Time is money, goes the expression. But also: money can't buy you happiness, or love, as the Beatles say. We deserve to dedicate our time to creativity, innovation and above all: the people that matter rather than being locked up in the treadmill of work.
Anna Coote does not propose a draconious law prohibiting working more than 21 hours. It should be a gradual decrease, taking into account hours have already decreased enormously over the last decades. Hundred years ago, 60 hours was normal. Now, 40 hour is the standard.
21 hours is not such a crazy idea as it seems. The great economist John Maynard Keynes believed that continuous increases in productivity would make it possible to only work 15 hours a week in the 21st century. However, as producitivity rose, we prefer to get more money for our work rather than spreading the jobs more equally.
An urgent need for redistribution of labour
Anna Coote believes in the urgent need to redistribute paid and non-paid work. It will be good for the environment, the economy and for ourselves. Redistributing jobs will help women to build a career and help fathers to have more time for their children.
And consider, there is no evidence that long hours are linked to prosperity. Productivity even decreases after 40 hours! But of course, there are concerns about lower pay, problems for employers (who have to hire more workers) and the general attitude to public.
To conclude, this is not just a story from Utopia. Following the publication of a report in two years ago, Anna Coote received a lot of emails, including one from a specialist law firm that had embraced the 21 working week. They were even more successful than competitors where 70 hours were normal. Maybe 21 hours is the key to a new economic system.
No comments:
Post a Comment