4 ms·

The solution is healther, more balanced workweeks for everyone. Why do some even feel the need to have such a strong opinion on what "balance" means to differe

by crusso 14y ago

The solution is healther, more balanced workweeks for everyone. Why do some even feel the need to have such a strong opinion on what "balance" means to different people and where they draw that line? If you want more money and financial success, focus on your work. If you want more attention to your parenting and to devote more time to parental interaction, then focus more time on your family life. The idea that we're going to decide as a society what a "balanced workweek" is and what that balance means between parents is alien to me. It's a topic that's so subjective and so based upon individual goals, situations, and preferences that to discuss it in the aggregate is meaningless. Worse, once people start talking about having a "balanced workweek" or a "living wage", the next step always seems to be, "Well now we need to legislate a lowest-common-denominator norm."

josephlord 14y ago
On the other hand unhealthy unproductive competition to work the longest doesn't do anybody any good at all. Sometimes individual incentives don't lead to the best societal outcome and it can be beneficial to try to change the situation by setting examples, incentives or even sometimes with rules.
- crusso 14y ago
  On the other hand unhealthy unproductive competition to work the longest doesn't do anybody any good at all. It's normally preferable to let the market sort out what is unproductive and what isn't. If you're running a company and overworking your employees, then you leave yourself open to a competitor who better optimizes worker productivity by being smarter about hours worked. You'll also risk having your employees leave if they don't like the working conditions. Rather than have a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats make a bunch of rules based upon their normal levels of incompetence and lack of knowledge, I'd rather let smaller groups of people and companies determine what works for them.
  - akldfgj 14y ago
    Overworked miserable people caught in rat race can be highly productive and contribute to successful businesss. That doesn't mean they are happy.
lmm 14y ago
Without legislation we'd all be on 16-hour days. Like it or not, employment is not an equal partnership between free agents.
- crusso 14y ago
  That's simply not true. In some hourly paid positions in some locales, there are mandated overtime pay rates, but salaried employees have no per-day hour maximums. The fact is that employers don't work their employees 16 hours per day because it's counterproductive and employees would go find employers who didn't work them so hard if they tried.
  - AkThhhpppt 14y ago
    Well, history says different, and how things actually happened tends to have more weight than theoretical speculation about a perfect employment market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day

by crusso 14y ago

josephlord 14y ago

On the other hand unhealthy unproductive competition to work the longest doesn't do anybody any good at all. Sometimes individual incentives don't lead to the best societal outcome and it can be beneficial to try to change the situation by setting examples, incentives or even sometimes with rules.

crusso 14y ago
On the other hand unhealthy unproductive competition to work the longest doesn't do anybody any good at all. It's normally preferable to let the market sort out what is unproductive and what isn't. If you're running a company and overworking your employees, then you leave yourself open to a competitor who better optimizes worker productivity by being smarter about hours worked. You'll also risk having your employees leave if they don't like the working conditions. Rather than have a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats make a bunch of rules based upon their normal levels of incompetence and lack of knowledge, I'd rather let smaller groups of people and companies determine what works for them.
- akldfgj 14y ago
  Overworked miserable people caught in rat race can be highly productive and contribute to successful businesss. That doesn't mean they are happy.

lmm 14y ago

Without legislation we'd all be on 16-hour days. Like it or not, employment is not an equal partnership between free agents.

crusso 14y ago
That's simply not true. In some hourly paid positions in some locales, there are mandated overtime pay rates, but salaried employees have no per-day hour maximums. The fact is that employers don't work their employees 16 hours per day because it's counterproductive and employees would go find employers who didn't work them so hard if they tried.
- AkThhhpppt 14y ago
  Well, history says different, and how things actually happened tends to have more weight than theoretical speculation about a perfect employment market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day