21 Hours

Imagine this! A 21-hour work week as standard.

A ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours could help to 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.

It’s still too many hours for my bone-idle liking, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction for the overworked Parkinson’s Law-afflicted cube farm world.

About

Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk

2 Responses to “21 Hours”

  1. Anna says:

    It’s true, 21 hours is the perfect limit on a workweek if you ‘have’ to work. I worked 20.75 hours a week for the past year and a half, and I found it to be just the threshold before bitterness and resentment kick in. Enough to milk what you can out of a place, without it getting to you!

    And oh, how the full-time employees of the office are jealous, when they see you being just as productive as they are in 3/5 of the time.

  2. So true! I remember my days part-time working and it drove the permanent residents crazy.

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