Since Americans spend so much time at work malingering, wouldn't it make sense to cut back the work week?

Question

From 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, to 4 days a week, 6 hours a day, and present electronic obstacles to malingering such as having the work come up, and with a studied amount of time to resolve it and be paid beased on productivity, and accuracy. And as we continue our journey into a Brave New World, should not our ultimate goal be that people don't have to work, except out of there homes, and do only the work they want to do? I hope a century from now, we will be a planet of leisure, contemplation, and art. We are a highly intelligent and clever species and thus should not have to do any work we don't want to do!

Answer 1

We lose trillions every year due to people socializing on the job.
They won't like this, but it's because work is all the life many have. That's why when they are at work, they play. And when
the get off, they talk about work. And they say I'm boring.

Answer 2

I hope you're right in your hopes for the future. That's the nicest future aspiration I've heard in a while. All that's out there right now is "I hope we don't die of global warming/starvation/lack of freshwater/world war!"

Anyhoo, I've thought about this too. I see it as possible if EVERYONE followed through. Yes, we would have to deal with things such as not being able to go to the supermarket at 11 pm. But everyone could enjoy a little bit more leisure time.

In practice, I don't think it would work as easily. There will always be those whose goal is money and production over personal leisure (because when they get a certain amount of money, they can buy all the leisure time they want after). There are also those who have to be around at all hours, and if there's a shortage of people in their field, this would just make it worse for them (ie., ER doctors).
As for paying people for their productivity, not for sitting around and trying to pass an 8-hour day - I'm for that! I know in my office some people do a load more work in a day than others. (A bunch of people just sit around on MSN all day and then complain when they're given a new assignment that they won't have "time to finish it."
But again, different people do different work. It would take a looong time to configurate how to exactly measure productivity.

Also, I don't think that we will ever be able to not do work we don't want to do. We all go to work and it helps run our world. "If the brick-layers didn't go to work, you wouldn't have a home" logic.

Oy! Time for work now!

EDIT: In regards to the France example, I don't understand the logic explained above. Wouldn't they need to INCREASE hours to hire more workers to cover them, thus reducing the unemployment rate? (not REDUCE hours)

Answer 3

Ideally, if those who malingered while in the work place would use the free time to do the things that they used to do during work hours, then it would work. However, the only possible outcome I can see coming from this would be people are happy to have more free time, but will still be prone to malingering just because of all the tools that we now have at our disposal in the workplace. Imagine if the ancient egyptians had Ipods and blackberry's. It would have taken twice as long to build the pyraminds!

Answer 4

I don't think we can ever get around the burden of work. We'll always have to produce more food or other perishable necessities. Even if we have machines or robots do these things, they'll need maintenance.

As for changing the work week, that might be a good idea. However, I would leave that up to private firms and the workers themselves. If a company wants to implement a new work week and system of analyzing productivity, that's fine in my book. If some people want to work there under those conditions, even better.

If some people want to keep the old system, that's great too. We can let the market decide which system works better and how much of each system can be maintained. I just wouldn't want to see everyone forced to abide by your standard. Let them choose it voluntarily.

Answer 5

a 6 hour day is not enough to feed daily a whole population, well if you want to live off daily art, you can still do that right now. even better get a part time job and work 20 hours a week, and you will have enough time to contemplate the moon and the stars. yes we are highly intelligent and clever and we should use that intelligence to invent more attraction and entertainment for the weekends.

Answer 6

I am assuming that you are serious about this question.. If so.. I think that it would not be a good idea to cut back the work week for the employees. That would mean a cut in productivity and as you know.. the United States is noted for its productivity and we are in bad enough trouble right now without having more.

Answer 7

Actually, Americans are working themselves to death - literally. A few years back a Japanese politician called Americans "lazy", so some statistics were revealed. Americans spend MORE time at work, not less, and more Americans are dying from heart attacks as a result. If the Americans in your shop are malingering and you are the boss, FIRE THEM.

Answer 8

If they cut back on my work week how will I be able to spend so much time on Answers! Certainly you're not suggesting I do this on my own time???? Perish the thought.

To Common Sense: France instituted the 32 hour work week to combat unemployment as it was accelerating past 10%. Reduced work hours meant hiring more workers. It was a public works program as opposed to a social program designed to allow workers to have more leisure time.

Answer 9

Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins. You certainly show YOUR high intelligence by your ideas of "a planet of leisure, contemplation & art". Who in the hell do you think will be producing the life sustaining items and all the other necessities necessary to provide this utopian way of life?

Answer 10

Your premise is flawed. Americans have consistently been the most productive work force on the planet. This was not good enough for the big corporate entities though.
Do you want fries with that?