Consequences

Who knew that being a public sector Environmental Sustainability Officer or a Social Media Manager or a Journalism Studies postgrad would be so stressful?

That mandatory 35-hour working week has worked really well in France.

‘… his preferences (for others) are needed “on a European level.”’
Because he is one of the anointed.

The blurb that goes with the poll is fun too:
“A leading doctor has recommended that the UK switch to a four-day working week”
Remember when doctors stuck to doctoring instead of trying to micromanage every aspect of your life?
“to combat rising stress and allow people to spend more time with their families.”
What if involuntarily spending more time with the family would be stressful because it would involve having to explain that, due to Daddy’s income dropping by 20%, Mummy now has to get a job and the kids will be seeing a lot less of her?
“Prof John Ashton said that the UK has a maldistribution of work,”
There is literally unlimited work to be done. What he means is work that people are willing to do for the pay others are willing to offer.
It’s why you get Polish girls serving your frappuccino while we have millions of British people sitting at home watching Jeremy Kyle.
It’s why all those people on Jobseekers Allowance were crying when the government asked them to put in some working hours in exchange for their benefits. Putting in a shift a Poundland is beneath their dignity, but claiming money for sitting on their backsides isn’t, apparently.
Our good doctor seems to be under the illusion that there is a fixed quantity of work and that The Enlightened should divvy it up, the desires of employers and employees be damned.
“with lunch breaks disappearing, and people working increasingly long hours.”
I work long hours through choice. Is anybody holding a gun to people’s heads and forcing them to slave away over a hot laptop? No? Then it’s not a problem.
“He also highlighted the problem of inequality”
Why is inequality a problem? Would it be better if we were all equally poor and miserable? Should we stop paying “leading doctors” so much to make them more equal to their patients?
“with many working too hard while others are out of work.”
There’s no correlation. Take our Dave Spart doctor for example. If he were to work longer hours, would that put other doctors out of work? And how many unemployed people have the ability or interest to become doctors, or fill in for any other job involving specialised skills?
Most people who work exceptionally long hours are skilled people or self employed or in a position of responsibility. That’s why they work long hours – they’re in demand and they want to earn.
Most long term unemployed people are long term unemployed because of their skill set, habits, and attitude.

with all manner of unexplored practical and economic consequences,
Why train and employ 30 people when you can train and employ 40 to do the exactly same amount of work?
#SocialistLogic

Who knew that being a public sector Environmental Sustainability Officer or a Social Media Manager or a Journalism Studies postgrad would be so stressful?
Did you hear about the EPA office in Denver, Colorado where somebody has been pooping on the floors? Who knew that being a mid-level commissar with guaranteed lifetime employment was so emotionally traumatic?

Meanwhile in another far away fairy tale land called the art world…

In the comments section, John Rebelistic sides with Professor Ashton:

I think we should go further and have a two day week.
The problem is our economic system or whatever the hell it is is completely insane.
A sign of a progressive society should be ever increasing leisure time. As technology becomes more advanced less labour should be required. I have a feeling that all the efficiency savings are not passed down to the workers though and get spent by the rich/elite/1%.
There seems to be a lot of work done that we could easily live without (advertising & marketing for example).

“with lunch breaks disappearing, and people working increasingly long hours.”
The man’s a twat. In the UK (at least in engineering offices) people eat a sandwich at their desk in order to minimise their actual work day, i.e. the time between leaving home in the morning and getting home at night. In France, they take a good hour or two for lunch and make up for it by working late into the evening. So if this dickhead wants people to spend more time with their families, he ought to be pleased that lunch breaks are disappearing.

Once again, we witness the drivel spouted by those who have never actually employed anyone to do work for pay. It’s all magic with these people. Here’s a better idea: Let’s have no work whatsoever and just let people create their own cash at home on their laser printers. We’ll all be smiling then, I bet. It’s a wonder no one thought of such a marvelous solution before.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to throw a virgin into a volcano in order to make this month’s mortgage payment.

They need a corollary survey: “What are you willing to sacrifice to work a 4-day workweek?”
It’s all magic with these people.
Indeed it is.

