Prosancons.com
“Eight hours
labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest,” Robert Owen, a Welsh
manufacturer and labour rights activist divided the day into three equal
eight-hour parts.
In the 1800s,
people in manufacturing worked nearly 100 hours per week. Today, 40-hour work
has been implemented in many developed countries (e.g. Europe, UK). In fact,
people working in Denmark, Sweden and Norway with fewer hours per week tend to
be more productive, happy and healthy. Even in Indonesia, the labour law
prescribes normal working hours as 40 hours per week. Meanwhile in Malaysia,
the Malaysian Employment Act defines the workweek as 48 hours, with a maximum
of eight working hours per day and six working days per week.
Working more than
40 hours a week benefit no one. A 2004 report published by the CDC’s Department
of Health and Human Services provides a summary of 52 applied psychology
studies on the impact of extended shifts and regular overtime. Across the
board, the studies found the impacts were negative—both for employers and
employees:
·
People
who regularly work overtime are less healthy. They’re more likely to gain
weight, fall ill, and get injured on the job.
·
People
are less alert and more likely to make mistakes after the 8th hour of work.
·
People
who routinely work extended hours and overtime are less productive.
Overwork can also
lead to sleep deprivation and stress. BNM's 2018 Annual Report stated that
higher labour productivity comes with higher wages and not by the duration of
working time.
But is 40 hours a
week still too much? The 40-hour workweek is rooted in industrialism. Modern advances in technology have
provided today’s workers with the tools to work anytime and anywhere. Therefore,
people can, and do continue working after they leave work for the day, check
their work email at night and even on weekends. On average, people work an
extra seven hours a week outside of the office. This makes us depend 100% fully
on our current job – our only source of income.
NEF (the New
Economic Foundation), an independent think-and-do tank in fact suggested a
radical change in 40 working hours to 21 hours. And 21 hours is close to the
average that people of working age in Britain spend in paid work. Moreover, it
could help address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork,
unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being,
entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for
each other, and simply to enjoy life.
People today have
less time to enjoy their lives because the eight hours that they have each day
for fun are filled with chores and errands—more rote tasks to handle. This has
led some people to claim that the 40-hour workweek is too long.
There is still
not enough evidence yet to conclude either 40 hours or 21 hours is better for
an employee to work in a week. It depends on the nature and culture of an
organisation. But HR could consider the potential benefits of lesser working
hours when deciding the standard working hours of a company.
Reference:
1. Jessica Greene, Is 40 hours a week too
much? Here’s what history and science say https://www.atspoke.com/
2. NEF (2010), 21 hours - Why a shorter
working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century
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