I mean, as automation takes over and more of the work becomes knowledge work, this next step doesn't surprise me much.
Shoot, I work at a firm that offers something like 2 months off when bundling paid time off together with corporate holidays, and that's not including all the other tiny time-off incentives that are included that don't necessarily get advertised to new hires. We're headed in that direction as it is.
While I agree, knowledge workers shouldn't have to work 40 hours a week (due to simple cost-benefit of their true output), it just isn't the observed reality in most knowledge-work industries (at least in America). I wouldn't be surprised that, in 50 years, tech has gone the way of finance, where, in order to attain that highly coveted lifestyle, you have to be willing to work 90+ hours a week at the beginning of your career, just to flatline to the comparably reasonable 60+ hours when you progress. This trend is already the norm in large tech companies with regard to their new hires; just throw heads at the problem, as long as it meets the deadline nothing else matters.
35-38 hours pers week is the observed reality in Germany, though. 90+ hours is virtually unheard of here. As is working on a Saturday. In fact 60+ is already seen as inhumane. As soon as you work 50 hours in any given week, the employer will have to pay you much more money. Hence, at my employer I literally am not allowed to work more than 48 hours per week and only Mon-Fri, unless the project is in extremely bad shape. And even then I would have to put in an application and the worker's council might or might not approve it on a case to case basis.
We also have a law in Germany that forces employers to allow employees to reduce their hours. I believe down to 30 hours per week. This entails reduced pay of course, but still a growing number of my colleagues are opting for this or are seriously considering it. And I'm talking about people in their thirties who are in the prime of their career. You can have a very comfortable life working 30 hours on an engineer's pay grade.
>Shoot, I work at a firm that offers something like 2 months off when bundling paid time off together with corporate holidays, and that's not including all the other tiny time-off incentives that are included that don't necessarily get advertised to new hires. We're headed in that direction as it is.
Same here. I can't remember the last time I worked a 40 hour week. And the amount of actual work getting done on any given Friday is essentially zero. I have no doubt the company would do better by just closing the office 3 days a week.
Shoot, I work at a firm that offers something like 2 months off when bundling paid time off together with corporate holidays, and that's not including all the other tiny time-off incentives that are included that don't necessarily get advertised to new hires. We're headed in that direction as it is.