Why The 8 Hour Day Is BS For Our Time
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2022
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You probably work a nine to five. You shouldn't. If we look at the history of the 8 hour day, we see what a great achievement it is. But also why it is very much outdated.
Sources:
ourworldindata.org/working-hours
tribunemag.co.uk/2020/04/shor...
www.wired.com/story/eight-hou...
www.wired.co.uk/article/worki...
www.bls.gov/charts/american-t...
www.inc.com/todd-nordstrom/re...
Hi there, my name is Jochem Boodt. I make the show The Present Past, where I show how the present has been influenced by the past. History, but connected to the present and fun!
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The problem with the supposed 8 hours of recreation is that it doesn't account at all for commuting times, house chores, cooking meals, exercising, etc.
Even then you could maybe argue that you still more than enough free time left in the day, but there's another problem with that.
Most people are either too physically or mentally tired after working 8 hours and doing all other obligations, you just end up with masses of NPCs who just get home, do absolutely nothing actually enjoyable, and then go to sleep to repeat the cycle.
This comment point out the times that got eaten away from recreation
And don't forget that in a lot of cases sleep is also cut short cause cutting hours from recreation ain't even enough at times
well you forget that women did all the house chores / cooking / etc.
This is why the 1950s/1960s were so awesome.
@Xaviar 77versus99 post war boom plus women making you sandwiches.
@Xaviar 77versus99 If we throw women back into the kitchen, I wouldnt mind working more hours.
The most prolific writer in America works roughly 5 hours a day. He works to a pre-determined page count every day. After 5 hours, the work begins to erode in quality. This is true of everything. We’re human beings, not machines. Science has already shown this is true. Cracking the whip isn’t going to extract more work without serious repercussions. Suicide? Depression? Physical maladies? Derision? It’s all there. Why don’t we learn? Because we let Capitalists decide for us. All we have to do is to take a stand.
You cant become rich with 9 to 5 system, the only one becoming rich is the boss. People become depressed and sick by the corrupt system
And George RR Martin apparently writes for 5 minutes a day.
@@PoisonelleMisty4311Absolutely! That’s why we need to educate people more on the importance of passive income
@@tbc9096 education is key to freedom
@@PoisonelleMisty4311 that must be why I have a college degree and am still doing physical labor. And no I didn’t major in gender studies
Sadly, 40 hours a week is no longer relevant in this era. Overworking is one of the main causes of depression and stress. We cannot consider 2-4 hours of driving, commuting, preparing, eating, taking a bath, etc. as recreational.
Developer here...
Before the pandemic I was forced into an overly loud office building where it's impossible to concentrate or get anything done. As a result many of my team where forced to work overtime during their evenings, in order to catch up with our schedule.
When the pandemic struck we where all allowed to work remotely, productivity skyrocketed! Most of us felt healthier while often working 9 to 10 hours remotely, yet working 10 hours from home was less energy draining as from the office. Most of the team where a lot happier during this period. Getting actual work done during normal work hours was also a new concept for us, as most of the work was originally done during the evenings.
We've now been forced back into the office during the past 4 months, most dev's are miserable as hell and productivity has plummeted to an absolute zero. My boss recently asked why we refused to work unpaid overtime during our evenings, just as before the pandemic. I responded with: "If we can't work remote during our workday, we can't work remote after our workday." He clearly didn't like my answer and stubbornly refuses to revert the work from home rules...
Guess I'm forced to find another workplace where I'm payed to be a productive member of society, not for bottom in chair time...
Change the job. My company was smart enough to keep remote work (there are 3 options - full remote, half-remote and full on site)
@@adapienkowska2605 I'm currently looking around, job hunting sadly takes a while... :-/
Don`t worry those kind of companies will not be around for long.
thats the conflict, coz supervisory work is often low intensity, not needing that concentration and can almost flexibly work 8-12hours, yet anything even 100 years ago needing outcome, like blacksmith, needs extreme focus to not burn himself and do that handicraft, similar as programmer nowadays. Sadly this divide of tasks polarizes one group only interested in socializing (whole day smalltalk) and other part doing only WFH type high concentration. However that divide aint healthy for anyone, but common is forcing everyone to office "to fix" this. I think it boils down to lacking supervisory/management skills and training. I hate when those communicative/managerial tasks havent progressed at all, despite there dozens of people spend all day at office.
Also thinking now, anecdotal that when 1980s japan industries managed to skyrocket manufacturing productivity, office and public side productivity basicly didnt change at all in that period, so it comes down to this exact same issue, which still isnt "solved", but people work on their emotions/"intuition"/make up as they go from scratch something to fill void. It's pretty absurd that in developed wealthier countries even 70% of workforce are in these kind of office jobs nowadays, this portion has skyrocketed when manufacturing has been moved to china and asia to other places.
I’m also a dev and my current workplace has been trying for months to nudge devs back to the office even a few days a week and basically no one is complying. The reason of ‘face-to-face’ contact is so abstract to me. Like how is that different from a video call? A commute, the health risk, the noise, it’s not worth it.
I agree with an 8 hour cycle being wack. But throughout all of my office experiences, nobody is actually working for 8 hours. It’s more like 3 and they just fuck around for the other 5 or pretend like they working.
The real issue is having to be somewhere for 8 hours. It feels like prison man and like your free will had been stripped
What about people that aren't sitting in an office? What about tradesmen etc, those people often work 8 hours and has little time for rest like in an office, constantly on the move, etc... that is quite different.
@@c87kim
To make more money I've had to change to a job that's on 12 hour shifts
Some weeks I do 60 hours and yeah it feels like prison
By the time I get home and make food it's basically time for bed, and even on my days off it's not spent on doing fun things, its just recharging for the next week so that I don't collapse at work
@@Danuxsy if they gotta be somewhere for 8 hours cause a manager tells them so - it’s the same
Exactly what I'm doing now lol
Great video.
We're a century late in advocating for 30 hour work weeks.
Even within the medical field the efficiency drop-off after 8-10 hours of work is palpable, and as a result of various constraints we're pushed to 12, 14, 16 or even longer hour shifts. At least some skeleton of economic planning and proper state investment can sort all these issues out, whilst maintaining if not outright increasing output (if that's even important/desirable in the relevant field). Definitely a missed point on the left.
Eh, I'd say medicine has other problems. Long hours are the result of not having enough doctors to fill in shifts. Of course, not having enough doctors is also the result of long hours, as it causes people to quit doctoring. But the primary solution to this isn't to shorten hours. Doing that would lead to a lot of situations with patients dying because "the gastroenterologist is off-duty and calling them in would be a labour law violation". So if we don't want people to die, the solution should either be sought in training more doctors or making the work that doctors already do more efficient. The first would require money so it's not happening soon. But the second could probably be accomplished if hospitals just stopped making their doctors do things that aren't doctoring. Paperwork is a fine place to start. But then there's also the practice of the mandatory 8 hour curriculum on preventing burnout and preserving mental health. Yes, I know, ironic. But hospitals don't do it out of stupidity. The first reason they do it is that it allows them to conduct studies on what kinds of intervention can prevent burnout and mental health issues. So far, none have worked. But something not working is still a result that can be published in a paper, and this kind of research actually gets quite a bit of funding from the government. The second reason they do it because otherwise there might be a slight possibility that they're held liable when a doctor commits suicide. So that's yet another example of government intervention making a problem worse. If governments stopped funding such research and hospitals couldn't be sued for doctor suicides, doctor burnout and suicides would probably lessen somewhat.
For some reason I wasn't expecting to see you here.
It is the G himself
@@andrasfogarasi5014 I think I heard somewhere that one of the key areas we can do better at is identifying the issues a patient has before a doctor has to be involved, allowing for better organisation of patients and faster turnaround for simple check ups
@@Daniel-mn4fu the G himself called Gulags "legitimate rehabilitative labor." The G himself is not trustworthy.
What’s bad is as someone with ironworking and frac hand experience , it is typically us in the most dangerous jobs being made to work anywhere from 12-18 hours in a day. People are tired, angry, and mistakes are made that could seriously put peoples lives at risk
@jshowa o iron working I never really actually work the full hours (I’m there but probably only being productive for 9-10ish if that), at frac there was plenty of downtime but it depended, if I was running the blender and everything was smooth they were definitely getting a full 12 out of me
@A Z depends on what type of iron working job really , I do seamless now and it’s really laid back, but I used to do flat rolling and forging and it was not laid back really at all. Also sweet man I’ve seen a lot of cal frac in my day, I was in Halliburton frac down in south Texas
@A Z Yes, that's exactly the sort of problem we're trying to make sure goes away permanently. If a job requires cocaine to be done right, that's a clear sign that it wasn't structured properly.
@A Z I understand your point, but most jobs aren't like that. The government can write special exceptions for exceptional jobs into the labor law. Most jobs shouldn't be working people anywhere near that much.