Minnow – Well I do.
Right, so. The four day week… haven’t we already tried this? In the 1970’s? Under Ted Heath?
Did the three day week in the 1970’s make Britain a happier, smilier place?
Lefties in Scotland aren’t too keen on the Protestant work ethic either. The Jimmy Reid Foundation, named after the famous Communist Jimmy Reid, says Scots work too much:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/politics/referendum-news/report-urges-four-day-week-in-indy-scotland-to-end-culture-of-overwork.23946187
“The paper recommends phasing in a standard 30-hour working week over 10 years in the event of Scottish independence, with a legal limit to ensure no one works more than 35 hours a week.”
Sounds like a socialist paradise. Who’s going to pay for it all?
“The radical redistribution of work would begin with the Scottish Government imposing a shorter week on public-sector staff to show it was feasible.”
That’s insane. Nobody cares if the council paper-shuffling office is closed. But Scots will be highly pissed off when they find out their chip shops, off licences, and pubs are closed.
“Our intention is for a four-day, 30-hour week to be one part of building a more equal society and a stronger economy that utilises human resources effectively.”
When they talk about building a more equal society, that’s a massive hint to anybody who wants to make something of themselves that it’s time to get the hell out of Scotland.
“Published tomorrow by the left-wing Jimmy Reid Foundation, “Time for Life” is the latest paper in a series on the Common Weal, the idea that Scotland can be a wealthier, healthier and fairer society by adapting progressive economic and social policies from the Nordic nations.”
In the imagination of the British left, Scandinavia is some sort of workers’ Valhalla. Shame about all the emigration of their best people, race riots, rape gangs and whatnot.
NB they only want to adopt the cuckoo-bananas leftie policies, not the more hard-nosed market-based policies that help make the proggie ones possible – like privatised education and emergency services, high VAT, no minimum wage, no NHS…
“Its authors include Isobel Lindsay, a former industrial sociologist at Strathclyde University and the musician and broadcaster Pat Kane.”
A former sociology lecturer and a crap 80’s pop star? I’m reserving judgement till Bonnie wee Jeannie McColl weighs in.

If I may interject, the crap 80s pop star is now a ‘thinker’ and leading advocate of some unfathomable nonsense known as ‘play theory’ and is therefore a veritable gold mine of pretentious left wing posturing.
All his big words and lofty teachings can be found here.
https://twitter.com/thoughtland
Earlier today, he moans:
This YouGov poll… If Tories likely 2b next UK govt, 50% would STILL vote NO?! Is this a Scotland you even recognise? God help us, if so…..
By which he really means WHY OH WHY CAN’T PEOPLE BE LEFT WING LIKE I TELL THEM?

I remember when a doctor’s micromanagement consisted of saying “stop smoking” and “lose some weight.”
Which, oddly enough, directly correlated to the patient’s health.
PROGRESS!

“Why train and employ 30 people when you can train and employ 40 to do the exactly same amount of work?”
Here in Rahm’s Chicago, the Police Department reasons that 40 officers would need 10 more pensions and 10 more sets of health benefits, among other things. And overtime for existing officers is actually cheaper than that. Of course, with the amount of crime in a large city like Chicago, we really do need more officers.

Posted by: Patrick Chester | July 03, 2014 at 05:45: I’ve worked 4 ten-hour days with three off. It’s okay…
Another interesting shift structure is 3 x 12 alternating with 4 x 12 (84 hours every two weeks). This has worked well for people in jobs that have to be covered 24×7. The advantage is that only four shifts are needed to provide that 24×7 coverage, and their work hours don’t have to change around continually. This greatly reduces sleep disruption and other work-related stress.
Yeah, a twelve-hour shift is long. But nurses and other 24×7 occupations often end up working double shifts (16 hours). And they still have the stress of shifting hours.

a lot of work done that we could easily live without (advertising and marketing for example).
Can we add the loss-making Guardian and its columnists to the list?

I thought this was fun from the “Thoughtland” thread: “Former UK Labour Prime Minister Blair embodies corruption and war. He must be sacked.” Maybe he was being sarcastic, and I just missed it.

Your previous article was about the New Economic Foundation pushing this. The last accounts I saw for this “charity” indicated that the average employee there was paid £38,000 per year. I don’t know how many days a week this was for.

. . but this web comic . . .
Oh, very cute . . .
Then again, sing along now . . .
Immanuel Kant,
was a real piss-ant,
who was very rarely stable . . . .

Would working a four-day week relieve your stress?
And there was me thinking stress was merely a social construct.

Professor Ashton, whose ideas are championed with not one but two Guardian articles on the same day,
Make that three Guardian articles. Today, Andrew Martin tells us that the public’s general aversion to the state limiting our working hours to a more “equal” and compulsory four day week is due to a “protestant work ethic, allied to [a] post-imperial crisis of confidence.” The notion of “hard-working families” is, he says, “creepy” and “suggests dogged morons with their heads down.” And while his arguments on the subject may not be entirely convincing, or convincing at all, Mr Martin says that his socialist solution must be “universal and fixed.”
When not sharing his deep wisdom in the Guardian, Mr Martin is an author of books about trains.

Thornavis.,
Middle class English leftists have a strange tendency to look to an imagined past as their source of inspiration.
Which is precisely what they accuse conservatives of doing. Hmm…