Author: Matthew Davis / Source: Big Think
- Is it time to rethink how we work?
- Research has shown that we both work more than is good for our health and more than is useful.
- Numerous companies and countries have implemented 35-, 30-, and even 25-hour workweeks.
It’s a little after lunch, and your struggling to keep your eyes open.
Most of the important work in the day you finished in the morning. Sure, you could probably scrounge up something to do, but there are no pressing deadlines. Instead, you spend the second half of your workday switching between windows on your computer; maybe a spreadsheet for when your manager walks by, and maybe an article that’s grabbed your attention (like this one).It’s more common than you think. The average worker spends a little under three hours a day doing actual work, and the rest of the time they chat with coworkers, look for a new job, check social media, read news websites, and a number of other things that aren’t really all that productive.
Turns out, we’ve been expecting something like this to happen for nearly a century. In the 1930s, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandchildren would be working just 15 hours a week. Because of our advances in technology, we would be able to do in 15 hours what a 1930s employee could do in 40. Therefore, we’d have more time for leisure.
Sounds like he was on the money, right? The average worker really does only work about three hours a day, five days a week. Well, Keynes thought that we’d work a full day Monday and Tuesday, and the rest of the time we’d spend doing whatever we wanted. That didn’t happen. Instead, we’re trapped in offices, not exactly working, but not exactly relaxing either.
Working ourselves to death
(Photo by Jorge Gonzalez via Flickr)
A Japanese office worker sleeps at a restaurant. Death from overwork in Japan is so common, they had to invent a word for it: karoshi.
According to an analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Americans — often described as excessively hard workers — spend about 1,780 hours working a year, or at least we spend that much time in the office. However, we’re dwarfed by South Koreans, who work 2,069 hours a year. South Koreans are in turn dwarfed by Mexicans, who work 2,225 hours a year….
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