Rethink Work

Changing how we think about work

Introduction

Changing how we think about work and how much work is needed for a good life

  • faviconFour-day week could alleviate cost of living crisis, thinktank claims — Campaigners and economists in favour of a 4-day week tended to focus on the benefits to workers in the form of increased leisure time and potential improvements in productivity, but the policy would also help UK workers struggling with the increased cost of living [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconThis ‘Return to the Office’ Rhetoric needs to end — The worst thing about those calling for a return to the office is that it is masking a bigger problem which crept into the working world in recent years: unpaid, unofficially forced overtime [2022]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Remote Working, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Source: Independent Blogs    

  • faviconDemanding employees turn on their webcams is a human rights violation, Dutch Court rules; in addition, it rules that the company needs to pay the employee’s wages, unused vacation days, and a number of other costs as well [2022]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Technofeudalism, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: NL   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconThe Problem With Work — There is no escaping economic precarity in a society like ours—unless one is born into wealth, that is, or exploits others for profit. And no amount of education or culturedness or any professional-class job will shield you from the rampant exploitation that is core to a society that subordinates everything to profit [2024]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Worker Rights, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Source: Current Affairs    

  • faviconThe benefits of doing nothing — An overactive ‘life drive’ endlessly seeks expansion, inevitably leads to burnout, and drains us of the energy needed to truly progress. Finding the time to do nothing is essential to reassessing who we are and who we want to be [2020]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Leisure   
    Comments   
    Source: iAi    

  • faviconOf Course We Should All be Working Less — There’s a lot about work in our society that is undesirable and harmful. The fact that we have to earn a wage in order to have our basic human needs met — housing, food, water, electricity, transportation, education — is coercive. And if we’re not independently wealthy, we must work or starve [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Leisure, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Current Affairs    

  • faviconCounty workers wanted a pay hike, but got a 4-day workweek instead, saving the county ~$1 million, increasing job applications by 85%, decreasing turnover rates by 43%, and having a positive effect on employee happiness [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconGen Z are over having their work ethic questioned: ‘Most boomers don’t know what it’s like to work 40+ hours a week and still not be able to afford a house’ [2025]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Protestant Work Ethic, Wage Slavery   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Fortune    

  • faviconWorkplace surveillance may hurt us more than it helps — Workplace surveillance should be subject to regulatory oversight and ideally collective bargaining, since individuals will be better placed to negotiate the details en masse [2021]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Mental Health, Technofeudalism   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Financial Times    

  • faviconThe Age of the Crisis of Work — No less than the state, work makes promises to its subjects. Our culture has scripts about what makes work worthwhile, not just necessary; not a burden to be endured but an important component of a flourishing life. And increasingly these scripts do not play out as written [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human   
    Comments   
    Source: Harper's Magazine    

  • faviconWhy I was wrong to be optimistic about robots — Dehumanisation and intensification of work is not inevitable. But a different outcome will require different choices and a different distribution of power in the workplace [2021]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Productivism, Technofeudalism   
    Comments   
    Source: Financial Times    

  • faviconGerman firms tested 4-day workweek — here’s the outcome — more than 70% participating organisations said they were planning to continue with the project. Some said they would extend the trial phase, while others are considering implementing reduced hours directly [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: DE   
    Source: DW    

  • faviconThis Job Is (Literally) Killing Me: A Moderated-Mediated Model Linking Work Characteristics to Mortality — When job demands are greater than the control afforded by the job or the individual’s ability to deal with those demands, there is a deterioration of the individual’s mental health and, accordingly, an increased likelihood of death (PDF) [2020]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Mental Health, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconWhy are we all working so hard? The intensification of work doesn’t seem to be making us richer, but it does appear to be making us sicker — In spite of — or perhaps because of — new technology, people now say they are working harder to tighter deadlines under greater levels of tension [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Workism   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Financial Times    

  • faviconAfter decades of incremental reduction in working time, recent years have shown signs of a reversed evolution. In response, the labour movement has reasserted its historic aim gradually to reduce working time, which can be beneficial for society at large (PDF) [2017]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: ETUI    

  • faviconHow the reduction of working hours could influence health outcomes: a systematic review of published studies — findings suggest that the reduction of working hours with retained salary could be an effective workplace intervention for the improvement of employees’ well-being, especially regarding stress and sleep [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Mental Health, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: BMJ    

  • faviconCould working less save the planet? Rethinking both Why and How we work should be central to overcoming environmental breakdown, while also improving wellbeing and building a more just society. More wealth has not, on average, made rich nations happier [2019]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: New Statesman    

  • faviconIn their plaintive call for a return to the office, CEOs reveal how little they are needed — The case of remote work shows that the CEO class as a whole failed to pick up an innovation yielding massive benefits before it was forced on them by the pandemic, and have continued to resist and resent it ever since [2024]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconExpert who coined presenteeism term says employers who force staff back are dinosaurs – Cary Cooper says ‘micromanagers’ risk driving away talent and damaging wellbeing [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Remote Working, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconAristotle On Why Leisure Defines Us More than Work — Transposing his thought — that we often do not know how to spend our leisure time constructively — to the modern day, at one extreme we can find workaholism, at the other we find those who want to completely forget work [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Leisure, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: Philosophy Break    

  • faviconReduced working hours and work-life balance — Swedish study shows more positive relationship with work, colleagues, family, and clients, as well as more time allocated to friendships and romantic partners, and having access to more sources of formal and informal social support [2020]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Country: SE   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconGive workers right to request four-day week with no pay cut, unions and MPs say — It comes as businesses across the country pilot or switch to a four-day week, amid emerging evidence it is good for workers’ wellbeing [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Independent    

  • faviconMore rural school districts are moving to a four-day week to attract and retain teachers — The extended weekend is a draw because it gives teachers more work-life balance [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: CNN    

  • faviconWhat if work is making us sick? — While employment has become less physically dangerous, it seems to have become more psychologically harmful, as high demands and low control at work — known in the academic literature as “job strain” — is bad for mental and physical health [2022]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Financial Times    

  • faviconEnforced return to office leads workers to seek new jobs — Two-thirds of recruiters have seen an increase in applicants looking for new jobs who are working at companies that are mandating five days a week in the office, according to a survey [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian