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It is amazing how companies do NOT like you to work over the 40 when they are paying you hourly. If you are on salary, the sky (your health and sanity rather) is the limit.
Didn't some study just come out pushing 20hr work weeks?
citing that a 40hr week is unhealthy.
Not to have enough income to support your family is unhealthy.
lol, pushing 20 hour weeks? Are people just becoming lazy, or what? 40 hour weeks are not that unreasonable. Personally, I think anything under 60 is pretty reasonable and sustainable to have a family/healthy social life.
I've averaged about 40-45 hours/week my entire career (all salary) as I do now. No way I'd put in 60 hour weeks, too many other employment opportunities that have people walking in at 8 and leaving at 5.
Umm, I havn't worked anything under 60 hours in a very long time, perhaps years. I turned out alright.
And if you're content with your lot... or even seek it out...
then so be it. Good for you. I hope you're happy.
The question is about the people who DON'T have much if any say in how their work hours are structured...
what THEY can expect to have to work in order to have enough income...
and how things have changed especially in the last 20-30 years.
A hundred years ago... the 40 hour week was a hard fought win.
It is still a valid and mostly reasonable benchmark to measure against.
The talk about a lower level of weekly hours is about the raw number of people capable
and willing to work for whom there simply isn't work to be had.
Why varies... one common theme to a solution is to spread out that meaningful work among
all the qualified and capable: fewer hours per week and/or fewer weeks per year.
As someone already mentioned; living beyond your means is relevant--you become less focused on priorities in life because you’re overly/frantically dependant on income.
To supply challenging jobs for EVERYONE is getting more & more difficult--“Unemployment is a Sign of Progress.” To continue manufacturing DRIFTWOOD JOBS is futile; there’s a continuous, irreversible over supply of BODIES!
I'd rather work "full steam ahead" for 25 hrs a week; it’s better than pacing the workload, & minimizes tribal socializing. It's also better for the human psyche IMO.
We need everyone to contribute to work, so everyone can contribute to spending. For the niche, special skills job, a company will pay the overtime. If it’s cost effective, they’ll hire/train a 2nd guy—for society, 2 skilled workers’ are better than 1 skilled worker.
The 1st thing the USA has to do is make money (salaries) have more purchasing power, not less.
Personally, I'd rather be under the pressure cooker the whole time while working 35 hour work weeks than be required to "show up" to an uninspiring 70 hour work week job (everything including compensation being equal.)
A lot of the pressure to work long hours is exacerbated by people who are deep in debt or consume recklessly. My theory is that if more people lived within their means, curtailed their consumption (but not anywhere near the point of deprivation), and invested more to learn new skills, we'd increase our standard of living and work smarter (but not necessarily harder) in the future.
Sure, it would be nice if we could work 25 hours a week for the same pay. Unfortunately, for the past 30 years, that trend has worked in the opposite direction. And nothing is getting cheaper, yet people feel the need to buy more things. Cell phones, internet, extended cable packages... These are relatively newer expenses that seemingly everyone feels the need to add. Didn't have these things 30 years ago. If the list of new innovations is going to grow, and wages are going to continue to stagnate, Americans will continue to have to work longer hours to afford all these things. One could say these new innovations are improving the quality of life, but really, we spending more time at work as a result.
Why do I work the hours I do??? Well, I plan to retire around 55. Used to be a common thing a few decades ago. Not so much anymore, unless your willing to make sacrifices. I agree that there is more to life than working. Today's wages/salaries vs. expenses would suggest otherwise. The temp agency just sent a 65 yr old women our way. I bet she would agree.
...for the past 30 years, that trend has worked in the opposite direction.
The trend to be watching is the one about supply and demand.
More warm bodies... without a concomitant increase in the need for warm more bodies = less market value for each of those warm bodies.
The same applies whether discussing those warm bodies capable of doing meaningful and well paying work... or the other sort.
My sister was told last week by her employer that all current full-time employees (except upper management) will be made part-timers next month so that the company (a huge U.S. retailer) will no longer have to offer benefits. For the past few years, all new hires have been part-time only. It's very frightening.
Those who get paid for 40+ hours per week and who have benefits as well should be counting their blessings.
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