I would like to come back to the Keynesian 15 hours workweek. These 15 hours should keep busy and thus satisfied the people in the future who would already have a higher living standard than it was the case in his time.
I don’t know how exactly he calculated the 15 hours, perhaps he just observed the technical and industrial developments in his period and deducted that more and more automated working processes would make the human redundant, so the human would increase his leisure time.
Today we are still at around 40 hours a week, and I imagine, that the technological and technical development has surpassed widely Keynes’ imagination in that domain. Is the 40 hour week still justified?
I would like to start a survey about how much of your time spent at the workplace is really used for effective work. But I am not sure to obtain “true” answers, as everybody might define his work-related activities differently.
On the one hand there is a job description and on the other hand there is the work that is really done. Perhaps not always like written down in the job description because the environment has changed, or because the executing person found other, more convenient ways to obtain the expected outcome.
Are ten coffee breaks with different colleagues considered as work or as leisure? In which category falls a 3 hour lunch break with potential clients, suppliers or other stakeholders ?
Or the often discussed meetings, is a 5 hour meeting with something like an agenda (meaning : we should discuss and decide about 3 points) and something like minutes ( meaning: the essential arguments or decisions are not written down) considered as productive working hours?
In which category falls a tennis match or a shopping spree in the afternoon with friends during working hours, can the friends be considered as future clients or work-related activity?
It is possible that a tennis match during working hours is effectively more productive than a 5 hour meeting!
I have seen people at work who finalised the acquisition and the redecoration of their new family home from their office, who led private phone conversations with every member of the family, who managed their private wealth, who organised complete sportive competitions.
Did these people add value to the company performance? Or differently formulated: If they worked 15hours per week would their output for the company be the same?
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Which ones of your working hours are really productive?
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