Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
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Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#2Germany: the lunatic man of the Europe
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#3If this becomes a common thing in the US I'd be worried about stoking the flames of class warfare between white collar and blue collar workers. Many of those blue collar jobs (public facing especially) cannot be compressed into a 4 day work week. Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. On top of that many white collar workers already enjoy an unofficial 4 day work week with offices being ghost towns on Friday afternoons. So are we talking about realistically a 3 day work week with an extra 'will respond to e-mail emergencies' on the 4th day?
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#4If this becomes a common thing in the US I'd be worried about stoking the flames of class warfare between white collar and blue collar workers. Many of those blue collar jobs (public facing especially) cannot be compressed into a 4 day work week. Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. On top of that many white collar workers already…
> compressed into a 4 day work week
Why do you think the amount of labor should be compressed?
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#5If this becomes a common thing in the US I'd be worried about stoking the flames of class warfare between white collar and blue collar workers. Many of those blue collar jobs (public facing especially) cannot be compressed into a 4 day work week. Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. On top of that many white collar workers already…
> Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc.
Sorry, I don't understand this part. Are the blue collar workers forced to work from home, use email and have a flexible schedule ?
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#6The 4-day work week is long overdue. Keynes promised us a 15-hour work week thanks to productivity gains, but those productivity gains have mostly been eaten up by excessive corporate profit-taking. Lots of people are overworked and underpaid.
I've been working a 4-day week for well over a decade (also because I've got kids, but I did this well before I had kids), and I strongly recommend it for everybody.
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#7If this becomes a common thing in the US I'd be worried about stoking the flames of class warfare between white collar and blue collar workers. Many of those blue collar jobs (public facing especially) cannot be compressed into a 4 day work week. Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. On top of that many white collar workers already…
> Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. Sorry, I don't understand this part. Are the blue collar workers forced to work from home, use email and have a flexible schedule ?
Blue collar workers might think that the WFH or flex time are good benefits, which they don't have, and that their own pay should be adjusted accordingly.
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#8I find it interesting when employees ask for this without reducing pay. They then think it’s a 20% reduction as it’s 20% less work. But then you factor the overhead including normal overhead like benefits, HR, office space and additional overhead like management (a manager can only many so many people so now we need two managers for a group) and your at around a 40% reduction in pay to support one less day of output.
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#9The 4-day work week is long overdue. Keynes promised us a 15-hour work week thanks to productivity gains, but those productivity gains have mostly been eaten up by excessive corporate profit-taking. Lots of people are overworked and underpaid. I've been working a 4-day week for well over a decade (also because I've got kids, but I did this well before I had kids), and I strongly recommend it for everybody.
> but those productivity gains have mostly been eaten up by excessive corporate profit-taking.
I'd say there were mostly eaten by increased standards of living. Compare median global standard of living in Keyens times (say 100 years ago) and today. The difference is astounding, and we even work less for it than we did - just not "15 hours workweek" less.
Re: Germany tests 4-day workweek amid labor shortage
#10If this becomes a common thing in the US I'd be worried about stoking the flames of class warfare between white collar and blue collar workers. Many of those blue collar jobs (public facing especially) cannot be compressed into a 4 day work week. Lots of blue collar workers are already furious about things like working from home, 'email jobs', flexible schedules, etc. On top of that many white collar workers already…
Blue collar people were always worse off than white collar. Historically, they didn't rebel, but just tried to get their kids the best education they could, so that the next generation could have an easier life as a part of the white collar class.