How do people work 40 hours a week?!

There was a whole story on NPR today about companies who are trying the opposite approach and paying for a 40 hour week but only requiring 32, and how so far, it has barely had a negative effect on productivity. The one they were talking with admitted that there was an initial dip, but that now after (I think) about a year and a half, they are close to where they were at 40 hours. And everyone is still getting paid for 40 hours, but gets an extra day off per week.

We can do better.

Heck, I just very randomly stumbled across a job that was tailor made for me and I'd love. It started at about 70K but I probably would have qualified for at least 80-85. I'm a SAHM, so we had an honest discussion about what it would mean for our family. It is with my previous employer, so I"m very familiar with their mindset and feel reasonably certain my assumptions here are correct. The job would be 5 days a week, pretty much sticking to an 8-5 schedule. It would be downtown, which was a 45 minute commute years ago in a city that's continued to boom, so let's call it at least one hour each way. I'd be looking at going to bed around 10 pm nightly, and not getting home until probably about 6:30 on a good day. I do 99% of the household work now (which is mostly OK since that's my current job, right?), which means realistically there would be an earthquake of a shift in duties here, and probably no one except me would take initiative - meaning I'd either end up doing it all or nagging everyone else. Our kids have sports and practices and games - I wouldn't be able to take them or even go watch very often, but DH would have the better job, so emotional relationship issues would ensue, and I would be even less involved in my kids' lives than they currently allow, lol.

And dear God, who'd take care of grocery shopping???

It wasn't worth it. We are lucky in that we've budgeted carefully over the years so that I don't NEED to go to work. If I needed to, things would be different, obviously. But I'm already "paying" 85K for the privilege of having the time to do all this stuff. So...I can't say I don't understand where she's coming from.

I agree.  I always worked part time, we had 3 kids (one with multiple disabilities) and a husband who worked 6 days a week.  He also commuted 1 1/2-2 hrs a day.  We did this for 25 years.   It was bloody hard especially trying to care for my one disabled child. The big benefit is that my husband retired after 30 years of work with a full benefit/pension. 

Two of my kids now work full time.  Wages haven't gone up significantly in decades.  Homes are unaffordable. Heck, apartments are unaffordable.  Commutes are longer.  What the hell are we doing?  The rich are getting richer and the middle class are burning out trying to make ends meet.  Life is more than constant work. 

I'm in my late 50's and I'm still a 24/7 caregiver for my disabled adult son because there are no other options in my area.  I love my son but his care consumes most of my time day and night and there is no compensation.  I evaluate my week on Sunday evenings trying to figure out when I can find time to do things while covering my son's care.  When I can I go to Costco? well maybe on Friday between 9-11.  Bike ride? maybe Saturday but it might have to wait until next week.  It's ridiculous and I only work 2 days per week! 

All I want is a quiet life with free time and I'm not sure if that will ever happen even though we are retired/semi-retired.

ETA: I have a few friends who do work less but they can't retire anytime soon. Several will be working past 65 years.

I too have a flex schedule, but we still have to put in 40 hrs a week. And during covid, we had to "prove" that our butts were in our seats, doing our job (that is another topic). So i get those commute hours back in my day (my commute was more like 20-30 min)

I thought there were places like Denmark that had gone to 6 hour days or 4 day work weeks, but according to this website, they still work typcially a 37 hr work week. denmark.dk/society-and-business/work-life-balance

Yes, the extra three hours are great, and I wouldn't say no, but that is a far cry from a 24-32 hr work week that I was thinking they got. And I would totally work a 32 hour work week, if my salary stayed the same as my 40 hr work week. 

I saw that TT and immediately sent it to my cousin. On the one hand, I felt bad that this girl was so upset on the other hand I was thinking "what did you think was going to happen?"

I'm on the bench of just because it's always been that way it doesn't mean it should stay that way. When I had DS I had 3 months maternity leave, now folks get 4 months and 1 month paternity leave. Do I wish I had that extra month? Sure do! Do I begrudge women for getting it now? Not at all. Good for them.

I would love to work 'only' 40 hours a week, I am typically at at least 50 and starting January-April it will be more 60-70 hours/week. I work for a financial services company. Unless banks AND the stock market go to 4 days a week, financial services firms will never be moving to 4 days a week.

When I commuted into Boston, on the train, my commute door to door was 3 hours and 40 min a day. When I moved to another office, where I could drive, my commute dropped to 1 hour 10 min. I felt like I hit the time lottery. I'm currently working remotely, my firm only has us going in 1 week a month, so far, but due to my autoimmune condition, I'm still 100% fully remote for now. Based on everything I'm reading in the WSJ and elsewhere, companies are going to be bringing people back to the office full time. Working 40hrs then adding in commuting time just makes for a longer more draining day IMO.

We have the worst work life balance in the world. I would love to see the younger generation stand up to these companies and say "enough" and actually be able to make changes. Would it benefit me? No but, again, would I begrudge them for making improvements in the workplace, making changes I didn't have? Nope.

