The full working week should be cut to 21 hours

treliac

Snippa wrote: »

I think it's a great idea. I'm pretty sure I only do about 3 days real "work" when stuck in an office anyway. By the time you factor in chatting, tea breaks, playing on the internet, smoke breaks and those afternoons you just don't do anything productive.

Staggering. With that outlook, a '21 hour' week to you would probably total about a day and a half.

Mr_Mumble

Last year NEF determined Burma was a nicer place to live than Britain...Calling the NEF "left-wing" is an insult to most of the folk who are left-of-centre. This Lib-Dem economics blog continually debunks NEF's nonsense.

Of course NEF is funded by the British taxpayer!

seven-day-weekend

My husband and I, for the two years before we took early retirement, both worked part-time. I did 3 days (22 hours); he did 2.5 days.

It was great! My husband had Mondays off on his own and I had Thursdays off on my own. We both had Fridays off together as well as the weekends. We had the equivalent of one full-time wage. No problems.

If you can manage on one income it is a great idea.

lostinrates

Graham_Devon wrote: »

What for instance would you suggest a tech support guy does if he has spent time creating protocols and infrastructure which means problems are less frequent and the phone hasn't rung for 10 mins?

He / She has to be there.

What about a shop worker who has the internet in front of them and no customers and the shop is all fine. What should they do?

Never done bar work with a good old fashioned pub landlord/lady?there is ALWAYS something to do, it just requires initiative and eyes to find it. I don't mind being lazy on my own time so much, but there is no way I'd sit on here if some one were paying me. The site is incredibly absorbing and I have to admit, impacts on what I get done here, since I've been up to doing a lot more especially.

when were the light switches and fittings last cleaned? and the skirting boards....in a shop, what about the pavement, gutters outside the shop front, and polishing the door furniture? in an office, like wise, there are bits cleaners just never get to...or, offering to do something boring for other people in the office, or in the adjacent office, from your desk, of you cannot leave the room.

PasturesNew

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

My husband and I, for the two years before we took early retirement, both worked part-time. I did 3 days (22 hours); he did 2.5 days.

It was great! My husband had Mondays off on his own and I had Thursdays off on my own. We both had Fridays off together as well as the weekends. We had the equivalent of one full-time wage. No problems.

If you can manage on one income it is a great idea.

Except, not everybody's in a couple.

I want to work in a world where everybody's doing 21 hours, not just me or it doesn't work out right.

rictus123

No way would this work. Too many greedy people wanting more and more money.

dopester

lostinrates wrote: »

It was not saying wages should be increase (as I understood it from radio four interview) but rather with working fewer hours, our commercialism would decrease.

working long hours does increase costs...you might opt for a cleaner, for example, or other ''low skill'' services/time saving devices that save time but cost money. but commercialism...or at least just acquiring stuff, i believe to be in some way hard wired into most of us. we like things that a re new, and lovely...perhaps once it would have been for trading with...now its just ....stuff.

I have a low-impact lifestyle and work fewer than 21 hours per week because it suits me. And those fewer hours don't bring in some mega income either.

I'd work more hours if I really loved my work. In the future I might choose to work more but only because of the love of the work involved, with achieving a higher income being a secondary reason.

If I had to work any number of hours in any job I didn't like and have an overall passion for... well I just couldn't do it. I don't know how people work in jobs they don't enjoy.... unless it's required to support other dependent loved ones.

That other thread with some impressive WPM going on. Doing data input, even on £20 ph, on just a 21 hour working week... I'd crack on the 3rd day.. bored crazy, maybe a bit like this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU4PD4SES9I&feature=fvw

seven-day-weekend

PasturesNew wrote: »

Except, not everybody's in a couple.

I want to work in a world where everybody's doing 21 hours, not just me or it doesn't work out right.

No, it doesn't work for a single person, unfortunately.

But great for couples, especially those with children .If they did totally opposite ends of the week, 2.5 days each, they would need no childcare. I know a couple who did this and can't understand why more don't.

lostinrates

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

No, it doesn't work for a single person, unfortunately.

But great for couples, especially those with children .If they did totally opposite ends of the week, 2.5 days each, they would need no childcare. I know a couple who did this and can't understand why more don't.

Well, more so in the traditional way: one of them does both shares of the 2.5 days, and the other does both shares of that portion of childcare/homemaking....SAHParenting didn't used to be radical!

seven-day-weekend

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, more so in the traditional way: one of them does both shares of the 2.5 days, and the other does both shares of that portion of childcare/homemaking....SAHParenting didn't used to be radical!

I agree and I was a SAHM for a while, but I think by each doing half the week you both get a chance to work and do the childcare, which I think is a good viable alternative to one person doing all the work or all the childcare.