<story><title>We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor</title><url>http://sciencenordic.com/we-should-only-work-25-hours-week-argues-professor</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Zigurd</author><text>Until we come to grips with what will likely be a post-labor world, this is a good transitional approach. The 40 hour week is an arbitrary standard, and it may now be rational to reduce that number. Few jobs are now so arduous that 70 year olds cannot perform well. We are suffering from outdated standards for work weeks and retirement age, and un-sticking our assumptions is likely to benefit the situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_delirium</author><text>More years at fewer hours per week is an interesting idea. Managing burnout could be one way to make it reasonable for people to work into older age, and having norms with fewer hours a week could be one part of that. You see a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of burnout in tech currently even by middle-age, but I&apos;m not sure the subject matter fundamentally requires it.</text></comment>
<story><title>We should only work 25 hours a week, argues professor</title><url>http://sciencenordic.com/we-should-only-work-25-hours-week-argues-professor</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Zigurd</author><text>Until we come to grips with what will likely be a post-labor world, this is a good transitional approach. The 40 hour week is an arbitrary standard, and it may now be rational to reduce that number. Few jobs are now so arduous that 70 year olds cannot perform well. We are suffering from outdated standards for work weeks and retirement age, and un-sticking our assumptions is likely to benefit the situation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rndmize</author><text>I&apos;m fairly sure the 40 hour week is far from arbitrary. There&apos;s someone on HN who has a long post about working hours and the wide variety of studies that were done demonstrating that 40 hours resulted in higher efficiency than 50 or more as far back as the 1930s, and that peak efficiency for white collar work is even less (6 hour days). I&apos;ll have to see if I can find it.</text></comment>