Work four hours, then rest  

The SMH has an article promoting the idea of shorter working weeks - Work four hours, then rest.

Whoever has not two thirds of his day for him self is a slave,’’ declared Friedrich Nietzsche, part of a long tradition of thinkers who thought our lives should contain work, leisure, and sleep in equal balance.

Ancient Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, considered leisure to be constitutive of the good life, in fact, its primary purpose. Having to work was an unfortunate but sometimes necessary diversion from the important activities and experiences that make for a flourishing human existence.

From this perspective, modern Western society has got its work-life priorities topsy-turvy.

Technology now enables us to produce goods and services necessary for a materially comfortable existence with comparatively little manpower and labour time. We live in an age offering unprecedented opportunity for us all to lead the kind of flourishing, leisurely existence of which the ancients could only dream. Yet many work harder and longer than ever before.

Australians work among the longest average weekly hours of any country in the developed world. Despite our laidback facade, as a culture we have somehow managed to create a work ethic that turns thousands of years of pre-modern wisdom on its head.

Working hard has come to be seen as a moral virtue; and prioritising leisure is regarded variously as lazy, selfish, frivolous or irresponsible – unless, of course, the leisure is ‘‘well-earned’’. It seems timely to ask: what for? Is our obsession with work at the price of leisure justified? Is it preventing us from leading happier and more meaningful lives?

Studies show that as Western societies have become richer on the back of technological advances and longer working hours, their citizens, in general, have become no happier and no more satisfied with their lives. Some studies even suggest that happiness and satisfaction have declined.

Work itself is not necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, paid work brings income, self-esteem and social ties. However, for most people, working beyond a certain threshold (generally estimated to be between four to six hours a day), brings comparatively small real additional benefits; yet has substantial opportunity costs, including loss of leisure.

Why, then, are so many of us tempted to work ever longer and harder? One reason is that we tend to attach status to high incomes. There is a tendency to envy people who earn more than we do, but not those who have more leisure than we do. The result is that we frequently trade off our leisure time for increased income. However, the benefits of extra income don’t translate efficiently into increased feelings of well-being.

One reason is our deeply psychologically ingrained habit of comparison. How good we feel about our own life depends not simply on its intrinsic quality, but how it compares to the lives of others who we identify with, or are surrounded by. A person who shares your qualifications but earns double your income will leave you feeling like you’re underachieving.

Reverse the situation and you feel pretty good about yourself. Unsavoury though it may be, it makes us feel good when we are doing better than others in our reference group, and bad to be doing less – even when ‘‘less’’ is objectively pretty good. This creates a strong psychological incentive to work harder, and longer, in order to get more income than your compatriots, in order to feel good about your life and achievements.

When everyone else is doing the same, this then becomes self-defeating: everyone has to work harder and harder just to maintain their position relative to others, and those who get left behind feel considerably worse. The result is that everyone is a lot more exhausted, and most are no happier....