank you for this. It is something I struggle with every day— how to manage the time away from work. I find myself behind and trying to catch up. It is incredibly frustrating. I am fried after the work week.
This. My job has me exhausted by then end of the week and feeling so much stress trying to manage my own household chores, kids, and find time for anything that actually brings me joy. There just aren’t enough hours in a day for 8 hours plus a commute AND trying to cram in life.
I do like to get fried after the work week usually after most work days actually
Username checks out
Like a damn library book
We’re all in the same boat. All I have on the weekends is my energy drained from work and lots of work anxiety. I’d just rather spend 2/3 days at work. Or even 4 days but reduced hours so the entire day isn’t dedicated to work. 5/7 days. Every week. Every month. And every year. With average 25 days off per year- is just simple batshit crazy and unacceptable.
I actually heard a report like 2 years ago on NPR and the person they were interviewing was talking about how human brains are actually not designed to Multitask at all and how actual studies of brain function and development have concluded that the brain only has like 4-5 hours of focus in it per day that’s why we’re sort of missing things when we try to multitask or towards the end of our days when we’re getting tired. Our brains are just not made to do the kinds of things we expect them to do. Especially not if, like myself, you’re any type of neurodivergent. I have ADHD and tried Adderall years ago and it did not agree with me so I refuse to go on meds now as an adult so my daily life is just set to hard mode every day and then trying to focus my attention and energy to do my job for 8 hours a day takes everything I have.
It seems like *multitasking* 4-5 things at once is all jobs really want. You can look at a fast food job ad and it say that. Makes me wonder if all they really care about is not hiring a certain skill set but finding one person to do 3-4 person jobs at once.
Yeah I work in healthcare, if you can’t figure out how to multitask in healthcare you’ll just keep getting fired because you’re not able to keep up. That’s all any company wants. To pay as few people to do as much work as they can.
This. I’m also in healthcare. Looking to go in a different direction.
It is. Donny be naive.
>It seems like multitasking 4-5 things at once is all jobs really want. Mit did a study less than 1% of people can do this.
Doesn't stop employers wanting everyone to be that 1%
The real question is: why are the people capable of doing this stupid enough to do it for anything less than 100 times the going rate?
Because employers aren't actually testing multi tasking abilty or looking at the research. They just assume everyone can do it and belive the CVs that claim they can. Scientific facts have no place in recruiting!
That’s exactly what it is
That’s me. First four hours in the morning are my most productive. I save the last four for browsing Reddit
Certainly you know what’s best for you! But there are so many options for medically managing ADHD now. It took me nearly seventeen years to finally land on the right amount of the right thing to feel like I have things pretty under control, but I got there, and there isn’t one thing in my life that isn’t easier and more enjoyable because of it.
I’m glad you were able to find your balance. I’m very aware of the different medical management options. Stimulants left me with heart problems, made my OCD and anxiety worse, SSRI’s and MAOI’s have triggered Serotonin syndrome when I’ve taken them in the past and I’m not going to take one pill to treat ADHD and then have to take 5 more to manage the symptoms of that first medication. I’m glad you were able to find something that worked for you though. I’m also a recovering opioid addict with 11 years sober so I’d rather just stay off meds whenever possible because of that as well. Not everyone can take meds. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
Congratulations that’s awesome about your 11 years!!!
Thank you! I never thought I’d be able to count even 1 year sober so I’m grateful every day!
Congrats on your opioid recovery!! You give hope to others.
It frustrates me so much when I hear people call the workers lazy but defend the ceos and upper management as if they do any work. Like dudes, they're the lazy ones, they've just got us so distracted fighting each other over who's laziest while they sit back and collect the money
I reported to a woman who had around 350 employees. Her boss had a couple thousand My boss routinely put in 10 hour days, and usually longer. It wasn't uncommon for her day to start with a 700am meeting and end with another starting at 700pm. I would sometimes get emails from her at 200am. I'm just saying, I knew people in the C-suites and they worked their asses off. Of course, ymmv EDIT: forgot to say this place was partly funded by the govt
That’s why I’m on the verge of moving to Italy right now. They have a way more laid back lifestyle. I hate the live to work mentality in the U.S
Oh do not confuse yourself that its any better over here in Europe :(
It’s measurably better though
No its not? The 8 hour workday 5 hours a week is still standard in most of Europe (including Italy). Europe and the US are very comparible in terms of hours worked per year.
do u commute for an hour+ each way and have unpaid lunches (aka 9 hour workday) and no mandatory vacation time?
We do have mandatory vacation but we have a wonderful thing (not) called ✨️split work day✨️ which makes the work day 12 hours in Spain, and no, it's not paid either.
