Day 40 - Working less

It started to become more obvious when the pandemic happened. Work and personal life are collapsing onto each other. More people start to question their meaning and connection to work.

There are companies who are experimenting 4-day work week and they saw a boost in productivity. Most likely since there is one day less in the week for work, people will be more focused on finishing up their tasks instead of dragging their task across the week. At the end of the day, it's more about productivity than working a 9-5 or more. We're in different times now. We shouldn't be expected to work long hours according to the standards of the early Industrial Revolution times.

Given there is an extra day off, people become happier and healthier. They have more time for connection, chores, community work, things that are more important etc. And they don't have to be constrained to internalised capitalism due to work occupying most of our lives.

It's slower in Asia, where there are companies who are reluctant to allow their employees to work from home. If they're already reluctant there, how do you convince them to make 4 day work weeks work? What's even scarier is China's working culture where it seems the 996 working system is normalized: 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. I cannot even imagine how that would be like. I

I'll also leave this quote here to end this post.

Working less in this conception isn’t about living more leisure- or pleasure-filled lives, though it may lead us there. It’s about leaving room for something other than personal ambition and acquisition of comfort under the constraints of capitalism.

(Source: Enough)