Biggest problem with a four-day work week trial

While there may be a push for Australians to do five days’ work over four, no one knows how much work we really do, argues Joe Hildebrand.

There is currently a push on in Australia to cut the working week from five days to four days. Meanwhile, there is a push on in South Korea to increase the working week from 52 hours to 69 hours.

This alone probably tells you everything you need to know about those two countries.

But it’s also proof of yet another weird post-pandemic problem that has emerged: Nobody really knows how much they work anymore.

Ever since the chattering classes have been allowed to work from home and never really came back to the office, the line between work and family hasn’t so much been blurred as completely erased so that the personal and professional parts of people’s lives are now just one gluggy mess.

Even as I write this, I am pulled over in the family car on the way to a job for one boss while filing this copy for another. My last Zoom meeting was held at school pick-up and my inbox is constantly interrupted by YouTube videos about Minecraft and tweens doing shopping dares at Target.

Since working from home during pandemic, the line between work and family hasn’t so much blurred as been erased. Picture: iStock

What sort of hellscape have we created for ourselves?

Compounding the problem is that work is like a gas. It expands to fill whatever space it is given. And so when there are no boundaries to work, it just keeps piling up ad infinitum. There will always be something else to do, and it will always be the person already working the most who will do it.

As the old saying goes, if you want something done, ask a busy man. And it’s a saying everyone in my working life seems to be very familiar with.

But maybe that gas can also be compressed. Maybe if we officially reduce the working week to four days, everyone will just do five days’ worth of work in the same time – or at least the ones who do all the work in the first place.

On the other hand, there is also merit in extending the working week to 69 hours – at least it would give Sally Rugg only one extra hour to complain about.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go. My other boss is calling.

Originally published as Biggest problem with a four-day work week trial