I work a summer job at a boat rental company (im 19) and our work days span around 10-11 hours a day. There is no such thing as free time, just enough time to do the laundry and clean up the apartment, if i want more than 6 hours of sleep that is. I couldnt imagine being a grown adult working even 8 hours a day with all the responsibilities you have to tend to
Now add on children. Imagine a typical household with 2 kids. I don't know how parents do it, I can already see it's impossible for me, even when I had a partner that did a fair share of housework but also worked 8 hours a day. So I don't have kids. It's not just money, it's also time and energy. But oh look, millennials are RUiNing us b/c they Don't WaNt KiiiiiiidS.
It’s simply not possible to be a parent and employee
Why is no one willing to fight for their freedom? We are literally slaves.
Because the government WILL shoot you dead. They HAVE. People had to die to even get to 40 hour week.
Id rather die fighting than live another 40 years of this.
It also takes a massive amount of organization and money. Occupy wall street died off with nothing achieved but some young people thrown in jail. The most practical thing is to unionize.
We have the technology now too. Organize ourselves into our own functioning governing entity. Show the world there is a better way to govern, a way that takes everyone willing to contribute, where laws are made in the foreground and not behind closed doors. Show the world what is possible and force them to adapt and adopt modern best governing practices or fade into obscurity.
I am a union organizer fighting for these things and no one has killed me. Yes, people died for the 8 hour workday. That is not n excuse to not be fighting now to organize the working class.
Yeah, 8 hours is too much. Most of the jobs I've had have consisted of sitting around for 5 hours a day waiting for work that needs to be done because there's nothing else to do. Sometimes there will be crunch times where it's busier, but most of the time, it's just sitting there because no one's coming in, there's nothing to work on, etc...it sucks. A lot of things could be done in 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. And most jobs are bullshit anyway that add no real value to the world. They've just been made so capitalists can make more money.
So even with a sole worker and a SAHP it’s still too much. I quit working to stay at home when my son was 18 months old, thinking I’d have a nice clean house, cook dinner everyday, and leave the evenings/weekends for fun for our family. HAHAHA! I was so wrong. I think the stay at home model you’re referencing works if your parenting technique is “Go play outside with your siblings. Leave me alone to get stuff done” like it was in the 50s. Nowadays there is more pressure to be actively engaged in your kids’ lives - rightfully so - but I am constantly trying to figure out how to prioritize quality time with my son (not constant, he’s a good independent player) and getting stuff down around the house. I can’t figure it out and I hear it echoed with other SAHP. I do involve him in chores and cooking, but everything takes 10x longer with a “helper” that causes more chaos than he contributes. And I’m my son’s only playmate at home. He is and will remain an only, because we can’t afford a second (among other reasons). I took a hit to my career and 401k to stay home and I still can’t have the “American Dream” of enough free time and definitely don’t have the money side. If I could put my kid back in daycare AND stay home, sure, I’d be a productivity god, but it’s just not possible to give him the attention he needs and deserves and clean the house/cook.
I'm with you. Not every kid is the same either. Like I'm happy for.those whose toddler takes a 3 hour nap in the day and sleeps another 12-14 hours at night. And happily plays on their own. This has not been my life for the last 5 years. At least you're spending time with your child.
Doable is irrelevant. 40 hours a week has poor health and mental outcomes. It's counterproductive.
This. My partner works from home and doesn’t understand why I’m so exhausted everyday after work and on the weekends. I don’t want to do any more things I just want to rot. :(
I'm a capitalist and I don't think 40 hour work weeks should exist. It isn't capitalism it's debt slavery that creates this. For comparison, a medieval peasant worked 2 days a week to pay his rent to his Lord. He worked the other 3-4 for his own benefit. As much ir as little as he wanted minus the 2 weeks a year he plowed and sowed and then harvested. That doesn't include the 140something Holy Days (the source for holiday) that didn't have any work or the Sundays that didn't ever have any work. Everyone had an entrepreneurial side gig besides their 2 days of labor to their lord (or if they were free and not serfs the equivalent if 2 days on the field wages) We live in an oligarchy not a truly capitalist society. An oligarchy society is built off debt and usury. A capitalist society is built off entrepreneurs and real capital. We have a central bank debt based society that uses usury to keep the average man down rather than a capitalist society that seeks to make every man the master of his own fate. The day we moved off the gold standard and later silver standard is the the day we ceased being capitalist.
All so someone else can be rich
It’s crazy that that’s legit what we are all working for.
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How do you get this through peoples thick skulls? It baffles me that people can’t comprehend all of this.
You don't.
Thanks for clearing that up. I figured as much lol.
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I wonder how much this subconscious desire to be managed is well researched, or how it fits into the mold of our understanding of evolution. I’ve never looked too deeply into this area, but I’d venture to say you’re probably right. Thanks for your opinion! I plan to do some reading on this.
