Stephan Aarstol is an evangelist for the five-hour day. He believes the 9-to-5 grind has created a culture of workaholics. He put his money where his mouth is, declaring a five-hour day for his paddleboard online sales company.. Last year, we were named the fastest-growing private company in San Diego,” he writes on Thrive Global.
When he announced the experiment on LinkedIn, somebody retorted it was “nice in theory, but I can’t finish all of my tasks in six hours!” Mr. Glaveski insists that’s faulty thinking, assuming all tasks were created equally. The Pareto principle suggests that 20 per cent of our tasks create 80 per cent of our output’s value. So focusing better can smooth the transition. He advises cutting wasted time, for example by changing the default time for meetings from 60 minutes to 30 minutes.
The eight-hour day, as Mr. Glaveski notes, is a product of “19th century socialism,” when an upper limit was sought to fight the long hours in factories and mines. Any 21st century burst of equivalent socialism would run headlong into a significant crunch: Employers would want to cut back wages, to match the cut in hours, and although some people might accept that trade-off, far more would see their current lifestyle threatened and want the same remuneration even if hours were reduced.
Globe_Careers Great idea, but you have to increase productivity first. And that requires capitalism, and government getting the hell out of the way. Then people can use their economic judgment and trade with others for mutual benefit.