Comment on The bosses are never going to just hand workers a 32 hour workweek.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 days ago
It’s something of a joke that office workers do maybe 2-3 hours of work a day.
Or, at least, they did. And now offices are playing the “how many people can we lay off before the system collapses” game
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 6 days ago
It’s not a joke, there’s be studies done that prove it. Its closer to 50/50 iirc though.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I mean, more that it’s a joke that we have to sit in an office for 8+ hours to do 3 hours of work.
I think it’s unreasonable to call it “wasted”. Like telling a pro-athlete “if you’re not running the ball continuously for every minute of the game you’re wasting your potential”.
Some of it is socializing (which has knock on benefits). Some of it is simply resting/recovery (because intellectual labor takes real energy and people get exhausted). Some of it is bureaucracy.
The real gains of IT are in the speed of data transfer and processing. That saves human labor to a degree, but it also proliferates the labor. Excel allows every Mom & Pop accounting firm to do what required an army of NASA “computers” 60 years ago. But because everyone is doing this level of rigorous, high speed accounting, it actually requires more overall work, not less.
The individuals in question are no more or less efficient today. They were taking coffee breaks, long lunches, and clocking out early to play golf at NASA, too.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Marathon runners take no breaks. If you’re requireing constant breaks due to mental fatigue, like any other muscle training and work it.
How do you think tradesman handle working 8 hour shifts with only a 30 minute break? They’re constantly on their feet, being physical, they are also doing calculations, looking around at their surroundings in case something is wrong or going to happen.
So yes, it is in fact wasted.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Marathon runners take breaks between every marathon. Runners can require nearly a month of downtime between races in order to perform optimally.
Image
Resting isn’t wasted time any more than sleeping is.