It's all about corporate greed and greed in Washington. Changes would have to be mandated at a Federal level and the politicians are in the companies pockets so guess what......

Do red states offer any type of before or after school programs? Tutoring? Counseling services? Group counseling? Parent classes? Free breakfast, lunch, snack x 2?

I have been curious as of kate to what they offer compared to say my state Ca which is a lot.

I refuse to look when I am off the clock. I know it is a slippery slope, and then it is expected, so I just don't. I know others aren't as lucky.

I have a fairly strong work ethic and have to remember that as long as my team is getting their assigned work done, it’s ok if they are a bit unavailable when they are working from home. But it took a long time for me to get there.
I do think a 40 hour workweek is too much. When I had my babies, I cut my hours to 30 a week. And I was lucky that my mom was my babysitter. The hour commute still mean I was gone for the whole day. And something had to give, right? Because there are not enough hours in the day. My house was never as clean as I wanted. And I didn’t work out as often as I wanted. But working was important to me, so those were the decisions I made. If I didn’t have my mom close by, I probably would have made very different decisions.
I work with people who have zero family nearby and pay up the ass for childcare. I don’t know how they do it (time and money).
I hope the younger generation does bring about change.

Maybe if she stopped making Tik Tok videos she'd have more time lol (this is totally a joke by the way)

In all seriousness I do think, especially in bigger cities, some of the commutes are crazy and that does suck up a great deal of time during the week. I also feel that the mantra has become that if you are a salaried employee your work is never done so you should just keep doing more and more and more and more. There will always be someone who works more hours and then you're compared to them as it seems like you aren't doing enough. After covid, I have a hybrid schedule and it took some getting used to by a lot of people at work. Some are just built that you have to be in an office 5 days a week and think you cannot be productive when working from home. I think it was a hard pill to swallow.

I also think it's hard because there will be people that see this video and automatically think she's lazy and entitled and won't be receptive to real discussions. I remember a meme I saw once and it was a gravestone that read something about working themselves to death and noting that that wasn't really living. I would love to see change regarding a work/life balance but it's definitely an uphill battle.

I hate the mentality of “I suffer so everyone should have to.” Many countries get it better than us - Scandinavia, Western Europe, etc. It is hard to work full time and have a life. She’s not wrong.

I'm in a navy-blue city in a blue state, and our school district is going through a "restructuring" process where they plan to close several schools.  A lot of people will no longer be within walking distance of an elementary school; my youngest's school is one of the ones likely to close, and that was already a 20-minute walk from my house across a major arterial street without a stop sign.  After-school care is only available at some schools, and there generally isn't before-school care (my kid's elementary starts at 8:55, and you can't drop kids until 8:40, so that's rough for many working parents).  The district several years ago reduced bus service considerably by expanding the no-bus-eligibility zone around the schools.  They've had difficulty getting enough bus drivers for the busses we do have; I had an entire year of driving one kid to school (50 minutes round trip) because they simply cancelled the bus for which he was eligible when the driver quit.

Things out there aren't great for parents.  And they are definitely not getting better.

They may or may not have factored it in, but they really don't care, regardless. It's about taking money that's now being "wasted" on public schools and putting it into private pockets. People who think that way could not care less about the hardships to "the wage slaves" that may result. It's sickening. 

I just saw this TikTok come across my Facebook feed (I don’t have TT) and my first thoughts are that if she’s so worried about not having time maybe she needs to not get the hair dyed, the nails done, the fake lashes. She can work out if it’s important to her and she will make time for it. I have no sympathy for her. She’s comparing herself to other “influencers” and thinking that she can continue on with her high school/college lifestyle. That’s just not reality.

That said, I do think the US has a major work/life/time management issue.

I’m a teacher… I leave at 7:15 to take my youngest to school and then go to my own school (I used to work at their school but no more). I have students 8:20-1:30 but have to be on campus until 3:30. I leave and come home… I rarely have time with my kids and husband at home. Run in and back out the door I go with DD for gymnastics- one hour each way with a 3 hour practice in the middle two days a week. Run dd to her silks class one day a week- an hour each way with an hour class in the middle. Usually I combine this trip with groceries and Costco so it ends up being another 5 hour after work day. Dh runs DS to his sports which are thankfully in town and not an hour away. Weekends? Sports and in the gym with dd.

I don’t have time for nails, dye jobs, lashes. I work out one day a week because that is MY time. I protect it. I enjoy my 45 minutes of one day a week bungee for me.

It’s all about priorities. If you value it, you will make time. It’s a hard lesson for people to learn.

I have to push back a bit on your last paragraph. While that is true to some extent, realistically, we often can’t make time for the things that are important without sacrificing something else that is important, like family time or sleep. There are not enough hours in the day for all the things that are important.

I agree.  Something has to give.  I’d love to see a breakdown of how she spends her time.  If you want to work out, get up earlier.  I choose to sleep so I don’t get up before I absolutely must.