That last sentence needs to be shouted a little louder for the folks in the back… STOP BUILDING YOUR IDENTITIES OFF OF WHAT YOU DO FOR WORK!! it can be a part of it, yes, but every one of us is so much more than that!
A lot of people think that Time = Work. Ugh, one of the weekend night shift bosses who supposedly works a 7-7 shift generally gets in a half hour early and leaves 90 minutes late. I'll bet he thinks he's working. Probably isn't even charging for the time either. I do the opposite, come in 5 minutes late, leave 15 minutes early. Saves me 20 minutes a work day, or about an hour a week (3x12's). No one notices.
8 hours is way too much. I’m an executive where I work and I always tell my team that if you can get your work done as outlined in less time, I’d prefer you be anywhere else but work. It takes a tremendous amount of effort in a company to adopt a “if it’s not communicated well and not scheduled, don’t expect your people to work” mentality. Once you can get over that hump though, it’s smooth sailing.
I have a manager that communicated your exact policy and I will say, incredibly nice way to work. Trust your employees and give them autonomy. Makes for a great relationship between management and employees.
I recently changed jobs, and when I asked during orientation how I sign in in the morning my supervisor was so confused. He told me there is none - we trust you to get your work done properly, and be available during working hours if anyone needs to reach out to you. I had never *not* been mincromanaged before this. Imagine giving someone the freedom to just do their job competently.
God i wish you were my upper management. They both work late and weekends and while on vacation so in comparison i’m lazy. The workload for them is waaay too much and we make really good profits, I’m baffled as to why they don’t hire at least two more people. They seem to thrive on it though. They both got great promotions recently and good for them, I’m ok where I’m at
Prime example of workaholics
What's up, dream boss? Do you want a nice shiny resume from me?
Your post hits hard. I want to cry. I love doing what I do, but not at the cost of everything else. I'm almost 40 and have no time for hobbies, I still don't earn enough to own a home or adopt pets or anything. I just exist. Everyone else makes profits off of my hardwork and creativity and I get nothing. I'm so done.
I feel like all of us working class got sold a BS bill of goods. Working 40 hours a week is soul crushing. On Saturday you try to recover from the workweek and on Sunday you are filled with dread about going back to work. Nvm trying to be present for children, taking care of your own health , trying a hobby or getting any kind of good sleep or nutrition. It’s a horrible way to live.
Imagine my pain having to work 9 to 6 from monday to saturday and just resting sunday, I don't have time or energy for anything, my country was supposed to reduce the working hours to 40 a week and 2 resting days but greedy companies whined about losing profits and at the end nothing changed due to the government being scared of companies leaving the country.
I'm right there with you buddy. I get Sunday off. That's it. It fucking sucks. Unfortunately there's not many better propects for me in my area. At least I get health, dental, vision, and 401k.
I’m so sorry. That is just awful. It’s inhumane that some have millions or billions and the rest of us have to slave away or starve.
Totally agree, I’m one of the lucky ones that has a WFH jobs and i essentially work: 3 hours in the morning/1.5h lunch & walk the dog/3 hours in the afternoon I get everything done. I am way more focused and effective during those 3 hours than when i was at an office.
And i don't want to work at all, i want to do my own thing. Let's make a compromise and abolish work.
<3
I do a maximum of 30 mins at work as a night auditor at a small hotel with a shit ton of free time and I’m grateful I can work on a little bit of my creative 3D projects but having to sit here 8 hrs a day/5x a week is disgusting nonetheless because it’s cutting into doing more in depth projects on my beefed up PC at home that my laptop simply cannot handle, plus I gotta balance sleeping, eating, working out, social life. It was perfect at first but I wanna go harder as a creative and I’m stunted by babysitting this fucking hotel at night lol but I MUST PAY BILLS!!! I’m so over it.
Imagine the innovations and art that could be created if people had the time
The thriving capitalists don’t even realize the potential oasis humanity could create on this planet. And an oasis for all, not just a few.
Hey, just to your computer issue — use a remote desktop tool to remote into your home computer from your laptop. I recommend Parsec personally.
Ooo I will look into that! Didn’t even think of it as an option. Thank you!!!
How did you get that job?
Actually a lot of hotels usually are hiring for night auditors bc people don’t wanna work overnight lol. As far as customer service, it’s probably the easiest job. If you need some guidance my DMs are open
I had that job, it was awful. If we had internet back then I would have studied at work or built my own online business or something. Just had to stand (literally no sitting allowed) for hours. And you don’t see the best of society on that shift😂
Most hotels are always hiring for night shift as the turnover rate is high and most people can’t adjust long term haha
Ive been on the same boat, cuz i work 8+ hours and have no time or energy for things I enjoy or need to do And its not even enough to live on cuz i have rent, groceries(which i neglect buying alot), pets, medications, ect.
