Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Some think the 40-hour work week is a scam and we'd be better off with a shorter work week. They can't figure out why, despite studies showing productivity increases with shorter hours, we still work longer hours.
We almost had a shorter work day, but a variety of factors colluded to return to a longer work day. Unions wanted overtime pay more than productivity bonuses, people didn't know what to do with the extra time, and shorter hours were feminized, so what we might now call toxic masculinity suppressed shorter hours. More leisure lost to more consumption, and a collective desire to work longer hours to support that consumption.
If I would sum it up, it's a sort of tragedy of the commons. Collectively, a shorter work week would probably be better for us, but on the individual level, there are always louder voices who will push for measures that won't work without a longer work week.
#readingrecommendations #bookrecommendations #readingrecs #bookrecs #bookreview #bookreviews #bookreviewer #nonfictionbooks Kellogg's Six-Hour Day (Labor And Social Change) by Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt
Some think the 40-hour work week is a scam and we'd be better off with a shorter work week. They can't figure out why, despite studies showing productivity increases with shorter hours, we still work longer hours.
We almost had a shorter work day, but a variety of factors colluded to return to a longer work day. Unions wanted overtime pay more than productivity bonuses, people didn't know what to do with the extra time, and shorter hours were feminized, so what we might now call toxic masculinity suppressed shorter hours. More leisure lost to more consumption, and a collective desire to work longer hours to support that consumption.
If I would sum it up, it's a sort of tragedy of the commons. Collectively, a shorter work week would probably be better for us, but on the individual level, there are always louder voices who will push for measures that won't work without a longer work week.
#readingrecommendations #bookrecommendations #readingrecs #bookrecs #bookreview #bookreviews #bookreviewer #nonfictionbooks Kellogg's Six-Hour Day (Labor And Social Change) by Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt
