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The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

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Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#71

Post by anonymars »

losvedir wrote: post #69
oompydoompy74 wrote: post #20

Speaking as an American, I don’t give a shit if it increases productivity or not. Productivity has gone up exponentially with technological advancement since the advent of the 5 day work week. We, as a species, should be minimizing work to 3 or 4 days a week with equal overall pay. Corporations should be fined heavily for contacting an employee after working hours. On call should require corporations to pay hefty ove…

Lot of shoulds, oughts, etc. How about this: do whatever you want. Nothing is stopping you from setting up a 3 day workweek co-op. More power to any group that wants to. There are a number out there already. But it's worth considering why it hasn't totally taken over "naturally".

How did the 40-hour workweek come about?

(Certainly not "naturally")

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#72

Post by losvedir »

han1 wrote: post #43
idle_zealot wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like to feel that I'm spending my time productively, yeah. Not all of my time, mind you. People generally like to feel their work impacting their environment. Many consider it the most fulfilling part of their lives. Working purely for compensation is a great way to kill most positive energy for a solid half of your waking hours most days. People react differently, of course. For some the knowledge that they're mak…

I work remotely at companies until they fire me for doing the minimum. I still get paid for the two to three weeks, so I couldn't care less because the money goes towards my hobbies.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#73

Post by recursive-call »

goda90 wrote: post #46
pizzly wrote: post #42

Working based on time i.e. 5 days a week is already problematic. We all see the pay by the hour workers like pool cleaners, vendor machine stocking people etc spending lots of time dragging out their work as they get paid by the hour. It makes perfect sense from their perspective and yes not everyone drags the work. Fixing the work week to just 5 days have similar issues. Some weeks will be less work and other weeks…

What's the actual problem? Most people don't live for work.

The actual problem is that workers want to make the most money possible with the least effort possible. Until we have a system where people do work that they want to do, perverse incentives will always be an issue.

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#74

Post by passive »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #64
passive wrote: post #51

Four-day work weeks are for cowards. Take all that AI productivity and found a one-day work week company. One day of focused collaboration each week, let bots and brains chew on stuff in the interim.

Oh no, I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, lol

It's a little bit snark, but I do think it would be an interesting experiment. Wish I had lots of money to try it out.

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#76

Post by anomaly_ »

danaris wrote: post #34
christophilus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be ok in a non-globalized world. In our world, any country that implements those laws will see a lot more offshoring.

Not if that country also legislates heavy penalties for companies that produce their goods in countries with worse labor laws.

You're just going to Galapagos your economy. Consumers won't put up with high prices and inferior goods. Unless you want to restrict internet/information access so your consumers don't know what they are missing out on.

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#77

Post by mohamedkoubaa »

stanac wrote: post #53
oompydoompy74 wrote: post #20

Speaking as an American, I don’t give a shit if it increases productivity or not. Productivity has gone up exponentially with technological advancement since the advent of the 5 day work week. We, as a species, should be minimizing work to 3 or 4 days a week with equal overall pay. Corporations should be fined heavily for contacting an employee after working hours. On call should require corporations to pay hefty ove…

> Employee owned co-ops are more humane Speaking as someone born in Yugoslavia. That's almost how it was in Yugoslavia. Companies where "owned by society", but workers had voting rights. Whenever there was a vote to decide whether extra profit should be used for capital investments and/or operational improvements or assigned to salaries budget, everyone voted to increase their salaries. Not every employ should be a c…

Did you know that public market shareholders almost always vote for stock buybacks

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#78

Post by tsimionescu »

losvedir wrote: post #69
oompydoompy74 wrote: post #20

Speaking as an American, I don’t give a shit if it increases productivity or not. Productivity has gone up exponentially with technological advancement since the advent of the 5 day work week. We, as a species, should be minimizing work to 3 or 4 days a week with equal overall pay. Corporations should be fined heavily for contacting an employee after working hours. On call should require corporations to pay hefty ove…

Lot of shoulds, oughts, etc. How about this: do whatever you want. Nothing is stopping you from setting up a 3 day workweek co-op. More power to any group that wants to. There are a number out there already. But it's worth considering why it hasn't totally taken over "naturally".

This is absurdly ahistorical. Corporations take as much as they can. If there were no law limiting work to 40 hours / week, they would demand far more - as they had before massive workers' protests forced the current limits.

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#79

Post by toomuchtodo »

amelius wrote: post #62
toomuchtodo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Progress is a functioning of effort, time, and luck. It’s a marathon. Keep grinding. Success is proven possible.

We're all in competition with each other. One person works 4 days, another person still working 5 days puts them out of business. Reality is more complicated but in the end there is no way around this basic fact.

Labor law changes reduce the work week, as was done previously. How many people work six days a week for no additional pay beyond five days today?

With population declines locked in almost globally (About 71% of the world’s population now lives in countries with birth rates below the replacement level needed to maintain population size), working age population decline, reducing labor supply, is also locked in. Reduced go forward labor supply reduction means labor power.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-pop...

https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbe...

The demographic future of humanity: facts and consequences [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44866621 - August 2025 (400 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47680794 (US specific citations)

Re: The four-day workweek in Australia: insights from early adopters of 100:80:100

#80

Post by amazingamazing »

stavros wrote: post #67
amazingamazing wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will never happen for the simple reason that there are some countries whose members are poor and so they are rightfully ready to work harder and longer for opportunities. A more important point is why is it that Americans objectively are richer yet feel poorer?

But, if there exist poorer countries, why is there a five-day work week instead of a seven-day one? Why aren't we all just working 24/7?

There are Americans working 24/7, though. Surely you have heard of people working multiple menial full time jobs? Jobs are being offshored and cheaper immigrants are being imported who can be paid less. What more evidence do you need?
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