3 ms·

Does anyone know what is special about 30 instead of 40? If 30 is better than 40, why not a 10 or 5 hour workweek?

• xnorswap 2y ago
  That's trite. You could make that argument in reverse, why not a 50 hour or 60 hour week?
• blitzar 2y ago
  It's not linear, and the curve is not the same for all people and tasks.
• lm28469 2y ago
  I always find it fascinating when the very people oppressed by the system defend it with these kinds of comments. Is there anything special about working 5 days a week ? Why not 7 days like we had back in the good ol days ? And what about kids ? They use to work at 10 years old now they just sit on their asses until 18+... Do we even need or want vacation days ? Think about the productivity !!!
  • blitzar 2y ago
    Did you know the average human spends 2,555 hours a year sleeping? In a country like America that is 851,581,500,000 hours wasted. Think about the productivity !!! There is commuting to and from work - but we can't optimise that one out ...
    • sidpatil 2y ago
      > There is commuting to and from work - but we can't optimise that one out ... Remote work, building housing that's closer to the office, high-speed public transit, etc.
  • adolph 2y ago
    Ok, you know of nothing significant about 30 rather than 40.
    • lm28469 2y ago
      Have you tried it ? I worked part time for years (32 hours instead of 40), it's a completely different lifestyle. I had my wednesday off which meant I never worked more than two days in a row, when you go back to full time it's definitely significant, more than you would expect
• maximus-decimus 2y ago
  well 37.5 hours to 30 hours is 5 days a week to 4 days a week. You work 20% less but get 50% more off days, sounds like a great deal. 4 to 3 days, your productivity would go down 25%, and your vacation up 33% (3 to 4 days), so it's still interesting I guess but seems more balanced. 3 to 2 days, your productivity would go down 33%, but you only get 25% more off days (4 to 5 days). My incredibly scientific analysis says that it would make sense down to 3 days a week, or 22.5 hours, but not so much after that.
  • vundercind 2y ago
    Marginal utility of time off, perhaps.
• Phemist 2y ago
  Sounds like an interesting concept, a "work as you please" approach where compensation is unrelated to your hours worked (and ofcourse it being at least some livable amount).
• ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
  The old slogan was 8 hours work, 8 hours rest, 8 hours for leisure
  • dunefox 2y ago
    Which is of course complete nonsense and just not the case in practice.
• dunefox 2y ago
  > Does anyone know what is special about 30 instead of 40? It's special because that's not 40 hours. More free time.