2 021 #18
CDE POLICY BRIEF
Photo: TJ Blackwell
Free Days for Future?
KEY MESSAGES
Mainstream modes of working and consuming in rich countries are eroding our social and ecological foundations. Advocates of a shorter workweek point to a possible triple dividend from working less. This policy brief summarizes how reduced working hours could benefit our well-being, economies, and the natural world – and what measures could be taken to help make this vision a reality. Based on evidence and experience from around the world, we recommend a transformation pathway – shifting from Switzerland’s current standard workweek to a new, improved worktime status quo that could better meet our and others’ needs – and those of the planet.
The research featured here is focused on Switzerland.
When the current health crisis is finally brought under control, there will doubtless be significant pressure from many corners to return to something resembling “business as usual”. For countless workers in wealthy countries, that would mean resuming lives characterized by overwork, high stress, many hours spent commuting – and related material overconsumption. But this is not an option we can afford to indulge. Achieving lastingly healthy, happier, more just societies this century demands that we rethink our priorities and redesign our
lifestyles and wider systems – not least of all our models of work, pay, and play. Our creation: the workweek The 40-plus-hour workweek has been with us for so long that it’s easy to forget we invented it – and could just as soon change it. In 1926, following many years of labour activism, Henry Ford first introduced a five-day workweek at his American auto plants. A few years later, Kellogg’s cereal company implemented a six-hour workday at their factories.1 These reforms, reductions at the time,
• Making our societies greener, happier, and more just will require a variety of strategies. In wealthy, industrialized countries, reducing the time we spend working for income – i.e. the standard workweek – is a highly promising policy alongside other reforms. • Working less can increase our well-being, reduce stress, and lower burnout risks. Newly gained time can provide greater space for reflection, relationships, and enriching activities – and it can support more environmentally friendly, smaller-footprint lifestyles. • Shorter workweeks can also support greater gender equality and better distribute gainful employment among workers, thereby reducing the numbers of unemployed. • How people allocate their paid working time should be as flexible as possible to suit their own requirements. To this end, we need measures that allow everyone to work less if this improves their quality of life.