Pfft. One
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
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- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
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I barely spend a workweek doing a day's worth of work, let alone 4.
Right?! Those are some rookie numbers
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Maybe at a cushy white collar office job. I work at a hospital. There is no down time when you are on the clock, that’s true for nurses, doctors, housekeeping, pharmacy, lab, food service - I’d imagine the same is also true for all sort of service industry workers, and also factory workers, farmers, construction, and so so many others. Let’s stop pretending that everyone just sits in front of a computer all day.
Whats sad is that most of those jobs are just insanely and intentionally understaffed (and underpaid), which is precisely why they're so demanding.
It's almost like we should have started investing in better education and replacing manually repetitive tasks with automation.
Machines should have been a relief from the hardship of life, not a mean to gain more profit for a few individuals.
Those are the first jobs we need to change into 4 hours for 3 days shifts or something. It's dangerous for everyone to work without sufficient recovery
Exactly. I definitely would not want a nurse or a doctor to operate on me when there on the last stretches of a 12 hour shift, running on 5 hours of sleep. The only question I ask any doctor, nurse or dentist before they start any procedure on me is "how many hours of sleep did you get last night"... Anything less than 6-7 hours puts me in more risk than I'd accept!
Even truck drivers etc. have mandatory work:rest-ratios. It should be a norm
It's criminal how you are all treated because of purposeful under-staffing. Everyone needs downtime. The human mind does not go full throttle for 8-12 hours straight, and I'm well aware you often have longer shifts than that in a hospital! If medical staff had some downtime during their shifts, patient outcomes would improve, and not just by a little bit.
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It would be better if you were 4 days instead of 5. You'd have better productivity and recovery.
I'm a doctor and intentionally set my own hours to four day work weeks whenever I can, because I run my own practice and can do that. Let's not pretend it's a badge of honour to grind ourselves into a twitching mess.
To be fair, for those jobs the 5 day workweek, as it is known traditionally, has never been true. They were always either doing starnge shifts like 24 hours twice then 2 free days, repeat or working way more than 5 days a week, based on demand (which of course has been increasing since businesses hire less and less for some fuckin reason).
This is exactly my problem as well... We wanted to try a 4 day work week at my factory but they said no because we need to ship things 5 days a week... Except for the fact that we almost never ship more than 1 or 2 things in any given day and they are rarely things that need to go asap... One day wouldn't kill them but they're stuck in the past.
I just posted the same thing. I used to be a bartender/ server and work in retail. You DON'T rest. Not on your own schedule at least
My work is hybrid these days and I have tasks to complete instead of just drink from the firehose of task garbage being thrown my way. I can control the ebb and flow of my workday and slack or be a champion as needed.
Oh, I work 4 9 hour day weeks too. My quality of life is better in every way and i STILL dick around certain days. You probably make a lot more than I do but it's not worth it to get home and have zero bandwidth
I assure you that "sitting in front of a computer" is less ideal than you seem to think it is
Well, it's kinda depressing when you conclude no particular task for a day, yet still feel boiled due to tired eyes, headache etc.
You're a human being, not a human doing. You need and deserve downtime. You are not a machine. You must find a way. If there's a will, there's a way.
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I feel like this is something that everyone already knew but we had to do a study to prove it
People have known it since at least 1999 when Office Space was released. If you're not slacking off at work, especially if you're salaried, you're being exploited even more than usual.
That’s besides the point. You have to be there so you don’t have enough time to achieve your hopes & dreams, ensuring you don’t build up any wealth, let alone generational wealth, and therefore can never challenge their dominance & authority.
It's highly unlikely that any of my dreams would make me wealthy, because they all involve having fun, improving myself, and/or making the world a better place. I think most other people are the same way.
I agree, this is more than whether we work more or less efficiently with 4 or 5 days in the office. The ruling class wants us in our white cages (office walls) for as long as possible so, as you said, they can ensure we can't work on other stuff that truly satisfies us and gives us a chance of generating actual wealth rather than depending on whatever measly income they want us to live paycheck to paycheck on...
I'm pretty convinced these days that generational wealth as a goal leads to exactly this problem. Not that I disagree that we could be using that time in more fulfilling ways, but generational wealth as a construct probably inherently means significant inequality, unless it's some utopian wealth where it's equally shared.
