Labours plan 4 day work week, genius

scaredofdebt

A 32 hour week is perfectly feasible for certain jobs, most office work for example.

One of my jobs is to automate tasks in the office, a colleague gave me a task that was taking him about 7 hours to complete, using Excel and similar technologies. I automated the task and it now takes ~2 hours.

This is widespread in my industry, Google "robotic process automation jobs".

So my colleague can now in theory do a 32 hour week with no loss in productivity.

I used to work in IT for one of the most profitable companies in the world, 35 hour contracts were the norm, not a huge leap to knock 3 hours off that.

Web chat is another example, a web-chat host can handle 4 or more chats at a time, in the past they would be on the phone talking to one customer at a time.

But it isn't possible for all types of work, at least not in the foreseeable future.

SmashedAvacado

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Going to be a challenge to convert to all electric let alone driverless.

.

They said that about the conversion from horse and cart to cars - and it took no time at all.

Hectors_House

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

Automation is coming in a way you cannot imagine.
Just look at the automotive industry - based on where we are now with driver-less cars its not unreasonable to predict that within 20 years we will have no more driving jobs - no more taxis - because your car will work as a taxi when its not driving you - no more car park attendants - no more traffic wardens - no more traffic police - no more road accidents - no more car crime - the list goes on. These jobs won't be replaced by jobs in tech.

Its the same in many many industries - law, medicine, engineering and extends much beyond the McJobs that are currently already being replaced by e-ordering. Be careful about the career choices you make.

I work as a live-in carer and there is talk of ways to automate the job using pressure pads and motion detector sensors.

I think the idea is to allow more elderly to be able to stay in their home but it’s aimed at clients with dementia.

There is no way it can work. Pressure pads and sensors aren’t going to be able to help the person with toileting or feeding themselves.

I worked in IT before a change of career so if someone can invent a robot that will wipe someone’s a@$€ I will gladly retrain to learn how to program them. Lol

SmashedAvacado

Hectors_House wrote: »

I work as a live-in carer and there is talk of ways to automate the job using pressure pads and motion detector sensors.

I think the idea is to allow more elderly to be able to stay in their home but it’s aimed at clients with dementia.

There is no way it can work. Pressure pads and sensors aren’t going to be able to help the person with toileting or feeding themselves.

I worked in IT before a change of career so if someone can invent a robot that will wipe someone’s a@$€ I will gladly retrain to learn how to program them. Lol

In japan they have toilets that wipe / well rinse anyway already

Thrugelmir

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

They said that about the conversion from horse and cart to cars - and it took no time at all.

To achieve battery recharging targets. Installations would have to go in at 4,000 a day..........

Many people didn't even own a car until the 60's.

SmashedAvacado

I’m talking driverless not electric

But even with electric - your stat is based on current efficiency- imagine a system where you don’t own your battery and can just swap one out at a service station for a duly charged one - no waiting time - no battery degradation- problem solved

Thrugelmir

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

But even with electric - your stat is based on current efficiency- imagine a system where you don’t own your battery and can just swap one out at a service station for a duly charged one - no waiting time - no battery degradation- problem solved

One problem solved. Another raft of potential issues created.

Prism

Other industries that automation and AI will massively change

IT support
Call centers
Medical triage
Business forecasting
Solicitors
Teaching

Some of these jobs could do with some help but others will likely see job loses

adonis10

scaredofdebt wrote: »

A 32 hour week is perfectly feasible for certain jobs, most office work for example.

One of my jobs is to automate tasks in the office, a colleague gave me a task that was taking him about 7 hours to complete, using Excel and similar technologies. I automated the task and it now takes ~2 hours.

This is widespread in my industry, Google "robotic process automation jobs".

So my colleague can now in theory do a 32 hour week with no loss in productivity.

I used to work in IT for one of the most profitable companies in the world, 35 hour contracts were the norm, not a huge leap to knock 3 hours off that.

Web chat is another example, a web-chat host can handle 4 or more chats at a time, in the past they would be on the phone talking to one customer at a time.

But it isn't possible for all types of work, at least not in the foreseeable future.

This makes sense but do you honestly believe that people will be paid the same for, say, a 32 hour contract as their current 37-40 hour contract? That's at least a 14% paycut which is huge. Admittedly they would have another day a week to work but it is likely to be ad hoc work if it is such low hours and as such likely to be lower skilled and lower pay.


Have Labour done the maths with regard to how much extra this will cost employers (hiring and managing more people being a good example of additional cost)? Sounds very much like a nice headline to grab votes from those who don't much like their job and think they'll continue as they are now, but only having to work 4 days rather than 5.

kangoora

Ridiculous concept, there are literally 10's (if not 100's) of 1,000s of jobs where people cannot do the work of 5 days in 4. Off the top of my head:

Construction - brickies, carpenters, glazers, electricians, plumbers
Manufacturing - production line workers, maintenance people
Health - social care, nurses, surgeons, ambulance drivers, paramedics
Legal - Police, law courts, prison officers

Unless you subscribe to the opinion they are all slacking at the moment and only currently working at 80% efficiency. Costs for the people employing them then go up by 20% so what do they do a) raise prices b) cut services c) lay off people d) extend timelines or maybe all 4.