Bitcoin Forum

Advances in technology and productivity should make four-day work weeks a reality soon enough.

That's according to Frances O'Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, an organization in the United Kingdom representing labor unions.

"I believe that in this century, we can win a four-day working week, with decent pay for everyone," O'Grady said during a speech at the TUC's annual gathering in Manchester, England on Monday.

In earlier centuries, workers had to fight for things like the eight-hour workdays, O'Grady points out, which was also the case in the U.S. Now, in the 21st century, "a time of rapid industrial disruption" according to O'Grady, it's time to set our sights on the shorter work week "to take back control of working time," she said.

O'Grady also said, "[A]s new tech grows, everyone should get richer."

O'Grady's comments add to recent buzz about the feasibility of a shorter workweek.

Serial entrepreneur Richard Branson said advances in technology mean that workplaces can reconsider the traditional five-day work week.

"Ideas such as driverless cars and drones are becoming a reality, and machines will be used for more and more jobs in the future. Even pilot-less planes will be become the reality in the not too distant future," Branson wrote in a blog post in January.

"On the face of it, this sounds like bad news for people. However, if governments and businesses are clever, the advance of technology could actually be really positive for people all over the world. It could help accelerate the marketplace to much smarter working practices," Branson said.

In particular, technology enables people to work when and where they want, says Branson, a practice Virgin managers are encouraged to embrace, according to his blog post. Technology can also increase the efficiency of work, said Branson and that means people could work fewer hours.

"Many people out there would love three day or even four day weekends. There are many people out there who would want to job share, and would love longer holidays. Everyone would welcome more time to spend with their loved ones, more time to get fit and healthy, more time to explore the world," Branson says. "By working more efficiently, there is no reason why people can't work less hours and be equally – if not more – effective."

Similarly, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said advances in artificial intelligence will lead to longer vacations. "More free time is not a terrible thing," Gates told FOX Business Network at the World Economic Forum in January.

Perpetual Guardian, a 240-employee New Zealand firm that manages trusts, wills and estates, recently garnered attention for conducting a two-month trial where employees worked four days a week at their regular five-days-a-weekk pay. It was considered a success: Staff stress levels lowered 7 percent, and 78 percent said they could manage work-life balance, from only 54 percent pre-trial.

Plus, the change created good will. "Many employees see the reduced working hours as 'a gift' and 'a privilege not a right,' and feel a deep sense of goodwill and reciprocity towards the organization, which manifests in an openness to 'go the extra mile' and think about 'what I can do to give back,'" says the resulting qualitative analysis from Dr. Helene Delaney from the University of Auckland Business School. "Many employees reported a willingness to be available for work purposes on their day off."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/10/trades-union-congress-4-day-workweeks-should-be-reality-this-century.html

What can be said of inflation and its outpacing of wage growth? How likely is such a thing likely to become widespread or popularized in a world where robots and automation is becoming more widely supported everyday?

That said does anyone have an impression calls for a 4 day work week may be a tad bit over optimistic in origins?

Like birds migrating south for the winter, a better migration pattern to crypto currencies could represent a greener pasture for the dawn of future financial and economic progress

Well there is no doubt in my mind that in the next 3-4 decades we will see a drastic loss in jobs due to AI and robotics, the idea of a universal basic income has become even that much more common amongst policy makers because of this.
But I wonder how a universal basic income would even fit into crypto or even at all ya know? I guess with inflation of fiat money a basic income would make sense.

Here in the country,  4-day workweek bill has already been approved by the Congress, but the employers are warning the gov't that it's not good to compress all the workloads in just 4 days, no matter how advanced the technology they're using currently. It gives workers more time to rest, however if they are going to add the hours of a day, it will still result for a worker feeling tired and empty at the end of every shift. Also, if anything they need to define what jobs are to be benefiting from such a proposition, because obviously some jobs need 24/7 coverage, prime example is for security of buildings/properties.

Companies like to rip the shit out of people,and term it as more productivity.

I don't think people even have jobs in the upcoming decades since the technology has been developing a lot and most of the industries already using the static or programmed robots in future if the artifical intelligence gets developed the manpower will be replaced with the robots so we are not going to have job in a single day for a week.

The 4-hour work week idea has nothing to do with further cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption.
The idea that people will work less because of the technology innovations and automation is a myth,because the greedy capitalists always want biggers profits.In order to get those bigger profits,they will force their employees to work more.

4 day work week sounds so fucking good, but realistically it won't happen. Companies like to rip the shit out of people,and term it as more productivity. 4 day workweek would only lower wages down. That article is garbage, the statements aren't well thought of. The world is a horrible place to live in right now, and people only have to discuss useless things.

If advances in technology and productivity can result in a 4 day work week.

Then perhaps the sooner we witness a mass adoption of bitcoin and crypto currencies, the sooner we may reap the benefits of technological progress and productivity gains supplied by utilizing more reliable crypto currencies over troubled fiat money. Like birds migrating south for the winter, a better migration pattern to crypto currencies could represent a greener pasture for the dawn of future financial and economic progress, which could be defined in terms of algorithmic or artificial intelligence based offerings such as the algorithm bitcoin utilizes to determine supply.

yes, precisely with the development of technology, people are losing their jobs. just consider factories that use robots and replace humans. Farmed land that is evicted and replaced by factories also makes some people lose their jobs.

-snip