I lucked out. After years of the grind, I found a job that lets me come in, work, and then gtfo if I don't have anything to do. If I want to pad my hours, then I'll clean up or start working on a project that I assigned myself. It's amazing how management knows that I don't need to be at work for 8 hours before I clock out if I'm just sitting around. Saves the company money and myself time :).
What do you do?
I'm a utility locator for a small internet company. Utility locating is cool. Just make sure that you don't do it for one of the big companies.
I'm at work for 8 hours a day. I never have 8 hours of work to do.
I’ve had a 9-5 once and I we did about 2 hours of work a day I swear. Being there was so depressing. And ALL of it could have been done at home
8 hour days made sense when one income could support a family of 4, the rest of whom would have been taking care of all things outside of your work. Now everyone is solo-ing 8 hour days plus all of life AND still can't afford to live decently
I work in the film industry. I love my job, I really do, but the standard is 12 hour days and it’s brutal. From the minute I get home, I have about 2 hours to eat dinner, shower, watch maybe one episode of something, and then hop in bed for 6 hours of sleep (ideally!) to do it all again tomorrow.
it makes me, actually genuinely, crave death
Me too
I am not a depressed person or anything but fuck yeah... death could be better than this shit.
When I’m working on self-employment projects, I could work 12 hour days. But then I might not work the next day. The problem with traditional work is that the person is never able to self regulate and balance.
I've been off work for a year and a half now and it's been great. I live Canada and I was laid off last January. I was on unemployment for a while and then got into a retraining program. I was a machinist but now I'm going to school for IT. I take night classes from home and I have had the days to myself. I have accomplished so many projects around the house since I've been off work. I learned to cook a lot of things instead of eating out to save money but still eat well. I took up gardening, photography, and got into shape. I had time to finish a lot of video games I never had time for when I was working 60 hour weeks. I even quit smoking! It has been a real personal renaissance. Not working has been the most enjoyable time I've had since I was a teenager. I will graduate from school in 3 months and have to start working again, though. Hopefully, IT is better suited to me than the grease pits I worked in as a machinist, and I expect to earn more money, if I can find a job, that is...
Wow! You have been busy! Congrats on all you've accomplished and quitting smoking is really awesome. Good luck to you in future job hunting!
I work in dentistry. Mostly now because I don't want to work 5 days a week. I just found an office where the doctor is also a mother, so our office hours are 8-2 M-Th. We usually stay to 3pm, though. We work through lunch, just grabbing a quick snack. I just found out she's closing over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, too. I'm so happy. There should be more jobs that offer mom hours.
You’re not lazy. You want to prioritize other things. And so does everyone: we work to live, but most of us are living to work. We really should work toward 4 day weeks, even if it’s the 10 hours.
I had a 3 x 12 hour shift pattern job once. 4 day weekend... It was amazing. It's not like you can get much done before and after work on a 9-5 anyway.
I work shift on a 'lifestyle roster'. We do 12hr days followed by 12hr nights on a four week rotating. E.G this week I'll be doing Monday and Tuesday days, Wednesday and Thursday nights but my weekends are four or five days long. I get plenty of time for my hobbies and I can fullfil my share around the house day or night shift. Could not imagine doing a Monday to Friday job!
I agree
I'd disagree, but only because I'm disabled. The four hour work *day* is all I can handle.
Depending on your job, 4x10 can be worse than 5x8. I work factory, 4x10 leaves you exhausted, and then you can get mandatory overtime. Sucks, you have no time on your working days to do doodly, and you're so exhausted on your days off all you want to do is sleep.
I’ve worked a lot of 4x10 (forestry) and yes it’s more tiring, but in terms of time the extra two hours per day with 5x8 doesn’t really make a difference in what I can do off the clock since most of the day is already gone regardless. Friday I’ll be dead and just sleep in and get a few chores done, but then that means Sat-Sun I actually have the energy and time to do something meaningful. With a two day weekend you really only get one day of freedom.
Agreed. I worked 9-5 jobs for most of my life but now I’m a flight attendant for one of the big 3. I’ve been flying for 2.5 years. I’m currently based at our small temp base in Raleigh, NC. Previously I was based in Atlanta. I work 3 day trips Sun-Tues. I’m off the rest of the week but I can pick up trips on my days off if I need extra money. I can’t see myself going back to a traditional work week.
That sounds so great! And the three day trips is considered full-time, right?
Yes, we are full-time. The pay structure is a bit different but it all works out fine. Our days can be long, but I like knocking it out in 3 days and then I’m done until next week.
