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Finland's prime minister wants her country on a four-day workweek

9 points by laurex 7y ago

Gravityloss 7y ago
Misleading headline. Interesting how this has spread.
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Perhaps it spreads because that’s what workers want? No one regrets working too little when they die, only that they didn’t spend more time with loved ones. The point of life is not to work.
  - PunchTornado 7y ago
    or travel, or reading more books, or playing more sports, or being more adventurous. Not everyone wants to spend more time with their family.
  - kmlx 7y ago
    > The point of life is not to work. maybe where you're from. where i'm from you need to work your ass off 24/7 so that you and your kids have a chance at a normal life. and work itself is a thing of beauty. the discipline and the ethics that it should entail is something that i've seen lacking in western culture recently.
  - the_af 7y ago
    > "No one regrets working too little when they die" Or to quote the always amusing Savage Chickens [1], "Years from now, when I'm on my deathbed, will I look back on my life and say 'gosh, I really wish I had put in more overtime'?". [1] https://twitter.com/savagechickens/status/922563259894439937 https://twitter.com/savagechickens/status/922563259894439937
    - reroute1 7y ago
      Aye fight and you may die. Run and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, Just One Chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take.. OUR FREEDOM
Bostonian 7y ago
Besides being coercive and wrong, this law is unenforceable when applied to work such as programming that can be done at home. If a 4-day workweek law were passed, it's likely that salaries would fall and that many people would do unpaid work on their day off.
- BiteCode_dev 7y ago
  I heard this argument for the 35h work week in France. 10 years later, it proved baseless.
  - kmlx 7y ago
    uh, not sure that using france as an example is smart as france has been a laggard in terms of economic performance for the past decade. this meant it being basically leapfrogged by a number of countries from across the world. end result? better quality of life, better infrastructure, etc etc outside of france than inside.
    - BiteCode_dev 7y ago
      I live there. I've lived in many other countries as well. And I keep traveling. I experienced the total opposite of your comment. I've seen the road in the US. I've seen the health care in the UK. I've seen the internet in Spain. I've seen the cost of life in Switzerland. Heck, I've worked in Asia and Africa. There are not a lot of countries where life felt as good as in France: germany, sweden, etc. There are also not a lot of countries where people complain more than the French. It's a national sport.
      - klarstrup 7y ago
        > There are also not a lot of countries where people complain more than the French. It's a national sport. Sounds like it's working
        BiteCode_dev 7y ago
achtung82 7y ago
No, a more correct article would say: Finlands Prime minister discussed a 4 day week several years ago, before she was prime minister but hasnt mentioned it as part of any political program since she became prime minister.
- nindwen 7y ago
  See also: https://newsnowfinland.fi/politics/how-finlands-fake-four-day-week-became-a-fact-in-europes-media https://newsnowfinland.fi/politics/how-finlands-fake-four-da...
jks 7y ago
Misleading: see https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/govt_corrects_inaccurate_reports_on_finnish_pms_alleged_4-day_work_week/11146856 https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/govt_corrects_inaccurate_...
sna1l 7y ago
Sweden ran an experiment with 6 hour days (on nurses) and it ended up having some productivity boosts but cost too much ($1.3m USD). I'm curious if they tried this for an industry where the employee does not have to be physically present for all hours such as a nurse does how it would differ in terms of cost. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38843341 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38843341
popup21 7y ago
Not surprising coming from a country that allegedly thinks low expectations are the route to happiness. Why stop at four days? Take it down to four hours and have T. Ferriss as a consultant.
knbknb 7y ago
It's a vision, not a plan.

9 points by laurex 7y ago

Gravityloss 7y ago

Misleading headline. Interesting how this has spread.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
Perhaps it spreads because that’s what workers want? No one regrets working too little when they die, only that they didn’t spend more time with loved ones. The point of life is not to work.
- PunchTornado 7y ago
  or travel, or reading more books, or playing more sports, or being more adventurous. Not everyone wants to spend more time with their family.
- kmlx 7y ago
  > The point of life is not to work. maybe where you're from. where i'm from you need to work your ass off 24/7 so that you and your kids have a chance at a normal life. and work itself is a thing of beauty. the discipline and the ethics that it should entail is something that i've seen lacking in western culture recently.
- the_af 7y ago
  > "No one regrets working too little when they die" Or to quote the always amusing Savage Chickens [1], "Years from now, when I'm on my deathbed, will I look back on my life and say 'gosh, I really wish I had put in more overtime'?". [1] https://twitter.com/savagechickens/status/922563259894439937 https://twitter.com/savagechickens/status/922563259894439937
  - reroute1 7y ago
    Aye fight and you may die. Run and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, Just One Chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take.. OUR FREEDOM

Bostonian 7y ago

Besides being coercive and wrong, this law is unenforceable when applied to work such as programming that can be done at home. If a 4-day workweek law were passed, it's likely that salaries would fall and that many people would do unpaid work on their day off.

BiteCode_dev 7y ago
I heard this argument for the 35h work week in France. 10 years later, it proved baseless.
- kmlx 7y ago
  uh, not sure that using france as an example is smart as france has been a laggard in terms of economic performance for the past decade. this meant it being basically leapfrogged by a number of countries from across the world. end result? better quality of life, better infrastructure, etc etc outside of france than inside.
  - BiteCode_dev 7y ago
    I live there. I've lived in many other countries as well. And I keep traveling. I experienced the total opposite of your comment. I've seen the road in the US. I've seen the health care in the UK. I've seen the internet in Spain. I've seen the cost of life in Switzerland. Heck, I've worked in Asia and Africa. There are not a lot of countries where life felt as good as in France: germany, sweden, etc. There are also not a lot of countries where people complain more than the French. It's a national sport.
    - klarstrup 7y ago
      > There are also not a lot of countries where people complain more than the French. It's a national sport. Sounds like it's working
      - BiteCode_dev 7y ago

achtung82 7y ago

No, a more correct article would say: Finlands Prime minister discussed a 4 day week several years ago, before she was prime minister but hasnt mentioned it as part of any political program since she became prime minister.

nindwen 7y ago
See also: https://newsnowfinland.fi/politics/how-finlands-fake-four-day-week-became-a-fact-in-europes-media https://newsnowfinland.fi/politics/how-finlands-fake-four-da...

jks 7y ago

Misleading: see https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/govt_corrects_inaccurate_reports_on_finnish_pms_alleged_4-day_work_week/11146856 https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/govt_corrects_inaccurate_...

sna1l 7y ago

Sweden ran an experiment with 6 hour days (on nurses) and it ended up having some productivity boosts but cost too much ($1.3m USD). I'm curious if they tried this for an industry where the employee does not have to be physically present for all hours such as a nurse does how it would differ in terms of cost. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38843341 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38843341

popup21 7y ago

Not surprising coming from a country that allegedly thinks low expectations are the route to happiness. Why stop at four days? Take it down to four hours and have T. Ferriss as a consultant.

knbknb 7y ago

It's a vision, not a plan.