According to Sunday’s New York Times, the slowing economy is producing forced time off such as furloughs and shorter work weeks, but many think that once past this recession, it could be good for America (“An Economic Slowdown That May Slow Us Down” by Shaila Dewan). Why are we so stuck on our “competitive consumption, high-hours economy” which has resulted in a diminished lifestyle for most Americans? John de Graaf , author of “Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America” notes that “the average American labors 350 more hours per year than his western European counterpart.”
“With their long vacations and far shorter working hours, Europeans are consistently far healthier than Americans – after the age of 50, they are only about half as likely to suffer from chronic illnesses such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and even cancer. They are only half as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, and they spend only half as much on average as we do for health care. Studies show their better health results from more exercise, more socializing with friends and families, less stress, and more sleep; all of these are made possible by having more time.”
In the article, Professor Benjamin Hunnicutt explains our resistance to working less may be cultural – that after the Depression and WWII, companies positioned work, not families, as the center of life and, “Men began to identify strongly with ‘full-time work’ – this is what real men do and if you don’t center your life on the job, you can’t lay claim to your masculinity.”
On CNN this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was exploring the lack of recess in schools (not enough time or money) resulting in more obesity and poor concentration in children. Maybe this is the moment to rethink and reclaim our down time – the three-day weekend is sounding very good, even on a leaner paycheck.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
http://www.fivedayweekend.org/
overlaping work weeks and weekends. makes sense.
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
America is faced with not enough jobs for its population. We could easily fix that by limiting the work-week to 35 hours thus creating a new position for every 7 currently employed. The health savings and societal capital built through doing this would be tremendous.
March 4th, 2009 at 12:03 am
This is a really good article. I’ve long thought that the American obsession with work is unhealthy in the extreme, even physically so.
It’s not the 40 hour work-week that bothers me as much as it is the sheer volume of people working 45, 50, 55, or 60 hours a week. That’s not a life, that’s just existence.
Plus, there’s few people on their deathbed who say “I wish I’d put in more hours at work” or “I wish I’d got that promotion.” No, people say “I wish I’d seen my kids grow up.” or “I wish I had more time to spend with my friends and family.”
I saw a study not too long ago that had Americans working the longest hours IN THE WORLD, even more than the stereotypical workaholic Japanese.
When we’re working more hours than Japan and getting less for it, something is definitely rotten.
March 4th, 2009 at 3:58 am
Justin,
France tried a 35 hour week. The government has recently abolished it because it didn’t create the jobs that you suggest it should create.
Employers don’t employ more staff because the on-costs of hiring a new employee to fill the 35 “saved” hours are more than employing existing staff to work the hours that are meant to be saved.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:32 am
You are right, the 40-hour work week is obsolete. The distinction between ‘work-time’ and ‘me-time’ is obsolete, at least for the creative class.
If you do creative work, there should be no meaningful distinction between what you love and what you do for a living. If you’re up to 80 hours ‘on the clock’ than do it that week. Then go do something else to recharge your batteries.
The fact is in a competitive world, if Ms. Berryman only wants to dedicate 35 hours to Mr. Florida’s enterprise here, I (among others) would be happy to give it 70 if adequately compensated.
March 4th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
In a competitive world, a person from a third world country would be glad to do it for a tenth of what any of us would do it for, so, no.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am
There has never been a 40 hour work week for me. I think the whole concept behind the “creative class” is the fact that working isn’t being done for time but for the end result.
I, for one, work until I’ve completed a project, or have fulfilled a concept that I might have been thinking about, no matter how many hours it takes.
40 is but a number. It really doesn’t matter. If you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll “work” day+night.
People in general just need to be creatively stimulated at a younger age and create arts+dance classes as if it’s social, sciene or english. Create some free thinkers rather than production personel for an industrial age. Once the creativity is stimulated, people can see that making a career out of something you love doing, whether it starts as a hobby or not, is completely doable and at that point, time is merely an illusion.
The result: happy people, busy with passion.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
I do think it’s strange that even though technology has advanced to the point that human labor has, in many instances, become obsolete, we still haven’t gotten past the 40-hour work week. The result is that with this recession many people continue to work a full work week whereas many who are willing to work simply cannot find employment at all. We should be implementing a 20-hour work week subsidized by taxes on the ruling class. Regulation such as this would have a positive effect on society if implemented across the board.
March 24th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
We should totally lengthen the day to 9 hours and go to a 4 day week. It would save tons of gas. Some people travel 2 hours to and from work, so it would knock off an additional 4 hours of travel time for them each week.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Hi John,
Thanks for your post! As much as I’d love a four-day workweek and agree it is really smart/necessary on so many levels, it just doesn’t work for a retail situation like mine. I’m fending off the7-day workweek!
Best,
Nisi Berryman