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Monika Kosiedowska Working Time

The introduction of a 40‑hour working week was a long‑awaited success of the labour rights movement during the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Only in the 20th century did it become a standard working time in most countries around the globe. The funny thing is that the idea of a 40‑hour working week (or an 8‑hour workday) dates back to 16th century Spain. The first one to notice that working 12 or 14 hours a day may not necessarily be effectiveeffectiveeffective was the Spanish king Phillip II, who ordered that workers of factories and fortifications work no more than 8 hours a day. Maybe that is one of the reasons Spaniards nicknamed their king “the PrudentprudentPrudent”?

Nowadays some countries are experimenting with a 6‑hour workday (30‑hour working week). In 2015, this working time was introduced in one of the healthcare facilitieshealthcare facilities [healthcare facility]healthcare facilities in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Between 2014 and 2019, Iceland performed another study on a 4‑day (35‑hour) workweek. Both studies showed clearly that the efficiencyefficiencyefficiency of employees involved in those experiments did not deterioratedeterioratedeteriorate, but even got better. They rarely used sick leavessick leavesick leaves and their general well‑beingwell‑beingwell‑being improved. Does a 30 or 35‑hour working week sound good? How about a 4‑hour (yes, four‑hour) working week?

The idea of a 4‑hour working week was invented by an American entrepreneur Timothy Ferriss. His typical day of work was not an 8‑hour one. His job required him to work 14 hours a day (or at least he thought so). Being overwhelmedbeing overwhelmed [be overwhelmed]Being overwhelmed by his soul‑crushing worksoul‑crushing worksoul‑crushing work, he once took a three‑week tour around the world. As a workaholicworkaholicworkaholic, he could not entirely renouncerenouncerenounce his job on his tour, but he noticed that he can retain his productivityproductivityproductivity using only a fractionfractionfraction of time he had used for work so far.

The key to this was the introduction of the minimum effective loadminimum effective workloadminimum effective load rule. This concept is quite simple: the minimum load needed to produce the desired outcome is the perfect load to be used. Retainingretaining [retain]Retaining your effectivenesseffectivenesseffectiveness requires you to outsourceoutsourceoutsource simple tasks – which, combined, usually take a lot of time – to virtual assistantsvirtual assistants [virtual assistant]virtual assistants. They are freelancersfreelancerfreelancers – independent contractors, who provide administrative services while working outside their client’s office. These services include things like maintaining a meeting calendar, managing email accounts, making travel arrangements and making phone calls.

Another important thing when it comes to being productivebeing productive [be productive]being productive but working less is to apply the 80/20 rule. The rule states that 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of the effort. Being selectivebeing selective [be selective]Being selective is the main principle in choosing your tasks. You should divide them into actionableactionableactionable and unactionableunactionableunactionable and perform only the former.

Is a 4‑hour working week good for every job? Not really. It will be hard to imagine a policeman patrolling the streets only 4 hours a week or a craftsman being able to provide for his family by doing his work less than an hour a day. But still, applying the rules on which the 4‑hour working week is based could be beneficialbeneficialbeneficial to anyone. Getting rid of all unnecessary tasks and concentrating on the important ones can help maintain a work‑life balancemaintain work‑life balancemaintain a work‑life balance by saving a lot of time. A time to be used to live one’s life.

1 Źródło: Monika Kosiedowska, dostępny w internecie: Jorge Cabrita, Simon Boehmer, Camilla Galli da Bino, Working time developments in the 21st century: Work duration and its regulation in the EU, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pl/publications/report/2016/industrial-relations-law-and-regulation/working-time-developments-in-the-21st-century-work-duration-and-its-regulation-in-the-eu [dostęp 8.02.2022], licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.