Working 8 hours a day? Even more? Read on
A quick dive into the ocean to research on how we came up with this typical "You have to work 8 hours a day".
During the Industrial Revolution (19th century), companies wanted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible. That meant, workers had to work longer hours under poor working conditions. Long working hours between 10 - 18 hours a day, 6 days a week were the norm.
Robert Owen started a campaign to have people work no more than 8 hours per day and coined the slogan: "Eight hours' labor, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest"
In 1914, Henry Ford implemented the 8 hour work day and changed the standards. In addition, doubled their worker's pay in the process. This resulted in Ford's productivity with fewer working hours and their profits doubled in a short span of time. This encouraged other companies to follow the suit and adopt the 8 hour work day as a standard for their employees.
With time, many companies set the maximum work week to 40 hours; work beyond this would receive overtime salaries.
There has been notable breakthroughs in technology which is trending to date (2015); be it the smartphones, smart machines/appliances, smart watches, cloud/client architecture, internet with vast information, 3D media, analytic solutions, security systems, softwares, web IT, drones, lately 4K's... if anything is missed out, it will emerge soon!
As we move from the Industrial era to the current hi-tech technology era, is there anyone apart from me who thinks that a job (apart from a handful of companies) with an 8 hour, 6 days a week is irrelevant and makes the system ineffective!
My thoughts on this are : -
1. Travel to and fro workplace - The commute is really taxing. The traffic and stress amounts to waste of productive time. There are a handful who would listen to music, plan for the day and are used to the 'routines'.
2. Focus on the hours - I understand morning time is the best. By noon the brain tends to slow down paving way to social interaction. Yes, you are free to answer self on how long you spend on social connections while at work premises.
3. Women, especially those with family, working hours till 5 or 6 in the evening is painstaking. This accounts for "no time" for family, kids, leave alone self! By the time you realize its time to settle in for the night to get ready for the next day. Feels like bumping into yourself in the hallway.
4. You have to rely on a full time maid - endless stories that follow.
5. Everyone or at least most of them I have encountered ends up saying "I am BUSY".
6. It is a routine-no life-round the clock schedule.
7. I understand that companies can get a replacement at any point of their company survival; no one can replace YOU on your personal well-being.
8. Where one is good at is never recognized or that skill is not seen and eventually placed in a slot best suited as per the management - even if its low lying. I know people who will readily accept this. This allows the company structure to work best for them. There goes one's self esteem and the entire recruitment cycle is at gain.
9. With economic demands, market conditions, competitions, job insecurity etc even the elite professionals are stressed on their career front. To secure their financial standings and ensure that the pension pots are stocked for retirement, they will not question the system. They allow the structure to define and work with the flow. So, the handful of people thinking otherwise is nullified with the low self-esteemed decisions.
10. Are you one among them who eagerly waits for the weekend? Every week you wait for the weekend escape? If yes, it is a clear indication that the system of 8 hours (especially till 5pm and above), 6 days is a fatally flawed system.
11. The baggage you carry home (not applicable to loners) is a tired you, irritation, want for quietness, drag work stress home, no time or squeeze time for family and for self. To top it, whether the pay you earn towards the month end is worth the pain.
12. Do not work extra if there is no overtime! Work is worship has lost its value since long.
Few of the above are applicable to working mothers with children.
It is a cycle.
This era brings upon working mothers who strongly support the family and add value to corporate growth. With working mothers for longer hours, they do not find time with family and kids. Kids, they have to be admitted to day care, evening care, maids, relatives.
Demand for maid. Demand for day/evening cares. Pros and cons are self explanatory
No time for self, they have to prepare for the rest of the day and off to sleep hoping to see a change the next day. When both spouses are busy till evening, I have heard and witnessed instances of regular frictions, want for stress relief, no time for anything extra, children are left with least attention and grow up seeing this 'NORM'
Family balance is disrupted. Narrows down all the way to compromising on healthy food.
The cons of working 8 hours is endless and many would perceive this as 'complain' than a 'defect'.
I rest my case. I guess the system will change to bring down business cost and people wanting to have more family/me time; a well balanced work-career life. Till then, cheers to successfully following a century old norm for running factories most efficiently.
WE ARE IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND THE YEAR IS 2015!
There has been notable breakthroughs in technology which is trending to date (2015); be it the smartphones, smart machines/appliances, smart watches, cloud/client architecture, internet with vast information, 3D media, analytic solutions, security systems, softwares, web IT, drones, lately 4K's... if anything is missed out, it will emerge soon!
As we move from the Industrial era to the current hi-tech technology era, is there anyone apart from me who thinks that a job (apart from a handful of companies) with an 8 hour, 6 days a week is irrelevant and makes the system ineffective!
My thoughts on this are : -
1. Travel to and fro workplace - The commute is really taxing. The traffic and stress amounts to waste of productive time. There are a handful who would listen to music, plan for the day and are used to the 'routines'.
2. Focus on the hours - I understand morning time is the best. By noon the brain tends to slow down paving way to social interaction. Yes, you are free to answer self on how long you spend on social connections while at work premises.
3. Women, especially those with family, working hours till 5 or 6 in the evening is painstaking. This accounts for "no time" for family, kids, leave alone self! By the time you realize its time to settle in for the night to get ready for the next day. Feels like bumping into yourself in the hallway.
4. You have to rely on a full time maid - endless stories that follow.
5. Everyone or at least most of them I have encountered ends up saying "I am BUSY".
6. It is a routine-no life-round the clock schedule.
7. I understand that companies can get a replacement at any point of their company survival; no one can replace YOU on your personal well-being.
8. Where one is good at is never recognized or that skill is not seen and eventually placed in a slot best suited as per the management - even if its low lying. I know people who will readily accept this. This allows the company structure to work best for them. There goes one's self esteem and the entire recruitment cycle is at gain.
9. With economic demands, market conditions, competitions, job insecurity etc even the elite professionals are stressed on their career front. To secure their financial standings and ensure that the pension pots are stocked for retirement, they will not question the system. They allow the structure to define and work with the flow. So, the handful of people thinking otherwise is nullified with the low self-esteemed decisions.
10. Are you one among them who eagerly waits for the weekend? Every week you wait for the weekend escape? If yes, it is a clear indication that the system of 8 hours (especially till 5pm and above), 6 days is a fatally flawed system.
11. The baggage you carry home (not applicable to loners) is a tired you, irritation, want for quietness, drag work stress home, no time or squeeze time for family and for self. To top it, whether the pay you earn towards the month end is worth the pain.
12. Do not work extra if there is no overtime! Work is worship has lost its value since long.
Few of the above are applicable to working mothers with children.
It is a cycle.
This era brings upon working mothers who strongly support the family and add value to corporate growth. With working mothers for longer hours, they do not find time with family and kids. Kids, they have to be admitted to day care, evening care, maids, relatives.
Demand for maid. Demand for day/evening cares. Pros and cons are self explanatory
No time for self, they have to prepare for the rest of the day and off to sleep hoping to see a change the next day. When both spouses are busy till evening, I have heard and witnessed instances of regular frictions, want for stress relief, no time for anything extra, children are left with least attention and grow up seeing this 'NORM'
Family balance is disrupted. Narrows down all the way to compromising on healthy food.
The cons of working 8 hours is endless and many would perceive this as 'complain' than a 'defect'.
I rest my case. I guess the system will change to bring down business cost and people wanting to have more family/me time; a well balanced work-career life. Till then, cheers to successfully following a century old norm for running factories most efficiently.
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