{"id":99036,"date":"2023-04-10T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T18:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=99036"},"modified":"2023-04-12T15:30:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T19:30:24","slug":"shorter-workweek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/shorter-workweek\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Shorter Workweeks Should Replace the 9-5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why do most people work 40 hours per week? Are there benefits of a shorter workweek<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional 40-hour workweek is designed to keep employees productive and dedicated to the job, but it actually does the opposite. Instead, working an excessive amount of hours makes employees exhausted and less motivated. The solution is to form a shorter week that prioritizes employees\u2019 happiness and health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below we\u2019ll look at reasons why a shorter workweek<\/a> is beneficial and what can be done to implement it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Traditional 40-Hour Workweek<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Where did the traditional 40-hour workweek come from? We have to start at the beginning. For the majority of human history, humans lived in hunter-gatherer groups. But hunting and gathering aren\u2019t as time-consuming as you\u2019d think, claims Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez in their book Your Money or Your Life<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern-day hunter-gatherers average just 15 hours of work per week, far below our \u201cnormal\u201d 40. They often work for two days, then take two days off, with work, family time, and leisure blending together. This shows that we need about three hours of work per day for basic survival.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we accept the standard 40-hour workweek and think less of people who work part-time. But how did we come to fill our time with so much paid work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the Industrial Revolution<\/a> sped up the pace of work and shrunk leisure time. People who worked in factories worked long hours doing very repetitive tasks. In 1900, workers averaged 60 hours a week.  A movement emerged calling for a reduction in work time. As a result of this movement, the average workweek dropped to 35 hours. But the Great Depression<\/a> reversed this progress. Suddenly, many people were jobless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, instead of valuing the right to leisure time, people valued the right to work<\/a>.<\/strong> People thought poorly of not having a job, or working less than full time, and viewed leisure time as a missed opportunity to contribute to the economy. Now it feels almost impossible to work any less than 40 hours a week because it\u2019s frowned upon by society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem With the Traditional Workweek<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Our definitions of work vary because they\u2019re drawn from media, culture, what our parents taught us, and other experiences. A common definition of work is that it\u2019s what we need to do to survive, or \u201cmake a living,\u201d hence why we work such long hours in a week to provide for ourselves and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this definition falls short for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n