@A Z Yes, it seems so. I wish someone would have mentioned this to me in my 20s. What sort of work do you do, exactly? Do you operate a machine on an oil rig?
Even working for myself I set an 8 hour workday as well. If I have to work less than 8 on any given day I feel unaccomplished and make up the hours later. It’s too engrained in me at this point lol
This! It's insane how its just hard coded inside your daily routine.
I think you’re just weird lol. If I get to work less, I WILL.
Scary but similar feelings for me.
@@ThePresentPast_ You could keep the 8h routine, but work only 4 days. This would be a better balance instead of reducing to 6h but still working 5 days. Having a full day off is more beneficial. Look up the 4 Day Week Global. Talking about balance, since nowadays we have much more dual earners both working 40h each, today's households actually have less free time than 50 years ago when most households were single earner working 40h to 60h, with the partner staying at home to take care of the chores.
Your owners are very happy with your sacrifices.
I would work 0 hours if I could, I literally have no shame in being lazy.
My time is too precious to be working all the time
Why is being lazy a good use of your time?
@@babicutatacelu2366 I'd rather spend my time doing fuck all relaxed in a chair, than working on boring mundane tasks. Simple as that
@Alex-dp3cj too old for that now
May I ask what the point in living is if you're not even working for yourself? Whether it be putting in the work to make advances in your studies even as an adult or hobbies such as the arts where you can always evolve? Do you exist to be a parasite consumer on society?
@6ghastlyghoul9 I work but the point being is I wouldnt if I could, I couldn't give a shit what people think.
I always had the same issue with that 8 hour work day slogan! 8 hours of recreation falls apart if you have kids or a home you actually contribute to. Hits women in the work force the hardest.
That, and, as others have pointed out in the comments, the commute.
Taking care of your home and family, + potentially spending HOURS commuting (like what he talked about in the video). That's not 8 hours of recreation.
Supposedly, in the past, the commute was *part* of the work day? Don't quote me on that, though.
Why are you posting misinformation?
Most women work LESS not more than men even if you account for all the house work, child care etc.
And who put a gun to your head and forced you to have children?
I'm a researcher, and I noticed already a long time ago that I can get about 4-6 really effective hours of work done per day. After that the quality just starts to drop and it's better to just continue the next day with a clear mind. Sometimes, when there's a lot to do I can keep up longer, but trying to do 8 hours every day just doesn't work. My head just can't take it.
In Southeast Asian countries we still have 12 work hours, even more depends on what sectors you’re in. I do think it’s kind of related to how we also spend same hours in school days, which is why when pandemic hits we collectively almost lost it.
It's pretty disgusting the slave labour conditions in sea. People working 60+ hours per week for $10 per day. Someone needs to fix that shit
Wow! What happened to people?
I live in Portugal and still work 12h a day. I'm security guard. Even though the last 4h are considered overtime and the company is supposed to pay me more, they just pay me as regular hours. Even though it is mandated by law...
I'm a developer and only my current job has respected the 8 hour workday, by letting me work little less than 9 hours daily.
Every previous job I've had would interrupt my workflow repeatedly during the day, squeeze in other tasks, then expect me to work overtime in order to catch up with my schedule. I often worked more than 12 hours a day, whilst only getting paid for 8 hours...
@@Gonalotuberso why do you accept this? You’re employer obviously breaking the law.
8 hour limit and 4 day work week would also assist with degrowth
The idea that happiness comes from buying things rather than spending time with others is something that companies tell us and that we know we're sacrificing of our lives for these corporations that would fire us given the smallest reason
Yet here we are in Healthcare working 14 hour shifts. Inhumane.
My uncle works 3x12 hours shifts. Its amazing. He never works more than 2 days in a row, saves a lot of time on commute and getting ready for work. Also he can have extended weekend by working mon-wed on week 1 and wed-fri on week 2.
THIS IS the way, it doesnt really work that well for jobs you use alot of brain for though
@A Z
Many of my friends whom are physicians work shifts like this. Is being a doctor not a real job?
You say he never works more than 2 days in a row, but he works mon-wed and wed-fri (both sound like 3 days in a row)?
@@Hubcool367 did u even read? its 3x12 shift. not 3 day 12h straight. its 12h work then off shift. think of it like this. work in 1st day , rest in 2nd , work in 3rd, rest in 4th , work in 5th, rest in weekends.
@@QWERTY-gp8fd so that would be working Monday, off Tuesday, work Wednesday, off Thursday, work Friday, weekend off, no? Why then are they saying "mon-wed on week 1 and wed-fri on week 2"?
