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ON TOPIC
That might well be true: a
2017 Japanese study found an
increased risk of depression in
those working longer hours, but
no correlation when the work was
felt to be inherently meaningful
and satisfying. However, while
Musk’s reassurance might be
well received by hard-charging
entrepreneurial types, it won’t
necessarily help the 37% of UK
workers who describe their
current job as “meaningless”, as
reported by YouGov.
ne of the most
commonly
acknowledged
problems with long
working hours is that it crowds
out any space for truly creative
thought. Many advocates of a
four-day week note that we have
shifted to a knowledge economy
but retained the working hours
and practices of a former
industrial age.
When it comes to knowledge
work, a valuable insight could
well come to one employee while
relaxing in the bath on their day
off, while their more diligent
colleague agonises at their desk,
fruitlessly, for weeks. That doesn’t
seem fair. But it does seem
to be the case, at least in
some instances.
Google, while not going as far
as introducing a four-day week, is
famous for allowing its engineers
to spend one day each week
freely exploring their own ideas,
in any manner they like. Without
the company enabling this
additional headspace and time for
unhurried reflection, there would
have been no Google
Earth, Gmail
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developed as ad hoc projects.
As Sandra Comas, professor
at IE Business School, comments,
“the correlation is becoming
clearer... Shorter work hours
can lead to greater thinking and
reflection, opportunity to ‘connect
the dots‘, and clarity to see the
dots in the first place.”
Automation is another
factor to throw into the mix. It’s
estimated that, by 2020, 30%
of all jobs in the UK have the
potential to be done by machines.
Some organisations, such as
the TUC, believe the benefits
of the efficiencies these new
technologies bring should be
shared fairly across the working
population, via a national
four-day week.
Suggestions like this have
been cropping up regularly since
1930, when the British economist
JM Keynes predicted that, due
to the increasing efficiencies
of automation, we would all be
working around 15 hours a week
by this point.
Roberts notes that introducing
change through legislation, as
the TUC suggests, would itself
prove difficult. “You’d need a
government brave enough to
bring it in, and with the resources
to check it’s happening,” she says.
“For that to happen would require
a seismic sea change.”
However, even legislation
to formalise the five-day week
faced a large number of similar
objections. An official four-day
week is now an option being
actively investigated by the
Labour Party and is already
official policy for the Green Party.
eanwhile, large
organisations are
beginning to explore
the option of a shorter
working week. For example,
biomedical research charity
The Wellcome Trust is currently
considering whether to introduce
a four-day week for its 800 staff
based in central London. And last
year, Amazon piloted a small
programme where
some staff
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