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A comment on Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is good for you and your boss. Parent comment

Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by meddlepal on Friday August 19, 2016 @01:35PM (#12321785)
I agree strongly with the idea that "40 hours" is just as made up as "15 hours" or whatever. We need actual data to draw any conclusions here. Similarly we haven't explored all the ways we can make people more productive either. Maybe if the employees who feel tired after six hours could take a long nap mid-day they'd be able to work 12 hours a day at a high level.

That said I'm on the work what you feel comfortable working and as long as goals are being met then it doesn't matter.

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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by mindfulgeek on Friday August 19, 2016 @01:51PM (#12321920)
The 40 hour work week comes from Ford. It is optimized for factory workers. Data for creative/makers would be interesting to see.
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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by franlupion on Friday August 19, 2016 @05:35PM (#12323653)
"The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, was started by James Deb and had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week."[1]

It is the second time this month that this misconception about Ford comes around, I am curious to know where it comes from.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day

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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by mindfulgeek on Friday August 19, 2016 @08:59PM (#12324520)
Interesting! I remember first reading this on Wikipedia a few years ago. either I'm misremembering or the article has changed since then. Here's one article about Ford's influence on it: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/...

A quick Google search and there are a lot of others like this. Thanks!

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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by projektir on Friday August 19, 2016 @08:13PM (#12324388)
I'm skeptical that it's optimized for factory workers, even...
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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by Rapzid on Friday August 19, 2016 @01:46PM (#12321877)
They are likely not sleeping enough at night to begin with; I know I'm not. A solid 8-9 hours(or whatever you need) will easily get you more hours of productivity than a lot of the comments here think are possible..
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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by st3v3r on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:27PM (#12322241)
But you're not going to get that amount of sleep if you're working long hours.
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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by st3v3r on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:27PM (#12322229)
Why in the hell would I want to give HALF MY DAY to the company?
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Re:Less stress, more productivity: working fewer hours is go... by SonicSoul on Friday August 19, 2016 @02:59PM (#12322577)
it all depends what you want. I've had intense jobs that required a lot of hours but I liked the pay and the experience from delivering a lot. Some of my coworkers went to a different employer in a different industry and down to 35hrs/week + lots of vacation. This included a big pay cut but they are perfectly happy. Just like I am perfectly happy where I am. this is not black and white
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