Honestly, even if it makes us _less_ productive, that doesn't matter. We work to live, not the other way around!
Sometimes its less about the productivity during the time and more about them being in control of your life.
I think it depends on what you mean by work. The studies I've seen seem to indicate we can get about 3-4 hours of focused concentration in a day, so if that's the only type of work you have, work that much and be done. However there's a lot of low intensity work that still often needs to be done beyond that, like communicating with coworkers/customers, organizing around the office, going places...etc. I think that type of work is fine to fill up to maybe the 8 hours or more.
But yeah I don't expect to do more than 3-4 hours of focused "real" work in a day.
I just found your channel today and at first I didn't expect much, but this is a great video. This channel is a hidden gem and I hope you grow larger! Now it's time to binge some of your other vids
Wow! I didn't realize you made the Johnny Harris video too! I loved that one and watched it yesterday, which would explain why you showed up on my feed.
Binging your whole channel! Loving your vids so far, keep it up!!
While I agree with the point of this video I’m afraid many employers will use this idea as an excuse to pay their employees less
Well you'd still be salaried but not have to be in an office doing nothing most of they day. You could just work the 3-4 hours and then return home and be called for assistance if needed. If you're being paid hourly, the same but only be paid the hours you put in that day. Although, I wonder how many hourly people would be homeless if they were only paid for the work the hyper optimized work they did.
Amazing video, can't believe you're not more popular, the quality is astounding. Just wanted to point out that 06:25 1st of may is an official labour day, introduced by Polish workers party in 1950 but still based on the 1890 strike. Keep up your amazing work@
This is the kind of story we need to tell more. I am deeply saddened that we don't celebrate May Day in the US. "Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak up..."
any "International" Day will never be officially celebrated in US, except the current government is replaced by a socialist state. You know "International Labor Day","International Woman day" or "International Children day" are all related to socialist movement and as I know, US government hate socialist.
I thought labour day was essentially the stand in for 'May Day'?
@@tjs200 It's a tactic they use to take any real meaning out of the holiday.
@@tylrprkr but it functions the same way, no?
Not at all. It detracts from solidarity with workers all over the world. It detracts from it's original unionists message by changing "workers" to "labor" (take note, it isn't "Laborer's Day," it's "Labor Day.") It tries to disassociate itself from its place in US history. And it's a meaningless holiday. It's just a day off school, less and less is it a day off from work.
The 8 hour work day is complete garbage. For example, I can get my job done at work in 5 hours, but I can’t leave even though I’m done, I’m expected to stay even though I’m done. Makes no sense just to waste my time.
Hi! I found your channel through your viral Johnny harris video. its amazing the production quality you achieve right out of the gate! The only thing i couldn't help but notice is the reverb or hollow sound after you speak! if you have one place you film, you should try create some (mobile) sound panels or other dampening fabric. it would be the icing on the cake or your otherwise near flawless videos! keep up the good work!
Awesome video and great point. Even more realising that I was really overworked at my last job. Every week I was made to do 12 hour shifts, even on Saturdays.
This channel needs to blow up already. UA-cam needs to stop suppressing it, it’s so informative.
Great videos. Thanks.
Your channel blowing up is much deserved 🙏
I think it would be great to work 8 hours a day 4 days a week, mon-thurs then tues-friday and repeat. That would be amazing. 4 day weekends every other week.
If you live in Asia particularly in China, Japan, Korea, India, Philippines, Vietnam, etc. the minimum work hours is 12 to 16 hrs. Sometimes, with no overtime & night differential pay and employers would often ask you to work on weekends. It is brutal.
In Japan, minimum working hours are 8 hours a week
In Vietnam, the maximum work hours can go up to 12hrs/day (usually apply for restaurant service worker), but according to the law, the maximum work hours for worker is 8hrs/day. Most of companies requires their employers to work 5 days/week, some 5 and a half day, the maximum work hours of a week is 48 hours. The former Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City's Central Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan actually proposed that the maximum work hours of a week should reduce to 40hrs/week (but the proposal isn't approved because VN is still a developing country). But of course, not all of companies works accordingly to the law, tho we have OT salary to work overtime and meet deadlines, some companies violate the laws and the employee is either not having enough time to care (they rather move to new company), lacking of knowledge about the law, or feeling that they have responsibility to complete their work and get the good review at the bi-annual kpi/work review. I can say that much about Vietnam, not really sure about other SEAsian countries. But Japan and S.Korea are another stories due to their work culture.