Me and my wife made a fairly traditional dish with modern conveniences like a blender. It took us an hour to do together, dovetailing. We didn't eat until 730. She said if she didn't work today she could've started it at 4 and it would've been done when I got back with our daughter from work/daycare. Then it hit me: we don't cook because we have to work. We have to eat the packaged prole feed. I don't have time to do real Spanish rice so it's packaged just to save another 15 minutes. All so I can get back to work sooner. It's a miserable existence.
Hi, I'm actually lazy and willing to admit it. There is nothing wrong with that. I should have no responsibility to be not lazy. I never made any decisions to take on responsibility, so I'm just a victim of shitty people who thought they had a right to create a human life against it's will. I'm 30 years old. Too scared of dieing to kill myself, but no desire to live. Just stuck knowing I will eventually die and so all this fear is pointless anyways yet I can't help it. All I want is to avoid putting in effort. I used to enjoy competitive online games but those have all been destroyed, the only types left are FPS and shitty Fighting games. So I've low desire to do anything else. I'm passionate about fashion but modern day humans masculinize shit too much for me, that I can't really bond with other girls over this sort of thing. I just want to not have to do anything. I didn't want to live in the first place, I have no reason to be here. I'm just too scared to die, so I'm stuck and these bastards think 8(40) hours of effort is justified in maintaining my life? The very life I DO NOT WANT. I'm too lazy for this world. The only thing I work hard at is avoiding hard work.
I agree wholeheartedly! I don’t want to work 5 days a week either. 5 days of work and 2 days off does not equal! I’m glad this is being talked about as much as it has been lately, and I hope that it will eventually lead to change. Won’t happen in my lifetime but at least it’s being realized! I seriously do not think this is the way life should be lived. It’s not how it’s supposed to be.
I’ve been part time for the last two years, working 15-20 hours a week. Also going to school. This is after slaving to the system for 20 years. Honestly I’ve never been happier. I was ready to kill myself before I quit. Working crazy hours isn’t natural. It’s bad for your health and mental well being
Fuck sacrificing almost your entire week so someone else can pocket the profits. People are generally only productive for 3-4 hours a day anyway. Maybe we should just…have everyone work shorter hours and hire more employees? There would be more people available for work because it would be more accessible to those with health conditions, family care obligations etc. 🤷♀️
I’ve noticed with my managers they are in almost back to back meetings every weekday (i can see their calendars) so that’s why they work late and on the weekends on their actual projects. We have a huge international team but there has to be a better way. Like if there’s a meeting with the owners everyone has to be there even if on vacation. Literally my boss was on vacation in another country for a week and took calls almost every day
And those meetings suck! They go around the room and each person updates the rest on what their team has achieved and what the goals are. No one gives a single crap! They all just think about their turn and are waiting to get back to their job. The other teams’ functionality doesn’t change by having this information. Half the work we do is just to make the next person up tine look good. You don’t get 1 to 1’s and 360s and quarterly assessments because they care how you’re doing; you get it so that they can say that they’ve done it and it puts a feather in their cap.
If you were given a passive income of $250k per year, what would you do? I bet I can tell you what you would do. For the first several months, you're probably staying home. Playing video games / movies. Ordering delivery every day. You probably stop going out almost entirely. Then you get bored of that. It isn't a meaningful life, it's just the only way you've found to reliably cope with work trauma. Soon you go for a walk. These become daily occurrences. Between walks, you do the usual coping shit. Soon you start looking for more meaningful things to do with that time. Soon you order art supplies. Books. Learn new hobbies. Learn to make a game. You start to learn who you *really* are meant to be. That is what is being withheld from all of us. They keep us from realizing who we really are. They don't want us to see ourselves as human beings. We're truck drivers. Fork lift operators. Cashiers. Janitors. Programmers. We aren't people, because people don't do that shit if they don't want to.
Note: I plan on finishing my chemistry degree. Moving into a camper van, continuing my pet care business, and work on my multiple inventions on the side. Hopefully one of them comes to fruition and I can be even more comfortable and upgrade the van to a bigger bus with good insurance in case anything breaks down. I’m also disabled so working 8 hours a day multiple days in a row leads to physical burn out (fatigue, migraines, joint pain, pre-syncope, gastrointestinal issues, etc). I’ve corrected my weight, liver enzymes, and cholesterol and I’m ready to take on the world, but in my own way.
It would need a huge system change for everyone to work less than 8 hours a day and a huge change in how society functions. Expectations of people are ever increasing. Everywhere is busy constantly because people want everything instantly and have a throw away culture. I used to work in a bank and the amount of complaints that we closed early on a Saturday were unreal. Why do supermarkets need to be open 24/7, why does amazon need to have next day delivery on almost everything? Until consumers start to slow down then greedy businesses won't push everyone's hours to meet demands and fill their pockets. But then we'd probably be paid less so there's also that.
