{"id":42669,"date":"2021-12-13T16:12:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T16:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=860aa291de86a843769181ffa2ff8db6"},"modified":"2021-12-13T16:12:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T16:12:58","slug":"why-its-time-for-a-three-day-working-week-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/why-its-time-for-a-three-day-working-week-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it’s time for a three-day working week in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Zach Marzouk<\/a><\/span>
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14 Dec, 2021<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes,\u00a0whose teachings<\/a>\u00a0inspired the post-WW2 recovery, made a prediction. In his essay, titled\u00a0Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren<\/em><\/a>, he claimed there was a new disease at the time, called technological unemployment. He defined this as unemployment caused by humanity\u2019s discovery of the means of economising the use of labour, outrunning the pace at which we can find uses for labour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keynes called this a temporary phase of maladjustment, as, in the long run, it meant that mankind was solving its \u201ceconomic problem\u201d. In one hundred years, he added, the standard of life in progressive countries would be four-to-eight times as high as it was at the time.<\/p>\n

Keynes imagined the biggest problem, in the future, would be how people used their freedom from economic anxieties, arguing we would perhaps need to do some kind of work simply to remain content. \u201cThree-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while,\u201d he wrote. \u201cFor three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam [evil or reckless side of human nature] in most of us!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The work of Keynes has inspired calls for a shorter working week<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

So, whatever happened to this dream? While\u00a0UK labour productivity per worker\u00a0<\/a>has nearly tripled between 1959 and 2008 (before falling following the financial crash), the average working week has remained constant, with employees\u00a0working roughly 37 hours per week<\/a>\u00a0since 1992.\u00a0Much has been made<\/a>, meanwhile, of stagnant wages in the last few decades, with pay barely keeping pace with inflation. .\u00a0<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop,\u00a0new technologies have emerged<\/a>. When businesses first adopted computers, workers had to quickly learn how to type and navigate a mysterious operating system, otherwise they would be at risk of falling behind. Now, though, we\u2019re expected to learn how to use collaboration platforms at the drop of a hat while contending\u00a0with fears that AI-powered software could be tracking<\/a>\u00a0our every click to placate our paranoid managers.<\/p>\n