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My understanding is that the 40 hour work week (and similar) was talked about for centuries by workers groups but only became a thing once governments during WW
by _heimdall 1y ago
My understanding is that the 40 hour work week (and similar) was talked about for centuries by workers groups but only became a thing once governments during WWI found that longer days didn't necessarily increase output proportionally.
For a 4 day week to really happen st scale, I'd expect we similarly need the government to decide to roll it out rather than workers groups pushing it from the bottom up.
- throw0101d 1y ago> My understanding is that the 40 hour work week (and similar) was talked about for […] See perhaps: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day_movement Generally it only really started being talked about when "workers" became a thing, specifically with the Industrial Revolution. Before that a good portion of work was either agricultural or domestic, so talk of 'shifts' didn't really make much sense.
- _heimdall 1y agoOh sure, a standard shift doesn't make much sense unless you're an employee. My point was specifically about the 40 hour standard we use now though. We didn't get a 40-hour week because workers demanded it, we got it because wartime governments decided that was the "right" balance of labor and output.