Destroying The 40 Hour Work Mentality

It needs to change

In the dark days of Covid. When the pandemic was ramping up and no one really knew what to expect or how much division would come from it. People all over the world was told to stay home, in order to save lives.

Eventually some truths about the pandemic became apparent and the battle began to dial back some of the measures. But in the beginning, the whole world worked together to save lives.

It was at this time that some workers were deemed essential and others were not. Schools were shut down and kids had remote learning. Businesses who were able, also resorted to remote work for many employees. This helped businesses remain in operation and helped employees remain employed. Not every type of job can be remote. But, some can.

No one really knew where the world was headed. We hunkered down and watched “Tiger King”, while absorbing the latest reports. This time period revealed a lot of truth about work, and what is considered essential. It showed us how quickly nature can rebound once humans are out of the way.

But, it also revealed a level of oppression and pettiness hidden in the hearts of people. The willingness to report on others, for simple violations. The oppression of officials and businesses to create and enforce rules that made no real sense. The temptation for every door greeter to become a cop demanding that people don masks and sanitize.

We went from trying to save lives and caring for others to turning on each other. Businesses and remote work was much the same. At first, businesses were thankful workers could work from home and keep the business running. But, it didn’t take long for employers to turn oppressive and controlling.

Reports came out of employers demanding cameras in peoples homes. Demanding that people dress in business attire for Zoom meetings. Getting angry that someone did laundry while writing a report. How dare these peasants have a life!

Businesses started demanding technology to enable them to track the workers performance on home computers. Are they really working? Or are they taking care of a sick child on our dime? Are they checking on grandma or doing the work we pay them to do?

As the pandemic wound down, there came demands to open things up so workers and kids could go back to work or school. The call continued with reports of major companies warning that remote workers would be fired if they did not return by the end of some random date.

Even now, years after the pandemic when workers slaved away at home to help businesses stay alive, business owners are still turning on them and attacking them.

It all boils down to the 40 Hour Work Week Mentality.

An employer only values a worker based upon how many hours of hard labor the worker can put out, instead of the value of the job or work. Even salary employees are looked at based upon hours of work.

A remote worker is believed to be wasting time at home doing things other than work. But, yet employers have never felt bad about calling employees at home when they are not at work, or considering the amount of time, stress and money the employee spends preparing and commuting to work.

This falls back to how much the worker is doing per hour for the employer.

This 40 hour mentality can be seen in this example.

A man’s water is not working at his house and he cannot figure out why. He calls a plumber. The plumber shows up and makes a few turns with a wrench and the water flows again. It only took 5 minutes, to fix and the plumber charges $500 for the job. The man is mad because it only took 5 minutes.

He has a 40 hour mentality. He is mad because he feels a $500 job should take more time. But, the plumber charged for having the knowledge to know where to apply the wrench.

I’ve seen this mentality in action. I worked for a place who hired a blacktop company to redo our parking lot. They charged my employer a certain price for the job, and my employer said it was a good, fair price. But, when the manager saw some of the workers taking a break out of the blazing sun he got ticked off, that they were wasting time. They were within the time allotted in the contract and my employer was not paying their wages, but he still had a hissy fit because they took breaks instead of putting in full hours. He paid for the job. Not the hours, but he could not get past the 40 Hour mentality.

I have worked manual labor jobs my whole life and I have never had a job that required a full 40 hours to complete a week. There was always down time. Time that I had to figure out how to fill it. Pick up a broom and clean, is what they tell manual labor workers.

It is common knowledge that people milk the hours to get bigger paychecks.

My point is that the 40 hour work week is wrong and needs changed. It starts with changing the mentality. We need to pay what the job is worth regardless of how long it takes to do it.

I realize that the 40 hour week and getting paid based upon hours gives a simple means for calculating pay, and obeying the over-time laws. Probably in some jobs it is needed.

But, I believe the future is remote in work and schooling.

If work and schools went remote we could save millions in construction and building maintenance costs. We could save millions in trying to solve the traffic problems. We could save millions in health care by reducing stress. Not even mentioning the value it can bring to helping the environment.

But, because business owners feel that they cannot hover over employees while they work, making sure every second is spent on labor. Our society continues to sit in the past.

Our schools are designed to create good employees with the same 40 hour mentality. Be on time. Do your work. Take work home. Obey your boss…I mean teacher.

Changes need to be made to this system and the 40 hour mentality. Instead of thinking about work as an hourly thing. We need to consider what the job is actually worth regardless of time. Our society needs to start moving toward a more remote system, with all the benefits that can go with it. Instead of letting the bosses hold us in the past.

I think we are smart people. We can make changes to society that solves problems without letting oppression take over. More freedom is never a bad thing.

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Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger

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Checkout Chris’s Poetry Book “Against The Man”. A book of rebel poems to wake you up and motivate you. Buy at Barnes and Noble and other book sellers