Are 50+ hour a week jobs horrible?

[Deleted member 9787]

it doesn’t necessarily have to be

well there’s many variables at play so i can’t give you a concrete answer

 

[AlexAP]

4 day, 25 hour work week needs to be normalised over the next decade or two

Don't think it will happen in the near future.

1. People don't work for themselves only. Nearly half of the time, they work for the people on welfare, as the welfare state is financed by the wages of the workers. As more people retire and the birth rates fall, the costs for the welfare state will get higher. We won't be able to reduce working hours then.

2. To compensate for the reduction in working hours, machines would need to automatize a lot of the work that humans do now. But people are afraid of being completely automatized, so they are against this happening. Some even talk of a "robot tax", essentially making it unprofitable to automatize things and therefore destroying the incentives for more automatization. No automatization = No reduction in working hours.

 

[Chadimir_Slootin']

Don't think it will happen in the near future.

1. People don't work for themselves only. Nearly half of the time, they work for the people on welfare, as the welfare state is financed by the wages of the workers. As more people retire and the birth rates fall, the costs for the welfare state will get higher. We won't be able to reduce working hours then.

2. To compensate for the reduction in working hours, machines would need to automatize a lot of the work that humans do now. But people are afraid of being completely automatized, so they are against this happening. Some even talk of a "robot tax", essentially making it unprofitable to automatize things and therefore destroying the incentives for more automatization. No automatization = No reduction in working hours.

These are good points but:

1. You're assuming that productivity is a function of hours worked when it isn't necessarily. The welfare state will not survive in its current form anyway, and the retirement age will inevitably go up while entitlements are cut or at least streamlined.

2. Automation is coming whether people like it or not. Any country bringing in a "robot tax" would put itself at competitive disadvantages to those that didn't. Sure people might be able to slow it down a little at huge cost, but it is 100% coming. Essentially we need massive reskilling of the younger gen and just to grandfather out the older people who's skillset has been automated

There's no rule of nature that says that 40 hours 5 days per week is ideal. It was just a particular cultural point. I think we'll see a significant average reduction between now and 2050.

Personally my aim is to work 4 days per week, 25-30 hours, and make a top 10% income at the same time. Just a few more negotiations and moved away the.