I think we’re also talking a bit past each other on the first point, in that “less than 2080 hours a year” is also achieved by, say, working 75 hour weeks for 6 months then not working at all for another 6 (sounds shit personally but some might like it) which would reduce a lot of the overhead.
If we include lack of trained personnel, then yes, I agree currently some people need to work that much because there’s just no one to replace them.
My whole point was a bit more theoretical than an immediate “we will not notice any negative effects if suddenly everyone that works a lot works less” which I also would say is plain false, more a generalized “if people are properly trained and workload is efficiently divided, no one would necessarily have to work that much”. Perfect efficiency in this regard is of course impossible to combine with people’s freedom of choice (and fuck planned economies) but given that the vast majority of for example europe works less than
2080 hours a year already, it doesn’t seem like too lofty of a goal. Still would take a while to actually reach though.
So, as a quick explanation, I take everything extremely literally. If I missed your more generalized points by not seeing the forest for the trees, my apologies. Internet posting is not often my tonal friend.
I do agree that hours can come down on lots of sectors. Personally, I’d love to see a generalized trend toward a 4-day week, with additional hires for overlap. Whether that’s 4 10s or 4 8s (or even 4 12s like in manufacturing) I still think it’s a better option for the vast majority of workers.
I think we’re also talking a bit past each other on the first point, in that “less than 2080 hours a year” is also achieved by, say, working 75 hour weeks for 6 months then not working at all for another 6 (sounds shit personally but some might like it) which would reduce a lot of the overhead.
If we include lack of trained personnel, then yes, I agree currently some people need to work that much because there’s just no one to replace them.
My whole point was a bit more theoretical than an immediate “we will not notice any negative effects if suddenly everyone that works a lot works less” which I also would say is plain false, more a generalized “if people are properly trained and workload is efficiently divided, no one would necessarily have to work that much”. Perfect efficiency in this regard is of course impossible to combine with people’s freedom of choice (and fuck planned economies) but given that the vast majority of for example europe works less than 2080 hours a year already, it doesn’t seem like too lofty of a goal. Still would take a while to actually reach though.
So, as a quick explanation, I take everything extremely literally. If I missed your more generalized points by not seeing the forest for the trees, my apologies. Internet posting is not often my tonal friend.
I do agree that hours can come down on lots of sectors. Personally, I’d love to see a generalized trend toward a 4-day week, with additional hires for overlap. Whether that’s 4 10s or 4 8s (or even 4 12s like in manufacturing) I still think it’s a better option for the vast majority of workers.