@@lepetitrin the story of vietnam is such a frustrating one as an American who decided to briefly read and listen to the political struggles following the vietnam war. It is a shame vietnam is shackled by the demands of the world bank following the destruction by the US followed by a crippling civil war.
Yeah 12 hours's like the usual daily grind in many poorer countries
@@lepetitrin I find that hard to believe. In the Philippines it's common to work 12-14 he days 6 days per week for shit wages
I'm a paramedic I work 12hrs four to five days a week that's 48 to 60hrs per week. Also days and nights. It's sometimes hard to concentrate.
Another great video!! Really educational 🙌
I aim to please Eva :)
As an upstart UA-camr myself I feel the same guilty feeling when I don't work 8 hours but I find after 4-6 hours the quality of my creative work diminishes so significantly I often end up deleting and redoing it the next day. Now I've learned to quit when I reach that point where I can tell the work is garbage but since that point is always before the 8 hour mark I still feel bad and this video has made me feel much better about it, thank you.
great video great production great edit keep it up
Subscribed! You're doing great!
Great research! Thanks for this.
Mentioning the 1890 protests without at least a brief mention of the 1886 Haymarket massacre is total negligence on your part.
People died and were executed to reduce worker hours, and it's important not to erase the people that gave us this.
*1886
I just got recommended this today, and I'm shocked this doesn't have more attention. It's relatively short, it's succinct, and the editing and effort put into it is phenomenal.
Hey man,
I came here after your Johnny Harris video and am pleased to find another great one! I'm from Australia and I have another little tidbit for you if you happen to want it:
- Australian Unions were started when we essentially went through the same thing as the bit you mentioned with Robert Owen, and to this day we have Labour Day in October (although it's different in different states) to "celebrate" it. And our slogan was way cooler:
8 hours work
8 hours play
8 hours sleep
And 8 bob a day.
You probably know already but a bob was a shilling. 8 shillings a day was a lot more than people had been being paid.
Thanks for this video! It is very interesting and informative!
Great vid bro!
Shorter work days make sense for some industries but not all. I don't know how the social norms would shift if suddenly the apple jobs are 30 work weeks but construction work or truck driving or service jobs are still 8 hour shifts. Places like Wal Marts need those 8 hour shifts because of their hours as a retail store, sure they could hire more at 6 hours but what would the wages look like for 6 hours a days at wal mart vs 8? What would the impact be to road construction or supply chains if these jobs worked shorter hours? Also going into the future what would the pay scales start to look like between jobs that go to a shorter work week vs those that still require the 40-50 hours a week? I think a lot of people talking about shorter are in fields that may work and are projecting their realities on to others where that shorter work week won't really work.
Great video!
Really plays well into the concept of pseudo work in the modern workplace - I highly recommend the book "Pseudowork - How we ended up being busy doing nothing" by Dennis Normark and Anders Fogh Jensen. A totally eye-opening read!
I'm a sales guy. I work 6 12 hour shifts a week. and it's hell.
It sounds like hell. I honestly sometimes find just 8 hours a day a bit much. I couldn't imagine 12 hours. 😮
this video has phenomenal production value, im very impressed and only commenting bc of how little views it has. hopefully this helps.
this made me wonder why the netherlands is one of the only countries in the world that doesnt have labour day. I realised this earlier but i never knew how much of an outlier we were.
so I googled it and apparently it has to do with the dutch way of ''poldering''. we never had as much conflict. And princesses day, (which would become queens and now kingsday) was created to celebrate the resolved tensions of the labour movement. and it was at conveniently at the end of may right before labour day. So we have kingsday instead of labour day?
Would you agree with this analysis, my new favorite youtube historian?
Interessant
It's conveniently before labor day since "koningsdag" or "Kingsday" is on the birthday of the current monarch, 27th of April. it's just a coincidence.
The tradition started on August 31, 1891 to celebrate the (birthday of the) very young Princes Wilhelmina, whose father King William lll had died in November 1890. Her mother Queen Emma acted as Regent until her daughter‘s 18th birthday in 1898 when she became Queen. Wilhelmina abdicated in favor of her daughter Juliana on September 4th 1948, after which Queens‘ day was celebrated every year on April 30th, her birthday. When her daughter Beatrix succeeded her as Queen (April 30th, 1980), she decided that this day would remain the date Queens‘ day would be celebrated, as her own birthday is January 31st.
