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

  • faviconDrastically Shorter Workweeks Needed to Fight Climate Crisis, Study Finds — Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being [2019]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   

  • favicon‘I love the four-day week’ — Independent school says its four-day week model is designed to offer pupils “increased opportunities for independent exploration and personal development. This approach not only fosters independence but also promotes a more balanced and fulfilling educational experience” [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconHow widespread could the four-day workweek really be? — Many trials of the shortened workweek have shown positive results. It’s an increasingly viable solution for some firms – but for others, this new set-up won’t be on the table [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: BBC    

  • faviconHannah Arendt on the Human Condition: Productivity Will Replace Meaning — Arendt thinks we must somehow cease glorifying labor and return it to its true place at the bottom of the vita activa hierarchy. We must unblur the lines between labor and work, and between work and action [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Protestant Work Ethic   
    Comments   
    Source: Philosophy Break    

  • faviconThe Four-Day Week research from the Henley Business School — Too good to be true? Not according to this research. Surveying 500 businesses and 2000 employees, the report explores the benefits of working fewer days to both organisations and workers [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconWork less, pollute less — Reducing working hours would give people more spare time, lead to a fairer distribution of labour and wealth, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. But this bold vision is too frightening for some [2021]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: FR   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconFree days for future? Longitudinal effects of working time reductions on individual well-being and environmental behaviour — participants reported increased well-being, more intent-related pro-environmental behaviour, less car commuting, and decreased clothing expenditures [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: ScienceDirect    

  • faviconPaul Lafargue’s ‘Right to be Lazy’ — While he exclusively focused on laziness as a form of rebellion by workers against the social pressure to constantly work, his treatise echoes modern research on the positive health benefits of boredom and daydreaming [2023]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Leisure   
    Comments   

  • faviconThe People in the Shop; David Montgomery and the vitality of labor history — Many of the service-sector workers who have started to organize in recent years see their freedom at work and their sense of power to do it well threatened by the arbitrary power of their bosses [2024]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Books, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: The Nation    

  • faviconAmericans Work Hundreds of Hours More a Year Than Europeans — In developing countries, workers are putting in these long hours because wages are low and they’re trying to make ends meet, the report says
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Research   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconNo more Fridays — The results of the 6 months trial shift to a 4-day workweek in 2022 were overwhelmingly positive: companies in the program reported increased revenue and improved employee health and well-being, and had a positive impact on the environment [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Business Insider    

  • faviconAmerica is facing a spiritual crisis. More leisure time is the cure — We haven’t made meaningful adjustments to the workweek in the 85 years since, and a reckoning is long overdue [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Leisure   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: MSNBC    

  • faviconFour Days a Week: This Labor Day, Let’s Talk About Laboring Less — Keynes speculated that people would still want to work, but perhaps only 15 hours a week. Then the rest of the time, each human would have to figure out “how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well” [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: The Intercept    

  • faviconOlder Workers Deserve Rest—but the Country Isn’t Letting Them Have It — Millions of Americans are working well past the retirement age, not because they “simply don’t want to quit” but because they just can’t afford to do so [2024]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Wage Slavery   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: The Nation    

  • faviconBertrand Russell: In Praise of Idleness — In his brilliant and timely 1935 essay, the philosopher suggests that “a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work…” [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: How to be Human, Leisure   
    Comments   
    Source: Philosophy Break    

  • faviconWorkers want unions, but the latest data point to obstacles in their path — more than 50 years of efforts to block access to unions have taken a heavy toll on workers’ rights. Employers have been exploiting weaknesses in U.S. labor law for decades, and federal and state policy have failed to prevent this [2024]
    In: Trade unions    
    Topics: Research, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: EPI    

  • faviconThe humanizing power of worker-owned cooperatives — Applying principles from the Mondragon cooperative in Spain, Co-Op Cincy’s network reinforces that cooperatives are not just good for people and the planet, they are good for business [2024]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: How to be Human, Worker Ownership   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconApple accused of silencing workers, spying on personal devices — new lawsuit says company was illegally monitoring its workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while also barring them from discussing their pay and working conditions [2024]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Technofeudalism, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Reuters    

  • faviconPay gap between bosses and employees must be reduced, UK workers say — The majority of the widening income gap was caused by a reduction in the disposable incomes of the UK’s poorest 20% of households, while the disposable incomes of the richest 20% of households grew [2024]
    In: Predatory capitalism    
    Topics: Trickle-down Economics   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconIceland’s shorter working week has been a huge success — contrary to fears that productivity and the provision of services would suffer, nothing could be further from the truth. Extensive research has shown that they have remained the same or even improved [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: IS   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconBring politics to work — When you hear “politics doesn’t belong in the workplace”, you’re being scammed. Most workplaces are dictatorships where you cannot exert your power over the thing that matters [2024]
    In: Democracy & Power    
    Topics: Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Source: Independent Blogs    

  • faviconHow San Juan, a cash-strapped US county found success with a 32-hour workweek; employees have used their extra time off to spend less money on childcare, volunteer in their kids’ schools, and contribute to the community [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: CNN    

  • faviconBasic income: why we need to start talking about money. Many aren’t getting their basic needs met in the UK. UBI could change this – if we can believe we deserve it [2024]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: UBI   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: openDemocracy    

  • faviconIndependent analysis of the South Cambridgeshire District Council’s four-day week trial shows that it was a clear success; higher employee commitment and reduced turnover, better mental & physical health and motivation, all while it continued to deliver the same quality of services [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconThe Shame of Work — Review of “The Refusal of Work: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Work”, by David Frayne; If ever a book was designed to help you question the value of the work ethic and look anew at our modern obsession with productivity and promotion, this is it [2016]
    In: Good life    
    Topics: Books, Protestant Work Ethic, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: The New Rambler Review