Sweden introduces six-hour work day

[ComixZone]

With the advancements in communication technologies (video conferencing, cell phones, email, etc etc), we're at a point where we are tuned to be much more efficient in our jobs. I like Sweden's stance on this, rather than what seems to be happening in North America. Rather than tethering people to their jobs, they're pushing quality of life. Fact is - less time at work equates more time for the family and community.

Now that we have these tools (cell phones, video conferencing, emails etc), we can't !@#$ing escape work. Since the layoffs in Alberta really started to kick-off, a light day is 10 hours, a normal day is north of 11 and at the minimum once a week is a 12+ hour day. This doesn't even include emails that get sent back and forth after/before hours. With how our culture is, I even feel bad complaining about those type of hours because "people in other countries don't even have jobs".

Rock on Sweden, rock on.

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

This might be okay for the typical office worker but a 6 hour work day would likely have negative repercusions for non-office type of work. I know when I worked at a jobsite I needed 8-10 hours every day, easily, to keep up with the workload. I imagine the same would apply at blue collar jobs like manufacturing. I suppose they could find a way to add an extra shift or something though.

The other problem, as someone above alluded to, is that wages would likely have to go down. So, you may have more time on your hands each day but you'd also have less money to use in your free time.

It'll be interesting to see what happens though. The Scandinavian countries always seem to be leading the world in these types of social experiments.

I think this is just wrong. The truth of it is - just do the work tomorrow. Work your 6 hours, work them hard, and what you don't get done becomes part of tomorrow. It never ends. The work never ends, but your time is limited. If as a Nation, we understood this, the improvements that would ripple through society would boost quality of life incredibly. Nutrition would improve, divorce rate would decline, childhood education would improve because children would benefit from more time with their parents...it goes on and on.

Time is a much more valuable asset than money, although I don't disagree that we've been conditioned to think otherwise.

[Locke]

I agree, I used to work a job where some days I had no work to do and other days I had more work than I could realistically complete but had to put the same number of hours in.

These days I live by flexibility with several notable exceptions (tax season).

[Red Slinger]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I think this is just wrong. The truth of it is - just do the work tomorrow. Work your 6 hours, work them hard, and what you don't get done becomes part of tomorrow. It never ends. The work never ends, but your time is limited. If as a Nation, we understood this, the improvements that would ripple through society would boost quality of life incredibly. Nutrition would improve, divorce rate would decline, childhood education would improve because children would benefit from more time with their parents...it goes on and on.

Time is a much more valuable asset than money, although I don't disagree that we've been conditioned to think otherwise.

Again, in a white-collar office environment you can usually do that. It's a little harder on a construction site, for instance, where people are working to a schedule that will have a significant knock-on effect to other people being able to do their jobs.

Generally speaking, I agree with the notion that the current work-life balance isn't much of a balance. To implement something like this universally would take a major shift in staff planning and scheduling productivity well beyond 'doing it tomorrow'.

Good for Sweden for trying this out.

[Bootsy]

I guess it depends on what your occupation is but I've always had the mindset that the clock doesn't matter work wise as long as my stuff gets done.
Some days will be long others short but as long as you personally keep track of your work-home balance and make sure it suits you then that's all that matters...of course your employer has to have the same mindset which in my case I've been fortunate to have had that.

[CaptainCrunch]

If Overtime kicks in at 6 hours, I can see how some of the trades and contractor/construction sectors are going to freak out on this, as well as seasonal industries.

[GGG]

4 eights would be way better than 5 sixes.

Once commuting is accounted for you don't really gain 25% more time.

Also at least in O+G boom times we were down to pretty close to that with flex days and every second Friday off.

36 x 52 = 1872 and add in 5 - 10 flex days and you get down to 1800 hrs per year which is around 34hrs per week. So no a huge step change from Sweden,

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GGG

4 eights would be way better than 5 sixes.

Once commuting is accounted for you don't really gain 25% more time.

Also at least in O+G boom times we were down to pretty close to that with flex days and every second Friday off.

36 x 52 = 1872 and add in 5 - 10 flex days and you get down to 1800 hrs per year which is around 34hrs per week. So no a huge step change from Sweden,

you're never going to get that in a lot of trades that are deadline intensive.

I'll use paving for example. you mostly do it in the warm months, you pretty much have to grind the job sun up to sun down because of the weather limitations for example.

So the whole 6 hour work day doesn't do anything for work life balance because it doesn't work that way. All your're doing is adding a massive expense to the employer if your adding 10 hours of overtime pay or 12 hours of overtime pay a week and then stacking ontop of that.

[Erick Estrada]

I can see this working for office jobs but I don't see how it would work on assembly lines, production facilities, construction, and 24 hour operations. On 24 hour operations you would have to introduce added shifts and the associated costs. Construction is a deadline based industry so again they either have to hire more people or deadlines would have to be lengthened. If you are producing a product on an assembly line again you need more shifts to gain the same productivity you would get based on an typical 40 hour week. A lot of these fields have likely introduced Kaizen processes to eliminate waste and streamline the process so I don't see how the average worker in these facilities would be able to make up the loss of 10 hours/week. Maybe it's me but I don't see this ever being able to fly in North America.

[WhiteTiger]

This seems like a good idea...if you work a 9-5 mon-fri office job. Work pretty much any other job, and all the sudden it's probably not so good.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

They are on the right track, but I feel like it should be taken a step further. Most people are pretty competent in their jobs. If they are ahead of schedule and only need to work Thursday morning and be fine for Friday, why make them sit around all afternoon and poop the day away? I feel like my motivation would be much higher if I knew I could set my own hours so long as everything got done well, and done on time.

That would mean managers need to have a way of assessing productivity in a more sophisticated manner than how many hours a week your ass is sitting at your desk. Sadly, that skill is beyond a lot of managers. Basically, we still follow a model that applies to factory work, long after most people stopped working in factories.

[rubecube]

I think a lot of people don't really understand how a work day goes in Sweden. Generally if you're supposed to be done at certain time, you're done at that time. Doesn't really matter if it's office or trades. The mentality is that the work can wait. Keep in mind that in the Scandinavian countries most, if not all occupations are unionized.

[keratosis]

Sweden? I think my wife may have some Swedish blood in her. It would beat the hell out of 10-14 hr days I've been working.

[Ironhorse]

So what about companies that bill hours for their revenue, such as law firms and consulting engineers? Are they exempt, or do they take a 25% paycut by being limited to charging 6 hours a day?

[Winsor_Pilates]

I would actually rather work 8 hours with a social element (meetings, water cooler, social media, CP) then 6 hours locked down to my work.

[Southside]

When I was younger I remember my uncle having a Volvo. He used to say it took 6 Swedes 60 days to build it. I never really got the joke...

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by blueski

If I lived in Sweden I'd rather work 30 hours in three days and have the rest of the week off.

That's not the point though. Doing 3 days at 10 hours defeats the purpose of reducing the number of hours.