Present King Willem-Alexander decided to change Kings‘ day to his own birthday on April 27th, as is it very close to April 30th, the previous date.
Nice one, JB!
Eight hours of "work" usually only results in four hours of productivity... meetings devour roughly half of my schedule. So, if I want to get five hours of productive work done, I have to put in a ten to twelve hour shift. ugh...
U need a better ending, but this video is just on point with timing and visuals.
P.S. You better thanks Johnny for his flaws, ‘cause after your criticizing him in videoessay, you’ve got a plenty subs. And it’s great🎉
I like your channel i think it will be very popular soon. Its only 2k subs? I bet you will explode soon enough
These topics are amaaaaazing!!!
😍
I just stumbled across your channel yesterday after the johnny harris video, and I believe I've found a hidden gem.
If you work by the hour for salary then you want to maximize the working day in-line with the working contractual hours. I often feel after 6 hours or so that my brain is totally up and yet I have to sit for another two hours to make up my work day. If you want to have a successful career then you are free to work your hours and days but do not complain about burn out or stress then.
In Europe, they try to cut down on amount and duration of work, keep the pay the same... In US they try and cut down the pay and benefits as well... USA! USA! USA!
I would kill to only have to work 8 hours a day. That would feel like a part time gig.
The last few months, I have worked actual 8hours, and it usually takes me 12 hours to do that. 7am-7pm. It has led to my promotion, but yeah wife, gets mad. After promotion though she does not know whether to get mad or not lol.
Great video. Hope we move toward four days a work week.
In France, the legal definition of a full-time work week is 35 hours or 7 hours a day.
Actually I'm dreaming of 8-hours job. LOL. It's a rarity working straight 8 hours. We in our country mostly work overtime, unpaid.
Productivity in America hasn't increased much, to my surprise, so perhaps European countries and Japan should think about 6 hour work weeks before the US does.
Then again, companies make so much in the US that it might not even matter, and we could just do the 6 hour work week anyway
I think you're just looking at an office worker perspective. That's just a small portion. Imagine McDonalds was only working for a few hours a day, post office a few hours, bank a few hours. When you're free, nearly nothing will be open. Your office worker will work 4 hours and then once work is done, will not be able to refill petrol as station is only open a few hours. Restaurants will be closed by the time you want to go there, like do you want this to expand to all workers? All you will be able to do is stay home or talk with friends and family, go to park, or other places which don't require any staff. You will have to be careful managing your car fuel if you want to go somewhere like beach or bushwalking. I can't ever see how that is going to work, unless everyone just does short 4 hour shifts and in a 24 hour day say at McDonalds, you would need 6 different staff changes throughout the day. And I wonder if staff are willing to get showered/dressed in uniform, travel to work and back all for a 4 hour shift. Also, need to think about the pay. If we're working less, we all will be making less money too. I don't see bills, utilities, mortgages, insurance, etc. going down in price. You will still need to eat the same amount of food, so really we're all going to be poorer too.
Funny that I stumbled upon this video. Two years ago I reduced my hours from 8 to 5. Now I get paid 5/8 (duh) but I still do the same amount of work. And that is why getting paid by the hour is stupid.
Everyone you meet who says they work 8 hours everyday from 9-5 is not including the snack/restroom/coffee time, some aren't event including the lunch time. So yeah don't worry, they're actually working 5hrs.
You do realize if you’re making the argument you are, that you just made the case for a shorter work day? If you think taking a piss counts as a break, I don’t know what to tell you. I also just love how you immediately and conveniently left off the to/from commute and in some cases being bombarded when you’re off the clock
@@tbc9096 To and from is part of work only if it's work vehicle (sometimes). For hourly paid workers, to and from time is not part of the working 8hrs.
nice content 👍
Its actually gotten worse since women entered the workplace on a large scale. It used to be the case that 40 hours of work could maintain a household i.e. man works full time and wife takes care of chores/kids all on one salary.
Now we need 80 hours of labor to maintain a household since employers have nearly twice the labor pool which means wages are cut in half. So both parents have to work full time and still somehow raise a child when daycare/babysitters are now making almost as much as a normal full time job pays!
I worked 6 pm to 6 am for 18 years 4 on 3 off.
Currently I’m not salaried, but I can also get almost all of my work done before lunch, sometimes all of it an hour before lunch. As a result, I’ve arguably become less efficient, so the 8 hour work day definitely doesn’t guarantee efficiency. It just means that people like me have to find ways of stretching our jobs across that 8 hours so we aren’t left twiddling our thumbs. The work gets done, but it could get done faster if we were allowed to leave earlier or decide our own fault schedules.
