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Google Founders Talk About Ending the 40-Hour Work Week

35 points by riaface 12y ago

ph0rque 12y ago
Meanwhile, Google engineers work an average of 50 hours a week: http://www.quora.com/Google/How-many-hours-a-week-does-a-typical-Google-engineer-work?share=1 http://www.quora.com/Google/How-many-hours-a-week-does-a-typ...
- DannyBee 12y ago
  Errr, based on one 4 year old data point and a guy that says "there is very high variance"?
  - ph0rque 12y ago
    I'd love to see current and better data for how many hours full-time Google employees work per week.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- thewarrior 12y ago
  Well atleast they're extremely well paid. Try working at an IT services company in india :)
rancar2 12y ago
Page supported this view while Brin disagreed with Page. As such, the title of the original article and its body are misleading. Below are links to [1] the point in time of the conversation referenced in the article and [2] the original discussion of this interview on Hacker News. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnp_7atZ0M&t=17m34s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnp_7atZ0M&t=17m34s [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7992795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7992795
2pasc 12y ago
France did that (the infamous "35-hour work week") in 2000. This has proven to be a disaster on multiple counts: - it created a mess in public hospitals where it completely screwed up the organization of shifts for nurses and doctors and lead to French hospitals decline - it benefitted profesionals and middle managers who got more vacation with maintained good wages - it ended up being horrendous to people with lower paid jobs as it became an opportunity for their wages to compress. It lead to a significant stagnation of wages among lower class workers, and eventually their impoverishment. I am actually surprised and disappointed that some of the smartest minds of our generation think that the best way to solve long term unemployment is to reduce the work week hours...
- chippy 12y ago
  If you extend SV from it's hippy origins the ultimate aim for people is full time unemployment. People shouldn't have to work, the argument goes, if we have the ideal place to live in.
- seren 12y ago
  You're right on all counts, however Google employees are most likely not low wages worker, and do not have complex and long shifts as hospital workers. I don't think that giving them more free time to recharge/replenish their energy would lead to the collapse of Google. And it is a bit different if it is a mandatory reduction of the work week at the federal level, and an experimentation by a company. If Google feels like they would benefit from it, they are free to try and report their findings.
  - 2pasc 12y ago
    Sure. But Larry Page was not referring to Google employees reducing their hours, but everybody else.
- clavalle 12y ago
  Sounds more like a cluster of tactical problems that can be solved individually than an overall strategic failure. I don't think it is a matter of the smartest minds of our generation trying to solve long term unemployment, but rather solving the problem of human effectiveness and happiness. The idea is that we don't have to waste peoples lives on everlasting drudge work. We've created this economic system collectively. We can change it. We have before. Around 1900 we were, on average, paying 40% of our wages for food and working a hell of a lot of hours to do it, mostly with farm work. Now we pay an average of 6% of our wages for food and work around 40 hours a week to do it. It is better than it was and there is no reason it can't get better still. There are people who will still work a lot -- I'm sure I'll be one of them, but we shouldn't really have to with how productive we are per capita and how truly cheap it is for people to live.
chippy 12y ago
I'm sure the founders would say "well 20% time of five days is a whole day" and say that the engineers therefore work a 4 day week already...
sxp 12y ago
There is also a transcript if you don't want to spend time watching the video: http://www.khoslaventures.com/fireside-chat-with-google-co-founders-larry-page-and-sergey-brin http://www.khoslaventures.com/fireside-chat-with-google-co-f...
xienze 12y ago
The cynic in me sees this as a way that Google could e.g., pay someone 80% for an "official" 4 day work week knowing full well that the competitive types working for them will end up pushing themselves into a typical 5/40 work week (and beyond) anyway.

35 points by riaface 12y ago

Meanwhile, Google engineers work an average of 50 hours a week: http://www.quora.com/Google/How-many-hours-a-week-does-a-typical-Google-engineer-work?share=1 http://www.quora.com/Google/How-many-hours-a-week-does-a-typ...

DannyBee 12y ago
Errr, based on one 4 year old data point and a guy that says "there is very high variance"?
- ph0rque 12y ago
  I'd love to see current and better data for how many hours full-time Google employees work per week.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
thewarrior 12y ago
Well atleast they're extremely well paid. Try working at an IT services company in india :)

rancar2 12y ago

Page supported this view while Brin disagreed with Page. As such, the title of the original article and its body are misleading. Below are links to [1] the point in time of the conversation referenced in the article and [2] the original discussion of this interview on Hacker News. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnp_7atZ0M&t=17m34s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnp_7atZ0M&t=17m34s [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7992795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7992795

2pasc 12y ago

France did that (the infamous "35-hour work week") in 2000. This has proven to be a disaster on multiple counts: - it created a mess in public hospitals where it completely screwed up the organization of shifts for nurses and doctors and lead to French hospitals decline - it benefitted profesionals and middle managers who got more vacation with maintained good wages - it ended up being horrendous to people with lower paid jobs as it became an opportunity for their wages to compress. It lead to a significant stagnation of wages among lower class workers, and eventually their impoverishment. I am actually surprised and disappointed that some of the smartest minds of our generation think that the best way to solve long term unemployment is to reduce the work week hours...

chippy 12y ago
If you extend SV from it's hippy origins the ultimate aim for people is full time unemployment. People shouldn't have to work, the argument goes, if we have the ideal place to live in.
seren 12y ago
You're right on all counts, however Google employees are most likely not low wages worker, and do not have complex and long shifts as hospital workers. I don't think that giving them more free time to recharge/replenish their energy would lead to the collapse of Google. And it is a bit different if it is a mandatory reduction of the work week at the federal level, and an experimentation by a company. If Google feels like they would benefit from it, they are free to try and report their findings.
- 2pasc 12y ago
  Sure. But Larry Page was not referring to Google employees reducing their hours, but everybody else.
clavalle 12y ago
Sounds more like a cluster of tactical problems that can be solved individually than an overall strategic failure. I don't think it is a matter of the smartest minds of our generation trying to solve long term unemployment, but rather solving the problem of human effectiveness and happiness. The idea is that we don't have to waste peoples lives on everlasting drudge work. We've created this economic system collectively. We can change it. We have before. Around 1900 we were, on average, paying 40% of our wages for food and working a hell of a lot of hours to do it, mostly with farm work. Now we pay an average of 6% of our wages for food and work around 40 hours a week to do it. It is better than it was and there is no reason it can't get better still. There are people who will still work a lot -- I'm sure I'll be one of them, but we shouldn't really have to with how productive we are per capita and how truly cheap it is for people to live.

chippy 12y ago

I'm sure the founders would say "well 20% time of five days is a whole day" and say that the engineers therefore work a 4 day week already...

sxp 12y ago

There is also a transcript if you don't want to spend time watching the video: http://www.khoslaventures.com/fireside-chat-with-google-co-founders-larry-page-and-sergey-brin http://www.khoslaventures.com/fireside-chat-with-google-co-f...

xienze 12y ago

The cynic in me sees this as a way that Google could e.g., pay someone 80% for an "official" 4 day work week knowing full well that the competitive types working for them will end up pushing themselves into a typical 5/40 work week (and beyond) anyway.