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How to Chip Away at the 40-Hour Workweek
We’re weirdly attached to a schedule that became the norm when current technology did not exist
We’re in the midst of a huge conversation around the future of work. One of the biggest conventions up for negotiation: the 40-hour workweek.
This is a moment to figure out new ways to make work support our lives, flipping the current dynamic in which many of us live to work. We can start with our schedules. I’m not saying that nobody should work 40 hours a week, and certainly many of us work far more than that. The 40-hour workweek is just shorthand for embracing big, systemic change that puts our humanity first and our productive capacity as workers second. It’s about finding what serves both you and your company/clients — maybe that’s a four-day workweek, or a five-hour workday, or something else.
Of course, there might be people here saying, “Yeah, but my boss will never go for that.” Statistically speaking, lower wage and hourly workers, people of color, and women may feel less empowered to ask for different circumstances at work. That means it’s up to the rest of us to push for change. If you have a say in how your work schedule goes, it’s your responsibility to help dissolve the expectation that employers get to call all the shots when it comes to our schedules. Even if you’re happy with your work life, supporting your co-workers (and other working humans in general) in their search for a better work-life balance could translate into co-workers who are happier, less stressed, and more fun to be around. Work flexibility is a privilege — use it for the greater good.
Here are a few ways to chip away at our rigid thinking around what the workweek is supposed to look like.
Release your own attachment to the 40-hour week
I’ve been a remote worker for a decade, and a full-time freelancer for a year now. I only recently realized how deeply the idea that the workday must be 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, was imprinted in my brain. I have to consciously override the uneasy feeling that I’m not working enough when I take a walk with a friend in the middle of the day, spend an hour prepping dinner and cleaning the kitchen, or get up and leave my…