Obviously this would require a lot of discussion on the logistics of such changes, but it would, in my opinion, be well worth the effort.
I belive that a rigid time for workers only makes sence in jobs where work has to be coordinated or allways necessary, like a factory, train drivers and hospitals. Jobs that can be done without afecting another worker's job should be more flexible with their Time and schedules
Working from home is great as a Software Engineer. I still get 8 hours in but do it in spurts. If I have something else to do besides work I'll go do it... come back maybe finish it later in the evening. Depending on project I have going on there have been some weeks I probably only worked technically 20 hours... Other times if our team is up against a deadline I'll work 60 in a week. My boss doesn't care as long as I get all my stuff done. My actual office in Pittsburgh, PA is about an hour commute. I might go into office once a week if I feel like it. I normally do that because there are a couple great restaurants for lunch there that I don't have around my house :)
In the company I worked at most people worked 6 hours and only few of us decided to work 8 but only bcs the 6 hour schedule was less then 40 hours a week and it is not considered a full time job in my country. With that you can't request credit from the bank and you are missing days for your future retirement. If the system would consider it a full time I am sure no one would want to work 8 hours a day, especially when you start a family and have kids you want to raise properly.
3:12 Migrate? Or move in desperation because their means of self sufficiency have been enclosed from them?
I would have mentioned England and Wales as it was integral during the industrial Revolution in fact the city where I live Swansea was known as coppertropolis because it produced 80% of the worlds copper it was also one of the greatest steel and coal producing areas on earth
when referring to what you called England call it the UK or Britain and call it the British government
I noticed that Canada was not included.. here we changed from 60 hour week to 40 hour week in the 1960s.
I know right, only eight hours of work, I get so bored with so many unproductive hours.
I'm surprised by your low view & subscriber count. You belong in the big leagues!
I wake up between 6:00 and 7:00, eat breakfast, cycle to the train station, take the buss, work, eat luck, continue to work, take the buss back, cycle back home, do stuff, eat dinner, do stuff, go to sleep ca 22:00
(I work ca 7.5 hours, with 30 minutes of lunch in the middle)
The 9-5 work system is modern day slavery, you cant become rich and your health gets destroyed. The only one becoming rich is your boss. The high taxes keeps your more impoverished than ever before. The 9-5 jobs are bad in countries that have expensive costs of living, as the high taxes and expenses can make it difficult to make ends meet and lead to a lower quality of life overall. The 9 to 5 jobs makes it hard for you to enjoy life and create mental illnesses. Everyone who have been stuck in their 9 to 5 jobs for too long usually get depressed and vote for right wing parties, and get envious of people who dress and live well since they're unable to afford the same lifestyle due to their limited income and lack of free time to pursue other opportunities." It creates class inequality, hatred and envy in society. Unless political parties come up with new work system with flexible work hours this isuess will continue forever. People are missing out in life and are becoming increasingly stressed due to the rigid work schedule that doesn't allow for work-life balance.
very intresting video!
Americans: what's a train
I think for most desk-jobs, this would be true. For rapidly growing industries like Welding and manufacturing, this could be tough to push onto employers. Because the demand is so high with so little supply. Same thing happens with the US military. They have rates / MOSs that're Under / Over-manned. The undermanned rates tend to have the least accolades, and the most unappealing lifestyle. (Long hours, isolation, stress.)
The point is, less hours would be nice. But depending on what stage of growth the industry is in, it just might not be possible for everyone to adopt just yet
Man man man showing it all!!
Everything for mah fans
Waar heb jij je abonnees en views gekocht?
Hollywood needs to make the film "knights of labor" ⚔️⚒️🛠️
Funny how in China May 1st is used to celebrate good working ethics. When I was young the school always taught us that, and we made posters about it.
My company allows work between 6am and 10pm, you decide how to split your 8 hours, works quite well, often i work 8 hours still purely because it isn't as taxing sometimes.
What a good channel i've found. Hello from Russia
6:24 - Ahhh, 'Murica being Murica. That said, as a Canadian, I like the 'First Monday in September" Labour Day better than a random day in May. It becomes the last celebration of summer, the signal that school is starting - it's basically a flagship day to change how we are thinking about the calendar.
Just discovered the channel. This is great content.
I'm subscribing too.
When you reach a million subscribers I will be able to say I was one of the first!
440th so that I don't forget
That's so nice to hear 😍 Will make it worth your while!
