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I'd like to believe we're hitting a productivity limit, but I'm skeptical. Historically, we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure a
by d4nt 16y ago
I'd like to believe we're hitting a productivity limit, but I'm skeptical. Historically, we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors.
I guess what is different is that we've automated lots of mechanical/clerical tasks like finding a file, duplicating and delivering a memo or compiling a report. Executives used to need a large staff to do that for them but there are fewer jobs like that now. In a way, we've all become executives. And to operate at that level can be draining, especially if you're not doing something you love because it takes much more emotional investment.
- grammaton 16y ago>we still work shorter hours, take more holidays and have more leasure activity than our ancestors No, we don't. Peruse any study on this subject by a reputable researcher - we actually work far more hours and have much less leisure time than almost any point in prior history (the notable exception perhaps being the end of the 19th century).
- colomon 16y agoCan you back this up with any sort of citation?
- grammaton 16y agoFor a good overview: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w... Which is a summary of http://books.google.com/books?id=E1clEkV_1w8C http://books.google.com/books?id=E1clEkV_1w8C for a more thorough treatment: http://books.google.es/books?id=APYDRo_ATicC http://books.google.es/books?id=APYDRo_ATicC Or "Man's Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State" Or (and I do not intend this as sarcasm, please understand) just about any introductory anthropology textbook. Also - and I truly wish I could find the link, but it's buried somewhere in my delicious account - there is an excellent article out there about how workers in agrarian France basically screwed off for six months at a time once the growing season was over and winter came around - the literally spent most of their time just sleeping!
- d4nt 16y agoApologies, I stand corrected. But people used to work 6 days a week with no paid vacation time. What about all the slaves who worked 16 hour days. All those children in factories or down mines, are all those hours being factored in?