It often feels like there are only 3 productive hours in typical American white collar work day.

What if we just cut out the rest?

Edit: Some great responses. So responses must have also been said about the 5 day and 40 hour work weeks.

  • @MrJameGumb
    link
    53 months ago

    It sounds great! The real trick would be finding any company willing to pay the same 40 hours of wages every week for 15 hours of work. There’s not much point to a 3 hour work day if you have work 3 different jobs

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      103 months ago

      There’s not much point to a 3 hour work day if you have work 3 different jobs

      Not that I’m advocating for it, but… Working 3 jobs @ 15 hours a week each would mean you’d be a lot more resilient against layoffs and would be able to quit any of those jobs at the drop of a hat if things got shitty (knowing you’d only be losing 1/3 of your income, rather than 100% of it). It would represent a solid shift of power into the hands of the workers.

      • @MrJameGumb
        link
        103 months ago

        True, but the whole point of having a shorter work week would be to have more free time wouldn’t three jobs kind of defeat the whole purpose? That would just mean I wake up dreading three jobs instead of one…

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          103 months ago

          And all the wasted time getting from one job to the next. Even if the travel is all virtual you still have to get setup/organised, put one thing down and pick another up.

          • @MrJameGumb
            link
            43 months ago

            And what happens if job 2 doesn’t start for like 2 hours after job 1 and job 3 doesn’t start until 3 hours after job 2? That’s now a 14 hour day where your either working or getting ready to work with just enough “down time” to not really get too much accomplished… AND you’re going to get taxed on each paycheck. That sounds awful

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        43 months ago

        i’ve been down that road before. three part time jobs means no benefits and no employer-sponsored health coverage. it’s also extremely difficult to schedule multiple part time jobs so they don’t conflict with each other while still giving you something resembling ‘weekend’ off.