There needs to be a cap of some kind. I don't want my kids to end up like Musk where they're fucking idiots with millions.
A five day work week gives your employer more control over your life though. They will not give that up willingly.
That's why my main goal is to accumulate 'fuck you money'. Right now, I get my tasks done asap and gtfo and if they don't like that, they can fire me if they'd like. If they don't like that all my work flow is smooth and efficient but I leave early or come in late, they can frankly fuck right off... So far I got 5 years worth of living expenses stashed away (my fuck you money stash) but I'm trying to put it in places that it can generate me income in alternative ways so I can flip the script on them and remove any remaining leverage they have on me.
we spend one doing basically nothing
Browsing Lemmy is not doing nothing. I'm , um, keeping my head in tune with the global marketplace and honing my remote interpersonal skillset. Yeah, that's what it is.
I'm just looking at cats.
Yeah no shit lol. On my last job which gave you about as much power as a 3 year old, I got real good with making it look like I was doing work.
Most businesses think “process” is critical but all process did was make me do 90% bullshit and 10% real work.
I could have done my last job in 2 days if it was just me doing things.
The problem is most of the idiots in charge think if we moved to a 4 day work week we’d do the work of 3 days.
I for one hope the next generations don’t die behind a desk while the guy you work for is off on a yacht living life like it was 1999.
I for one hope the next generations don’t die behind a desk while the guy you work for is off on a yacht living life like it was 1999.
We been spending most our lives
Livin' in an exploiter's paradise
I'll be happy to do a 4-day week, but don't you dare take away my fucking around and not doing anything at work time!
You think corporations in the US won't put a twist on it? I can see them making it a 4 10s week. They just hate people and want them to suffer as much as possible.
Pardon, I think that's pronounced "Increase value for shareholders." >.>
Edit: was supposed to be funny... it's not
It's funny and sad
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Yeah, I don't see 4 days work weeks to continually be "no fuck around time" I see it as maybe improved performance for a few months but eventually people go back to "Fuck around" or "coffee runs" or everything that is counted.
More than that for me.
I almost feel like this is basically Fridays at my place of work. Since it's not formalized that means I don't have to worry about anyone looking to adjust my salary or PTO or whatever corporate america would do to validate the savings of a 4 day work week. Selfishly I like where it's at, but I do think overall the 4 day work week would benefit us all as long as pay doesn't decrease
This has been known for decades (probably as long as the 5 day work week has been a thing)
And this is "fine". Because not everyone has the same slack day. Hell, at my current job, me and a buddy outright acknowledge this and he takes the brunt on Fridays when I am just done with everything and I do Mondays when he is usually distracted with whatever his kids told him they need last minute.
Same with meetings. Some weeks, the ONLY thing I do on a wednesday is go to a few meetings. Or maybe me and someone else set a friday lunch meeting because that is the only time we both have a chance, and so forth.
For people who have "real jobs" where they actually work hard (so retail, construction, etc): You tend to not get the "easy" day for the most part. You are busting your ass and being overworked all week long.
For office workers and the like? I think there should be a lot of thought put in. Someone doing data entry might not need to be there all five days. Someone who is doing more design/planning role... we already end up working closer to 6. And efforts toward "flex time" and just general "We don't care when you are 'at work' so long as you are available for meetings and get stuff done" go a long way toward that. Because, for example: I busted my ass for what amounts to a 20 hour shift yesterday getting stuff working for a customer. Today? I am basically checking my email but made it clear that even that is "I might not answer". And I'll probably take a few afternoons off next week to even it out.
But, with the shit world we live in: that would map to people who "don't have to work all 5 days" getting paid 20% less. So pretending you are busy on a Friday afternoon is probably still the better option.
I work an 8/6, and I gotta be honest, I don't do much the first and last day unless it's an emergency.
I work Sunday-Thursday, Sunday is basically my easy day in the office.
Some of you got me wanting to watch OfficeSpace for the first time in years.
Damn it feels good to be a gangster.
Wouldn't this be the same for school then? If we don't give kids the 4 day work week as well then you're just fucking over a large group of adults that don't get the five day work week and I bet your bottom dollar that you'll have tons of staff leave across the country to get that sweet five day work week. What's more precious than time? You can't win against that.
Ah, seems like we pay the peasants for one day just slacking off.
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