The 40 hour work week. Most of my career, I’ve heard folks talking about doing-away-with-it. I’ve even had discussions with colleagues about any differences between “putting-in 40 hours” vs “actual productive time”. Like “hey, if I can get my work done in 30 hours, then why do I have to fill a chair or punch a clock (or whatever) to fill 40? Maybe I’m more productive than others and I can complete my work in 30 or 25 or whatever.” (they say that, not me)
Alright, let’s consider this concept for a moment, and how it would work: You are assigned some work, and you just have to get it done. If it takes 40 or 30 or 50, it is what it is. Obviously, employees and management are guaranteed to disagree about “the right amount of work” in a week. Since the goal is to trade 1-week’s work for 1-week’s pay, then it creates an incentive for you to work-as-little-as-possible, and management has an incentive to squeeze more work from you. You both want the best value, and you both have incentives, but not because of money now. In this model, the amount of money won’t change because of the volume/quantity or quality of work. It is only “I got my work done”.
Really, if you think about it, in this sort of employment/work model, employees would be working more-like contractors than employees. Folks bid for work, negotiate a price/hours, and fulfil that obligation, however-long that takes. The concept sounds nice, but again, it goes-back-to negotiating for the best deal. When I owned my own company, I did this all-of-the-time. There was a lot of learning (on my part), (as-in: hard lessons-learned). A few of my customers were really honest and I reciprocated. I loved working with them and gave them my preferred time and priority. Other customers were pretty shrewd. I was glad when I was done working with them, because they left me feeling overworked and underpaid. Work like that is what eventually motivated me to get out of that role. I’m just not the kind of person who will prosper in that kind of model. I’m not sure I want to be, either.
What if you get a work-arrangement like that? Except, imagine you only have one customer: your employer. If they are more-shrewd than you, you may find yourself getting a bad deal, and feeling over-worked. Could you re-negotiate for fewer hours for less pay? Maybe. That would be some remarkable honesty. Not impossible, but remarkable for sure. In social media, I see a lot of people who threaten to leave, or resort to some passive-aggressive behaviors. Honestly, in my mind, this is how I would expect this sort of thing to turn bad. I’m not an optimist when it comes to business and management. I don’t mean that in a rude or mean way. This is how business works most of the time.
So yeah. Death of the 40 hour work week might sound nice. If you are only interested in less-work, and not interested in advancement, pay, recognition, responsibility, career-path stuff, then sure. Easy peasy. However, if you want “a little more” someday, then take a moment to think about what you are trading and if you really want to get the half-empty part of the glass.
Aah, the pain of being an elitist 