Why Don’t We Work a 4 Day Long Work Week if You Still Get in 40 Hours?

Here is an interesting thought, we can achieve all we need to get done in only a few hours a week. So, what about all the other time? We all have 24×7=168 hours per week. In that, we are supposed to live and be productive for our society. Assuming 8 hours, as recommended, is used in sleep per night, we now have 168-(7×8)=112 hours. Those are the hours we leave to eat, get all required maintenance accomplished for our households, maintain familial and social relationships, refresh ourselves, and produce value for our society. It is traditionally accepted that 40 hours of production value will be sufficient to earn the means of survival for ourselves and our families. There is even a little bit of growth built into that number, but ours is certainly not the only society in the world. Some countries operate on less than 40 hours, think of Europe, while others, Asia and Africa, prescribe to a work time of more than 40 hours per week to survive.

Each and every person has to create their own time budget to effectively use their hours to support their personal values and goals. Including work, continuing education, and self-improvement in that time budget is a very good idea. Some people muddle through doing what is required with no thought for intentionally allocating time and they seldom seem to have enough time. There are people who do the same with their money, and they seldom get rich. Sometimes the nature of the job mandates the time requirement. Agricultural workers must follow the sun, first-responders and medical staff often work very long shifts with long breaks in between, and other tasks which are supportive of shopping hours must adapt to the store schedule. Some jobs are so supportive of a steady process, think manufacturing, that 8-hour shifts can be measured with a stopwatch. Each job has different requirements and each person has different values. When they match, it is a good job for the worker and a good worker for the job.