As I became a manager in the fitness field, I began to notice that the 40-hour workweek was an absolute fraud. What I mean is, how many people do you know, use their time efficiently and produce for a full 40 hours? I know zero. No, don’t tell yourself that you produce and bust ass for all 40 hours! You are feeding yourself a line of shit.
Over time I watched and observed at least 1000 different employees do a number of things to avoid work. Constant visits to the bathroom, breakroom, walking around aimlessly, hiding, and other various forms of looking busy. You know the phrase, the busy idiot, right? This isn’t even adding in the ridiculous technology distraction, we will get to that in future posts.
Reflecting on my own habits, I noticed that I personally could match the production of others in about 2 hours of actual work per day. That is to say in 2 hours most days I could do what was expected of me in an 8-hour time frame by the higher-ups. Mind you, this is working for some establishment, not self-employment. That’s the catch, right? How hard would you work if it was your own success and profits on the line?
Something else to figure in is your pay, right? For any job I have taken in my life, I would weigh the pay per hour versus what kind of labor they wanted me to produce. Would you physically kill yourself working at a foundry for $14 per hour? I know I wouldn’t. I would measure the work versus the pay I am receiving. Now let’s say that the pay was $25 per hour would you work harder? Of course, you would. There has been a wage problem for many years in many countries. I know the pandemic gave people time to ponder their labor and life.
I have a few questions for you. Are you married? Do you have a family? Wouldn’t you like to spend more time with them? Time my friends is the one thing we can’t get back in our lives. Shouldn’t we value it with the highest regard? If you don’t you should!
Think about it for a moment. 40 hours of work on the clock right? Sure. No, no, no. How about, preparation? How about the drive to and from? Shit is starting to add up, isn’t it? We aren’t even talking about salary screw and overtime by the way. Just the average 40-hour workweek.
I have watched selfish owners kill their own company from what is nothing more than embezzlement and misappropriation of funds in my eyes. Profits are spent on endless vacations, acquisition of various assets, including personal property etc. Now, that is just squandering away the profits with no regard for employees or the longevity of their created business. I have seen these selfish morons take a paycheck when not even remotely involved in the business. That’s right upwards of 6 figures! This was happening at a small local “family” restaurant where I live. If you peer a bit deeper at times you can find other family members hidden in payroll who quite literally are not even involved with the business or have other jobs.
Most of the mismanagement goes totally unseen to the ground-level workers who are actually keeping the business going. This is nefarious activity make no mistake about it. The spirit of greed is strong in those who say I created this business and I deserve what I take from my company. I say bullshit. Without the employees there is no company, don’t get it twisted.
I make these previous points to show that there is much room for labor improvement. Pertaining to the 40 hours you can clearly see there is another way if people demand change. There is too much money being squandered at the behest of those in charge.
Sure this may be a fantasy but without corruption, the following is a more realistic workweek recommendation:
I noticed that production suffers horribly after around 5 hours or so of work performed. So we start there. I personally want no one working for me for more than 6 hours at the most. Concentration drops, small talk begins, technology becomes a distraction etc. So the ideal productive 5-hour shift it is, 6 at the most.
I would say that 4 days of going to work is also going to be efficient when you look at the increase in motivation of more pay and fewer hours on the clock! So that would be on average, 4 days of work at 5-6 hours per day. I can guarantee that employees will not only be fresh and healthier but excited to come into work instead of dreading it. Production will be better, in turn, profits will be up as well. There will be very few if any distractions or being a busy idiot while on the clock. You will have a hungry workforce ready to produce.
Lastly, we would have to look at pay. The whole point here is to work less, producing more through consistently working without distraction. I would say that would deserve more pay. I think you see where I am going with this. We are essentially reproducing the 40 hour drawn-out work week with fewer hours but more production than your average 8-10 hour workday. It all shakes out either way. So why in the world are we working so much? Well, that’s just what we have always done right? Sure. That is the answer you would probably get from these braindead zombies. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons for possibly why.
There are many reasons an employer would give you as to why you must work “full-time” to accomplish anything. I know personally in the fitness industry they would mention coverage. Wow isn’t that brilliant reasoning? I have an idea. How about you have more people on staff to fill out the hours necessary and produce better while they are there. Sure you need to count on people to make it in but that is no different from any other current workforce situation. More people on staff could mean more coverage in terms of illness or emergencies that may come up anyways. How many times have you seen a business run with 3-4 people and someone has to miss because of something? This has resulted in the business being shut down for the day or even longer at times. Not great. You’ve seen what is going on with the pandemic, but the business refuses to hire more part-time help to figure it out. Oh yeah, I forgot about the excuse people don’t want to work right? Well, no they don’t, not for bad pay and poor treatment. What a shocker!
I hope this has given everyone here food for thought. Obviously working for yourself is always going to be the best scenario if you have a way to produce a decent income. Making your own hours and answering to yourself is priceless. On the other hand, working for others can be great as well. Through the pandemic, we can see working remotely makes a lot more sense than paying for building space, cubicles, utilities, etc. That money can be saved and put back in employees’ pockets in the future I hope! It just has to be a good work/life balance. Good pay, proper treatment, and benefits such as profit sharing will always create an attractive work environment for those seeking. In the end, remember you can not get time back in life! If you are that individual working for that 1-2 weeks off in life year after year, I can promise you that at some point you will try to remedy that.
Living a life of minimalism will also allow for a seamless transition into making less income as well. We will talk a lot about this in upcoming posts! Life is short and we all need time for ourselves and our loved ones. Remember there is no loyalty amongst thieves when it comes to the workplace.
This is a quick video from one of my favorite card collecting YouTubers mentioning how labor has drastically changed for the worse in modern society.