Move to Norway?

[Dave]

Sure, why not work an average 27 hour work week!


Where the 40-Hour-Workweek Came From and How it Hurt the Economy


"Can you imagine working a 30-hour week not because your working hours were cut, but because it was the standard of the country? It's something many workers have dreamed of but simply assume its not a possibility. But in actuality, there was a time around the Great Depression that the government actually fought for a work week of this length.

This makes you wonder just how many hours we should be working to have an effective day, especially when some other countries working shorter days and weeks? The history of the 40-hour work week is an interesting one, especially when it comes to its economic impact."


Continued at:

www.gobankingrates.com/history-of-the-40-hour-work-week-and-its-effects-on-the-economy/?utm_source=outbrain

[keith]

In 1996 my partner & I considered a work schedule based on setting a weekly production goal for each department. The concept was simple, when the work was done the department could go home and earn a full week's pay. The idea was pretty much shot down by accountants & lawyers.

One sticking point was that our health insurance carrier required a certain minimum nember of hours be worked in order for a person to be considered a full time employee under our policy. Another problem was how to deal with the situation when a department could not complete it's work because they were waiting for another department to finish needed parts.

I think the article makes light of the changes in expected standard of living since 1950. I remember watching the Honeymooners when it was first run. If you watch it now, Ralph & Alice were living in poverty. Then, if anyone had asked, I would have considered them normal working class. In 1951 my family was living in an apartment one room larger than the Kramdens, my parents & 3 kids in a bedroom, living room & kitchen.

[Dave]

Yup, we had a flat on Cornhill and felt pretty well off, with 3 boys in one bedroom, Grandma in another and Mom and Dad in the third. We weren't much different from many in the city. My father had a good steady job, protected by his union, and we had plenty to eat, went on vacation each year (car trip) and had a lot of fun as I remember it.

I can see where your work schedule innovation would scare the daylights out of lawyers and accountants. LOTS of potential problems. And what would you do when Mrs. Smith called to say her husband had been running off on Friday mornings with the copy center girl instead of revealing that he had Fridays off for a month. Or when another worker's department won Friday afternoons off, her husband called and said his wife was now going to a bar each Friday at noon and hadn't been returning home until ten o'clock at night when she fell down on her face on the front lawn?

But from a purely internal point of view the clincher is "when a department could not complete it's work because they were waiting for another department to finish needed parts." Fights in the parking lot and all that.

[keith]

Yeah, I probably should have taken some Business Management courses instead of the cool stuff like Quantum Physics and Complex Variables. Is it too late to get an MBA?