We Should All Work Less
Roughly a century ago, labor organizing gradually, but successfully, reduced the 6-day work week to a 5-day work week. On this labor day, I’d like to suggest that it’s time to seriously push for a 4-day work week.
There’s reasonable evidence that the 4-day work week produces workers that are happier, more productive, and less likely to burn out. And with advances in automation over the past century, it’s hard to see why we couldn’t get the necessities of society done on fewer working hours.
Especially now, as an AI future approaches at breakneck pace, if it does, as the true believers say it will, replace human labor on an unprecedented scale, we must ensure that the benefits of that automation are shared with us, not restricted to those who own and employ.
I’ll also posit that the 4-day work week needs no justification. To paraphrase a friend: even if some of us have jobs that we enjoy and value, even if we are fortunate enough to have a positive relationship to our work, employment is inherently coercive; it is always reasonable for us to strive to reclaim our own time.
Happy labor day!
You can find companies using a four day work week, more research on the four day week, and other resources at 4dayweek.io.
