Jobs with real output often have radically different schedules than the typical 5 day office schedule (for better or worse). No one worries that nurses do 3 x 13hrs a week or whatever since there is a very concrete exchange of hourly pay and hours worked. I know a pilot who works like 1 day a week.
Salaried office work may not always be BS but is at least somewhat unclear in terms of output and varies by individual. So if anyone tries to go below our current 5 day 40hr Schelling point there will be all kinds of issues from jealousy, competition etc. Its a social thing not a productivity thing, but that doesn’t make it any less real. We saw how only something like Covid could force attitude changes on full time remote work.
This is correct. As a salaried employee, I am paid for my loyalty in the way a nurse is not. In exchange for a fixed yearly sum, I promise my employer to basically have their interests at heart and work only for them, which we agree, for reasonableness' sake, means about 40 hours / week. In reality, most salaried employees work much less. My dad was in sales my whole life until he retired, and he never worked an actual 9 - 5 week in his entire sales career. After schmoozing, calling, marketing, etc, he'd come home and take a nap or play with us.
IMO, the 40 hour work week is mainly a problem in a certain subset of high-achieving, highly educated employees, be they engineers, consultants, attorneys, etc. It's their own internal shame mechanisms which make them work 40 hours / week
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Jobs with real output often have radically different schedules than the typical 5 day office schedule (for better or worse). No one worries that nurses do 3 x 13hrs a week or whatever since there is a very concrete exchange of hourly pay and hours worked. I know a pilot who works like 1 day a week.
Salaried office work may not always be BS but is at least somewhat unclear in terms of output and varies by individual. So if anyone tries to go below our current 5 day 40hr Schelling point there will be all kinds of issues from jealousy, competition etc. Its a social thing not a productivity thing, but that doesn’t make it any less real. We saw how only something like Covid could force attitude changes on full time remote work.
This is correct. As a salaried employee, I am paid for my loyalty in the way a nurse is not. In exchange for a fixed yearly sum, I promise my employer to basically have their interests at heart and work only for them, which we agree, for reasonableness' sake, means about 40 hours / week. In reality, most salaried employees work much less. My dad was in sales my whole life until he retired, and he never worked an actual 9 - 5 week in his entire sales career. After schmoozing, calling, marketing, etc, he'd come home and take a nap or play with us.
IMO, the 40 hour work week is mainly a problem in a certain subset of high-achieving, highly educated employees, be they engineers, consultants, attorneys, etc. It's their own internal shame mechanisms which make them work 40 hours / week