Its how much productivity is demanded in that 40 hours. and the compensation for it.
and theres a LOT more productivity demanded from workers today, than there was in 1950.
Because all the technologies that were supposed to make life easier… didnt. They just increased the amount of things we can/have to do in a day.
People working today are doing more labor, producing more effort per hour than 70 years ago, but are being paid less in purchasing power for it… and if thats not a recipe for violent upheaval i dont know what is.
Back before the clock was invented, agricultural workers had about 160 days of the year to themselves. (Admittedly, to do intensive chores.) Also, employers gave free breakfast and lunch, with a bit of beer. Workers might also do as low as 4 hours of work IIRC, depending on the day and season. Below is a video on the subject. Civilis also covers topics, such as the fall of the Roman republic…which feels awfully relevant, nowadays.
I love Historia Civilis. I wish he’d also discuss the Roman leaders that came after Gaius Julius Augustus. A lot of historians and books stop there after the fall of the Republic, but from what I understand a lot happened within the Roman empire since then. It would be nice to learn more about it all.
One of my absolute favorite subjects! Check out “The History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan (dont let the audio quality of the first few episodes dissuade you, it gets suddenly better very quickly). Mr Duncan goes deep on details and provides sources if you want to dig deeper. It’s a great listen that covers the mythical period all the way to the fall of the eastern empire.
The amount of time that corporations feel entitled to is ridiculous. I’ve quit my last two positions because these billion dollar companies feel that they own you for every second when you’re on the clock. It feels exploitative and gives you the sense that you’re just some beast of burden.
We’re humans, not machines to push production to the maximum. But all the higher-ups see is bottom line pushers.
My last job at a call center was staffed in such a way that they were basically on the phone continuously for their entire shift with no downtime between calls. This meant anytime something happened to increase call volume all the metrics the bean counters cared about went to shit. Their solution was to tighten the screws and demand lower handle times and better adherence from their already burnt out staff and cracking down on anyone who wasn’t logged in when they were supposed to be. Meanwhile the supervisors were leaving to go run errands and shit whenever they felt like it. Turnover quickly got ridiculous.
It’s fun when it is extended beyond work hours, too. Email/IMs/texts/Teams/Slack/whateverelsethefuck from people round the clock and on the weekend. Calls when on vacation. People asking if you could cancel your vacation just before going on one planned months in advance because of some contrived milestone. Stuff like that.
Oh, and I’m Gen-X - this kind of thing has been around since I started work, but it does seem like it’s increasing as a “norm”. People doing performative shit in public, and now others assuming this is expected - like how many commits you are doing FOR FREE on Github, or fake internet points on Stack Overflow, as an example. I honestly feel sorry for people that fall for this, thinking it’s a way to break into a job, or that they must do this to maintain one.
Though I do think that Covid did a modicum of a reset on some of the grindset nonsense. Of course, I think all the really big tech companies colluded with one another to then start doing massive layoffs to make sure that everyone still knew who was calling the tune (even if it made no sense to cut staff). Lots of managers have a real xitter envy - they’d love to cut their company to the very bone and run the place like absolute tyrants like they see fElon doing. Thing is, it is obviously a stupid way to run a business - xitter is just a Nazi bar with questionable business fundamentals at this point. But it doesn’t stop useless copycat monkeys in the C-suite from thinking he’s great.
What, are not grateful that they trickle down a tiny bit of money from what is left after the shareholders and CEO take their hard earned cut? Just because you did all the work and earned all of the money? How gready can you be? I mean they graciously let you be sick 6 days a year, and let you frolic for another 10. Don’t you realize how much effort they had to put in worrying that the small smidgen of their enormous wealth that they had inherited and invested in your company was not earning them greater wealth at a rate that was grossly unhealthy for the company or the economy?
its not the 40 hour work week thats the issue.
Its how much productivity is demanded in that 40 hours. and the compensation for it.
and theres a LOT more productivity demanded from workers today, than there was in 1950.
Because all the technologies that were supposed to make life easier… didnt. They just increased the amount of things we can/have to do in a day.
People working today are doing more labor, producing more effort per hour than 70 years ago, but are being paid less in purchasing power for it… and if thats not a recipe for violent upheaval i dont know what is.
Back before the clock was invented, agricultural workers had about 160 days of the year to themselves. (Admittedly, to do intensive chores.) Also, employers gave free breakfast and lunch, with a bit of beer. Workers might also do as low as 4 hours of work IIRC, depending on the day and season. Below is a video on the subject. Civilis also covers topics, such as the fall of the Roman republic…which feels awfully relevant, nowadays.
Historia Civilis - Work.
I love Historia Civilis. I wish he’d also discuss the Roman leaders that came after Gaius Julius Augustus. A lot of historians and books stop there after the fall of the Republic, but from what I understand a lot happened within the Roman empire since then. It would be nice to learn more about it all.
One of my absolute favorite subjects! Check out “The History of Rome” podcast by Mike Duncan (dont let the audio quality of the first few episodes dissuade you, it gets suddenly better very quickly). Mr Duncan goes deep on details and provides sources if you want to dig deeper. It’s a great listen that covers the mythical period all the way to the fall of the eastern empire.
The amount of time that corporations feel entitled to is ridiculous. I’ve quit my last two positions because these billion dollar companies feel that they own you for every second when you’re on the clock. It feels exploitative and gives you the sense that you’re just some beast of burden. We’re humans, not machines to push production to the maximum. But all the higher-ups see is bottom line pushers.
My last job at a call center was staffed in such a way that they were basically on the phone continuously for their entire shift with no downtime between calls. This meant anytime something happened to increase call volume all the metrics the bean counters cared about went to shit. Their solution was to tighten the screws and demand lower handle times and better adherence from their already burnt out staff and cracking down on anyone who wasn’t logged in when they were supposed to be. Meanwhile the supervisors were leaving to go run errands and shit whenever they felt like it. Turnover quickly got ridiculous.
It’s fun when it is extended beyond work hours, too. Email/IMs/texts/Teams/Slack/whateverelsethefuck from people round the clock and on the weekend. Calls when on vacation. People asking if you could cancel your vacation just before going on one planned months in advance because of some contrived milestone. Stuff like that.
Oh, and I’m Gen-X - this kind of thing has been around since I started work, but it does seem like it’s increasing as a “norm”. People doing performative shit in public, and now others assuming this is expected - like how many commits you are doing FOR FREE on Github, or fake internet points on Stack Overflow, as an example. I honestly feel sorry for people that fall for this, thinking it’s a way to break into a job, or that they must do this to maintain one.
Though I do think that Covid did a modicum of a reset on some of the grindset nonsense. Of course, I think all the really big tech companies colluded with one another to then start doing massive layoffs to make sure that everyone still knew who was calling the tune (even if it made no sense to cut staff). Lots of managers have a real xitter envy - they’d love to cut their company to the very bone and run the place like absolute tyrants like they see fElon doing. Thing is, it is obviously a stupid way to run a business - xitter is just a Nazi bar with questionable business fundamentals at this point. But it doesn’t stop useless copycat monkeys in the C-suite from thinking he’s great.
What, are not grateful that they trickle down a tiny bit of money from what is left after the shareholders and CEO take their hard earned cut? Just because you did all the work and earned all of the money? How gready can you be? I mean they graciously let you be sick 6 days a year, and let you frolic for another 10. Don’t you realize how much effort they had to put in worrying that the small smidgen of their enormous wealth that they had inherited and invested in your company was not earning them greater wealth at a rate that was grossly unhealthy for the company or the economy?