Work Hours

In general, working hours have reduced as you make your way closer to the modern era. In Ancient societies, the lower class and slaves were forced to work for long hours with no breaks. In medieval times, peasants had to work long hours, often every hour the sun was in the sky, just to survive. An outlier to this trend in working reduction is during the industrial revolution when work was drastically increased. Workers often worked between 70-110 hours a week, but luckily many regulations have been put in place to allow for less exploitation of workers.

The standard workweek around the world is typically about 40 hours, this may differ depending on the country or industry. We often also have the added premium of mandated breaks and holidays. Now we are reaching a point where automation can take a lot of work off of our shoulders, is it time to reduce our work hours once again? A four-day work week I being talked about and tested, and with the rising issue of unemployment, this could open up more jobs for people. If we redistribute the available work, this can provide more job opportunities.

Automation isn’t the only driving factor for this reduction in work. It is found to increase productivity, as workers have more time to recharge and pursue their passions. With a happier employee, job satisfaction and retention will only increase. If these tests are successful, we may see widespread adoption of the four-day workweek. Turns out if your employees are happy and less stressed, and allowed to have more free time, they’ll be more productive and in turn, the business will be too.