@@ThePresentPast_ Ahah thank you !
10x4 >> 8x5. A lot of places are catching on to this and I’m hoping it becomes more popular.
This only applies to office work. We from the automation have to work more than 200 hours a month so factories have machines that can produce - so world can work in offices.
Many of my colleagues and myself are working between 30 and 35 hours. It may not seem like much, but an hour a day more is a huge gain.
What do you do on your free time?
I wish you could start working at 13-14 nowadays too and with proper self-education and private courses you could be an intern engineer by the age of 14 and a junior or middle by the age of 16-18 and a highly skilled and knowledgeable expert by the age of 20-22
Glad to see someone talk about working hours who also properly credits unions, socialism and labour strikes for the shorter work days :)
I am surprised Eugene V. Debs wasn't brought up.. He played a good part in this.
Well, I am not that surprised actually.. I grew up in the USA, then Canada, and most people don't know the name.. He was a socialist, so of course no one is going to bring him up.
Fantastic video production! Definitely subscribed and looking forward to what you'll be making!
One point though - the statistic that over half of people are looking to quit their jobs has more to do with the fact that it's a way to increase income. Salaries for new hires are usually higher than bonuses for existing employees, so people essentially end up shifting each others' jobs. Employee satisfaction is definitely an important factor - hoping to get better working conditions - but since most companies share similar work schedules and environments, you rarely get much in return.
Now that I think about it, it may be that as soon as a couple of them update their work schedules, people will flock to them quicker than ever before. The influx might then motivate the other companies and change could be made faster than, say, 30-40 years ago.
Could represent a strategic advantage for some companies with the difficulties in staffing and employee retention.
Read David Graeber's book - "BS jobs". We are probably already doing a lot of work just for the sake of it. Also he published some other essays where he gives some pretty good argument that we could probably automate a lot more than we actually do.
Love and support from INDIA ♥️🇮🇳
I think that 8 hours in an office is counter productive. How much time of those 8 hour do you actually work? And then you have to add commute, 1 hour lunch break o it turns into 8 work+1 lunch+2 communte (aprox)= 11 hours that you are out of your. It's hard to go to doctors appointments, etc because employees hate when you skip work or get there late. I think 6 hours is the perfect amount of hours in an office, people would be better rested, not burnout and happier, making them more productive.
Weird referring only to 'England' when talking about Robert Owen when he was a Welshman who set up his mill in Scotland.
After the Black Death the Dutch took over the British countryside with their sheep. The British weather and abundance of Fuller's Earth made for the best wool.
The Dutch had control of all manufacture. That British wool was what any self respecting army in Europe bought for their troops, it was the best stuff.
However, people in Britain were not happy with the Dutch doing all of the value add. They wanted a piece of the money making action. Hence the development of woollen mills in the UK and the factories.
Coupled with this was the need to protect the trade. Hence the Royal Navy. You can see where this is going but that was the genesis, the wool trade.
Before the big mills there was cottage industry. An example is the Cotswolds in the West Country of England where towns have pubs named after wool things, e.g. 'The Woolpack', and wool things in their flags, e.g. Stroud. The merchant economy and London became a thing. Industrial capitalism got started.
In the House of Lords the Speaker on the Chair is actually sat on a wool sack. There is this block of wool surrounded by gold trimmed walls at the centre of Parliament. Wool was where it all started.
A lot of this industry was Quaker. As well as Bible oriented reasons for abolition, they also operated in a 'free market' that wasn't exactly fair when you had slavery involved. Nonetheless, the seeds of abolition were sown in wool.
Why did we have the eight hour day? Well if it goes to Ford and, before that, the industrial revolution, then why did this industrial revolution happen in England? Because of wool. Wool made it possible to have a merchant capitalist society with banking and all that tech innovation. Why did the wool happen? The Black Death - or some other plague - which denuded the British countryside making it free for the Dutch to take over with their sheep. There were no peasants with their little strips of land in the way.
Before that 1066 had also made conditions for capitalism ripe, but that is another episode.
I have spelled out WOOL in big letters here. But what you have to understand is that for a long, long time, all we had were sheep. It took a lot of time to domesticate other animals and sheep were what clothed and fed man from way before the Bronze Age. As soon as sheep came along (from the Fertile Crescent) they spread everywhere. Hence it was natural for the nearby Dutch to reconquer plague depleted Britain with their sheep.
Mesopotamia could have had first mover advantage but, ultimately, Britain, with its temperate climate resulted in the best wool for war.