O
ON TOPIC
worked 30 hours per week with a
full benefits package.
Perhaps they were following
the advice of ‘father of modern
capitalism’ Adam Smith, who
suggested, in 1776, that “the man
who works so moderately as to be
able to work constantly, not only
preserves his health the longest,
but in the course of the year,
executes the greatest quantity
of works”.
n 2017, the Mexican
business magnate
Carlos Slim even
suggested we should
be working a three-day week
(with 11-hour days). His point was
that our concept of work (learning
skills for the first third of our life,
applying them for the second and
retiring for the last third) is simply
outdated. To survive in future, we
will have to update and retrain
continually, reinventing ourselves
multiple times over our working
lives. If we are to work until
we’re 75, we’ll need to
take things a
I
day
Satur
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o
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appe
little slower. A similar line of
sourcing a new role, while a survey
thinking was embraced in
of managers found 80% believed
Germany when, as a practical
that offering flexible working
response to the economic
options is key to recruiting top
downturn in 2008, they
talent. Even The Wall Street
introduced a policy of kurzarbeit,
Journal found that stock price
or ‘short work’, cutting hours
rose by 0.36% following the
instead of jobs. Many workers
introduction of flexible-working
used the extra time to retrain
initiatives.
and learn new skills.
But the idea of introducing a
A four-day week won’t, of
wholesale, company-wide, f
course, suit all companies, or
our-day work week has at least
every worker. But perhaps the
some fans: since announcing
growing interest in a shorter
its shift to a four-day week, one
working week should prompt us
unexpected result for The Mix has
to at least re-examine the benefits
been to be totally overwhelmed –
of flexible working in general.
with job applications. FT
Deloitte, for example,
quantified the money it had
saved due to flexible-working
arrangements at $41.5m in one
year alone. A survey of job seekers
found that almost a third felt
flexible working was the
week
-day by
e
iv
F
most important
d
opte
is ad uropean
factor in
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Hen uces a fi tory
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k
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1953
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Five- comes
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stand UK.
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Direc and a min h an opt-o
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overn
UK g ay week in sulting in
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a brief history of
THE working week
March – May 2019
// 57