Looking back at history, the 40 hour work week spanning from 9-5, Monday-Friday was established by Henry Ford in the 1900s. This was decreased from 6 days down to 5 days as a way to better working conditions so that other businesses were unable to compete with Ford. This has now become the standard “full-time” working hours for employees all over the world.
With the progression of modern technology, the efficiency of each worker has increased 10-fold; whilst access to work tools has also become so convenient that many people can even work from the comfort of their own home. So why does the 40 hour standard still exist? Is it still necessary?
The answer is different for everyone. Some roles such as manufacturing rely on the workers to be there for the full amount of time in order to gain the required output from each worker. On the other end of the spectrum, some roles may be extremely flexible with a focus on results; so as long as workers are able to complete set tasks to a good degree, they deserve to get paid.
However, with society progressing with such efficiency, the variability of jobs becomes even larger. This signals that the time of the standard 40 hour workweek is in its twilight years. Companies that are able to adapt their work times the most effectively will be the ones to hire the greatest talent. From this point onwards, we will gain more and more leverage on our time.
Yan's blog 