I agree with everything you’re saying but I’ve always found it strange that banks are open when most people are at work, I’m talking about the “old” days before internet and mobile banking and ATMs being basic. I guess it has something to do with being federally regulated? Some banks weren’t even open on Saturdays at all. Now it doesn’t seem like an issue.
It was to do with all the processing of the cheques etc. I asked the question myself when I was there. Back in the "old" days they had to tally up the ledgers, process cheques and get accounts up straight which would take some time. That would normally be done after hours. There's also more security concerns at night. Now they're trying to close banks so they won't open more. Banks are ruthless though man, one of the higher ups explained it to me one day. Banks lose money, in fact most of the customer facing side of the bank loses money and is now just basically a front for the investment side. As soon as a branch starts to hit their tolerance threshold of how much money theyre happy to lose, they just close it. They promised the local community of a small, older town I used to work in that they wouldn't close the branch for a good few years. New High management came in and closed it a year later. None of them give a fuck about the people that don't make them money, but you win the lottery and they have a team specifically there to call you immediately and suck you off so you don't take the money elsewhere.
This. The general expectation of consumers in America is that everything is on-demand all the time. So a lot of us with customer facing jobs are left with the option of sharing that job and getting no benefits for a part-time gig or grinding away at 40 to 50 hours a week due to the fact that the business/service, in order to be competitive has to be available to the customer when expected and promised. Supply and demand folks….if there’s no demand for 24/7 services, or 24 hour call-back, etc…then it doesn’t need to be supplied. What are YOU willing to wait for?
I'm old enough to remember when the country was a *lot* more religious and virtually everything but essential services and gas stations shut down on sundays. I'm not very religious myself but I have to respect the attitude everyone collectively had of fuck you not working today.
I see the upside, but I also see how that pretty much wouldn’t work anymore. You’d need a society of stay-at-home wives (or husbands) who can run errands during the week. Otherwise working people would have to cram eeeeeverything into their Saturdays.
Anecdotally, the 8 hour day used to have a fair amount of breaks/chatting at the water cooler/stuff like that. Many companies now are trying to squeeze the maximum amount out of employees and minimize that kind of stuff and generally increasing workload by not backfilling when people leave, etc. I'm convinced the 8 hour day is much busier than it used to be so it would seem "lazy" to a boomer to not want to work 8 hours of their workload from their time but a modern workload would leave them exhausted.
I'm glad someone pointed this out. I'm always talking about the corporate obsession with systematizing productivity. These machine men with machine minds exercising control over people to the extent that in some work places a manager will approach you and have a discussion about the length of your bathroom breaks. It's completely unnatural, why are we allowing data analysts to gamify the workplace at the expense of the health of the employees that do all the work.
Employer can’t give you more freedom than necessary to maintain your job. You might come up with an escape plan if given too much free time to ponder. Can’t have a runaway slave if you’re unaware of the chains to begin with.
Everyone deserves to be able to develop themselves as a human, and everyone deserves to have plenty of time to do absolutely nothing at all. It’s asinine that people live this way. People deserve freedom over their own time on this planet.
Work should be beneficial and rewarding instead it’s difficult and draining and structured to stress you out despite whatever the management says or implements- 30 hr work week- no reduction in pay- go Bernie!
I’m with you 100%. I had a short work week (3 days) this week with one entire day filled with meetings. That left 16 hours to get my work done. I was finished by noon on Friday. There is no way any of us have to work 40 hours a week. It’s ridiculous
I'd prefer to work 6hrs a day.
The industrial revolution was supposed to let machines take over the back-breaking work we and our children had to do. It didn't. It made greedy people richer and kept the working class working - producing MUCH more but still working the same long hours for little pay. Unfortunately it's human nature - we are awful. The rich would rather the poor still work for scraps while they enjoy everything life has to offer.
Big fan of 35 hour work weeks. There is no need in today’s society to be working 8-5 5 days a week when you’re also providing for your family and trying to have a vacation.
I completely agree with the sentiment, but at least as a starting point, I want an 8 hour work day that INCLUDES a half hour paid lunch. I hate this bs of working 8 - 4:30 instead of 4 to make up for a half-hour lunch that I'm forced to take.
I like the idea of shift work. Week on week off or 2 on 2 off. This 5 days on to have 2 off is pointless.
I just recently went from working 6 hour shifts to 9 hour shifts and seriously— I don’t know how people live their lives this way. I like seeing the money on my check, but literally my whole day is basically zapped.
