Why Do We Work 40 Hours a Week?

15 June 2017

How did it become so ubiquitous for the standard work schedule to be 40 hours a week? How old is this standard, and how exactly did it arise? Perhaps most importantly, should we keep this standard of working 40 hours a week? Would we be more productive if we worked less?

Morgan Housel answers this last question in the affirmative. This piece on the Collaborative Fund blog walks us through the history of the 40 hour work week and argues that we should abandon it. Crucially, Housel thinks this applies to the new type of creative work that more and more workers engage in. For these workers, more time to reflect would increase the quality of their work.

Check out the piece here:

http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-advantage-of-being-a-little-bit-underemployed/