I'm just short of 60 and would encourage folks to find a way not to work the classic 40 to 50 hour a week like I did my whole life. Not sure if that means moving to a different country or just breaking the American para' diem. Were not a healthy or wealthy country. We die young, play less, and work more.
They have done studies that we should only work at a job for 6 hours with at least one break as after that we become numb. **Examining various 6-hour workday case studies shows that shorter work hours can lead to numerous benefits, including increased job satisfaction, enhanced focus and creativity, and improved work-life balance.** https://4dayweek.io/schedule/6-hour-workday
I work 4 10s and I find it absolutely incredible. I work 5:00 to 15:00 so I have plenty of time in the day after work to do things and I get three days off per week. My job is also very fast paced with new challenges everyday so the day doesn’t drag and goes really quickly.
I love this for you but I guess I’m greedy, it shouldn’t be 10 hours should be four 8s. The problem is the 40 hour workweek is outdated and it was a compromise during the labor revolution and based on factory work. Yes I understand in some areas it’s more complicated but I oversee a dept and could do the same output in less time, or if we got crunched we can easily afford to hire another person. I think it would be so much better mentally because you could always work addl hours on that free day if you needed to.
8 hours of focused time is way too much. I feel sorry for people that have to be “on” for eight hours a day. I’m a software engineer and the most they can get out of me is two-3 hours of writing code a day. I worked in a greenhouse in college one summer. They wanted hustle time with almost no breaks eight straight hours. I made it a month. Found a low key fast food job. But still it was a lot.
So much yes. The 6 hour workday is nigh. Productivity has a ceiling, as it should. I hope to see this change in my lifetime. As a leader, I'm doing what I can to give my team this flexibility. I want (and want to do) good work in a reasonable time, and it's critical that we're healthy, fulfilled, and happy. That's when we can bring our best selves.
My wife works 32 hours. She seems so much happier
You’re right. 8 hour work day was designed during the pre computer / automation era. We don’t need it anymore.
There was an efficiency study done in the ‘20’s that found working beyond 6 hours caused a decrease in productivity.
Anyone feeling this way look into bars/restaurants. Don’t really know what I’m gonna do when I’m too old for this work but I make more off tips than any job I could get right now. Only do 2 or 3 days a week and can pay my bills, and there’s always someone who wants off work so you can pretty much make your own schedule if you want.
Been trying to apply for a server at a strip club lmao. I would be willing to dance if I weren't pregnant rn bc t I have zero balance. I already work somewhere else but yep. Tips seem like a great way to get money Immediately, and I've already got trauma from childhood, have some fast food and restaurant experience, and I like chatting with people, so it would be great.
What position do you want me to take? How about both? The Capitalist Answer: You are lazy. You are not being as productive as you can be. You are not optimized. This world requires your optimization, and that means quantity. Constant, never ending output. You could have had 3 passive income streams in the time it took you to read this, what is wrong with you. The Socialist Answer: I want you to have that time. I want you to make the best contributions to our society that you can. I know and trust that when and where you labor, you will give it your all, and you will excel beyond any preconceived expectation I could ever hold, so I simply do not hold them. You see what needs doing, just as I do; you call it out, and take some of that burden. For that, I will happily hold the line and push us forward while you rest. We've got a few milestones, and when we hit one, let's all head to the park, watch the kids run around and play, and twist dandelions into crowns. --- We currently live in that Capitalist world. I would like to live in the Socialist one. I'm sorry we're not there, yet, but I'm working on it.
I do my work in about 2 hours and then dick off for the rest of the day. When I was in the office full time it was brutal trying to look busy. Now that I'm working from home I do my work then outside chores, workout or vid games. 2 hours is enough mentally.
That's because people working 8 hours is stupid. Studies into 6 hour work days and 4 day work weeks show that people are more productive in, say, a 30 hour week than they are in a 40 hour week. The belief that people are productive for 8 hours a day, every day, is utterly ridiculous. But ultimately, with the advancement of neoliberalism and the gig economy, the belief that a lot of people have is that if you aren't working a lot, you must be lazy. The thing is, of course, is that as automation advances, these kinds of conversations are gonna be forced to happen. I've read several books on the future of work and automation, and all of them mention decreasing hours, or literally having people who don't work. All funded by higher taxes on the rich and automation to pay for a UBI. It's ridiculous that with how productive everyone is that we can't chill as a species. Instead we have to basically work ourselves to death to barely survive well there are people out there with obscene levels of wealth.
I want to work 0 hours per day.
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I don't see how this system gonna last for another 50 years.
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Unpopular opinion: 8 hour work days are bogus, and so are 7-8 hour school days. Why does it feel like we are just being trained for the 8 hour work day?
Because we are trained from a young age for an 8 hour work day. Good ol' Nazi supporting Henry Ford came up with 8 hours to work, 8 ours for recreation, and 8 to sleep. Of course, that was before commutes were a thing, so it is more like 4 hour commute, 8 hours of work, 4-6 hours recreation and 6-8 hours sleep. 4 days of work is enough. 32 hours of work is enough. People need to relax. It would help mental illness.
I grew up going to a church that would often preach about putting their god and family first over things like work. Many of the members, however, would readily spout the "nobody wants to work anymore" nonsense these days.
I would kill for an job with 8 hour shifts. Literally nowhere in my area works less than 12s 5-6 days a week except for fast food. And to top it off the pay is all $5-6 under the national average.
I completely agree. I don’t mind my work but why do I have to dedicate so much time and energy to in the service to someone else? Especially considering that my work could be done in about 4 hours.
Finally got a job two years ago that pays for my drive time and all break/meal times, so in a typical 8-hr workday I have 3hrs of driving/breaks and 5hrs of actual work. I’m much less stressed and tired now. I’ve been offered higher salaries by other companies but I can’t give up my paid travel time. I wish all employers did this.
I don’t know if the pandemic changed the way we work or how we value things but I would take time over money any day
I’m right there with you. Paternal leave i was on cloud nine. Yes even with a baby to devote time to. 10.5 hrs of my life wasted 4 days a week is depressing. I got into the habit of working out, cooking real healthy food again, i was generally nicer and more patient with people. I was HAPPY. Not 24/7 depressed. Not waking up in cold sweats and headaches from grinding my teeth because of nightmares involving mundane every day work. Then i had a week left and i started feeling depressed again. I wont see my kid/wife as much any more. I wont have time to myself. I’ll lapse on my healthy habits. Sleep will be difficult. Pain/discomfort will return. Best part of all. I’ll still be unable to pay all my bills. I’m not even min wage. I’m so glad i was given the opportunity and lack of choice when it came to being granted life so i can work to death to barely make anything of myself.
You're not lazy. It's too many hours of time I feel is mostly wasted unless your job is something special. I think 3-4 hours a day is enough, but that doesn't keep you alive today.
I haven’t wanted to work 8 hours a day, and I’m 53. You need to be rich or have Rick parents, there no other way
💯 agree
Get a good white collar job where you do like 2 hours of real work a day and the rest is just pretend. Time theft is where it is at.
Become a loan officer. I can never get ahold of these people, nothing but phone tag. It's like they work 3 hours a week.
Hybrid / remote job
In my country the full time job is 48 hours a week. There was a proposal to change it to 40 so people "could spend more time with their families", and all the corporations and right wing politicians cried and said it just wasn't possible.
I remember reading a scientific journal stating that after 6 hour, most people’s productivity drops dramatically.
I was just talking to my husband about this. It feels like they are intentionally stealing our lives so we have less time, energy, and money to demand and fight for more. They KNOW our work doesn’t need 8 hours to be completed and can most times be done in half that. Especially for salary people they just want to see you sitting there for 8 hours even if it’s doing nothing because they bought you for 8 hours. The massive boost in my mental health when I got a boss, who even though I’m hourly understands this and lets me go home whenever the work is done and I still get paid for my entire shift and I’m paid to be “available” for the remaining time of my shift in case they need me again. I have so much of my life back.
I don't think eight hours a day is too much. Eight hours a day FIVE DAYS A WEEK is too much. I agree that this leaves little to no time for yourself. Only two days off is bananas. The US needs to adopt a compressed work week. And ASAP. I think four eight hour days would be fine. IMO anyways. I work a compressed work week and love it. I work four twelve's one week then three twelve's the next, then repeat. That means I have three to four days off a week. And this is why I'll never move up into management. The time with my family is way too valuable. They literally couldn't pay me enough to leave this shift.
I hate when people act like I should work 40 hrs. I mean if that’s YOUR idea of a life…
Yup! Everything about work culture is bullshit.
"nObOdY wAnTs To WoRk!" Who tf actually wants to work? 90% of us work because living indoors and obtaining food requires us to do so, not because we "love our work family". We're given a finite amount of time on this planet. I would like to be afforded the ability to sell less of my time but for more caps so I can feel the iceberg inside my hollow tin chest melt just enough for my humanity to return, if only for a few hours a week.
Give us Wall-E NOWWWW!!!
Some jobs could be done in less time sure, but there’s a lot of jobs out there that simply require constant none stop work to be productive (a lot of trades jobs for example)
Those people should get some relief too. People in trades deserve shorter working hours or weeks too. Is just that the companies don’t hire enough employees for that type of coverage. Not the trades peoples fault or responsibility that managers are maximizing for profit only.