The 8 Hour Workday isn’t Working…and Ideas for Change

I had my baby boy just over a year ago. As anyone with children knows, having a baby is life changing. It makes you think about things in a totally different way.

Since having my son I’ve thought a lot about how challenging it is to juggle all of my different roles as mother, wife, friend, daughter and employee. How do you find balance working full time, raising a family and maintaining your relationships?

The 8 Hour Workday

This balancing act is made even more difficult by trying to work it around the traditional 9 to 5 workday.

Working 8 hours a day, 5 days per week in an office does not make parenting easy.

It does not make grocery shopping or going to a doctors appointment easy.

It does not make the commute to work easy.

It does not allow the average parent to volunteer at their child’s daycare or attend a field trip as a parent chaperon.

The 8 hour workday just doesn’t work for the average working woman with child(ren).

Honestly, I don’t think it works for the average family…especially if you have a modern day husband or partner who is doing his share of the heavy lifting.

Where does the 8 hour workday even come from?

The 8 hour workday originated in the late 1800’s. It’s a product of the industrial revolution. The 8 hour workday was an improvement on the 10 to 16 hour days that many factory workers were enduring.

Guys, the late 1800’s were a while back….do you think it might be time to reassess?

The 9 to 5 system continued to “work” into the 1940’s and 1950’s when there were still fairly strict gender roles.

Men were responsible for going to work and bringing home the bacon.

Women were responsible for the children, as well as all of the cooking, cleaning, organizing….well, really everything else.

Women were expected to have dinner on the table when their husband arrived home and, of course, they were to be impeccably dressed with full hair and makeup. (I might be painting this picture based on a few episodes of Mad Men…so take this with a grain of salt!)

It wasn’t until the 1960’s that the fight for equal employability opportunities for women was achieved and more ladies started going to school and working outside the home. Very awesome!

So, where are we now?

Women have spent the last century, plus some, fighting for equality in all different areas.

We’ve made, and continue to make, tons of amazing progress.

Today, women are an educated, professional, successful, bad ass group of humans.

But, the system we are working within is unnecessarily complicated.

Why are we still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

Why are we trying to fit the modern day woman, and the modern day family, into an archaic system that was built during the industrial revolution when women couldn’t even dream of “having it all?”

I hope we can all agree that it’s time for a change

The only reason we are expected to go to work for 8 hours a day is because “that’s the way it’s always been.”

That’s not a good reason. Not enough of us have questioned why the hell this is still happening.

The 8 hour workday is not based on scientific evidence or best practices.

It’s definitely not based on the needs of the average working parent who is trying to coordinate early morning drop offs and rushed afternoon pick ups…..(because, fun fact, dayhomes charge $1.00 per minute you are late…and I get it they work really hard and shouldn’t have to wait around for late parents.)

Related Post: Food or family? The insane cost associated with having a baby

And, can we all agree that it’s a tad bit ridiculous that the average work day is 8 hours and the average school day, at least in Canada, is between 6 and 7 hours or, like 3 or 4 hours if your child is in kindergarten.

Seriously, WTF?

Today many of us work in jobs that require creativity, deep focus and the production of information products.

No one can focus on one thing, one project or one subject for 8 hours in a row. Not me, not you, not any adult and definitely no child or teenager.

According to this article by Business Insider, the average employee works for 2 hours and 53 minutes out of the 8 hour work day.

The rest of their time is spent on social media, socializing in person, eating etc.

Not exactly a productive use of time.

So, what can be done to increase productivity?

Research suggests that the average work day should be reduced to 5 or 6 hours per day.

The idea of the reduced work day/work week is being tested at big companies like Amazon where they are experimenting with a thirty hour work week.

The goal is for employees to live a more balanced life. More on this later…..

Change is hard.

Change is hard. Especially when it’s on a societal level. Especially when it’s attempting to alter the way things have been for so long.

But, it’s time for a paradigm shift. It’s time to get creative.

While small changes have been happening for some people, in some jobs, in certain industries (thinking IT, freelancers ect.), the average mom’s and dad’s are still grinding it out in a cubical from 9-5 all while trying to coordinate the pick up, drop off, and care of their babies.

Not to mention meal planning, soccer schedule, cleaning duties, and possibly even a small sliver of time for a personal life.

So, what can we do to help out the modern working woman/family?

Equal division of labor.

Change needs to start at home people.

My husband is a modern day man. He is currently off work for 4 months to be a stay at home dad to our son (this is in addition to the full year I took off…thanks Canada).

Not only is he loving his new role as stay at home dad, he is also amazing at it.

This experience has been an incredible bonding opportunity for my husband and son and it has also been great for our relationship.

We have essentially switched roles.

For a year I stayed home and cared for our son while he worked. I got up in the night, did the diaper changes, struggled with naps and didn’t get dressed or shower for days on end….

Now we have switched and this allows us to appreciate the time and effort that go into each others work day.

If you are a working woman (or man) and you feel like you are also doing an inordinate amount of housework and childcare then maybe it’s time to have a conversation with your partner.

I hate to break it to ya but, there is no such thing as “having it all while doing it all.”

No one person can do everything well. You need to delegate. There needs to be some equitable division of labor.

Restructure the work day.

This is first and foremost. Let’s realign the modern workday with the wants and needs of the modern citizen. Why not try and align the children’s school schedules with the parents schedules…. (mind blown)

Why not take the advice of tons of super smart researchers and compress the day to 5 or 6 hours, or at least give people a bit more flexibility.

Providing the option to work remotely or allowing employees to work a more tailored schedule have been shown to work really well (in certain jobs).

People are more productive when they can take breaks, when they have time to go for a run at lunch or play a game of squash.

As I previously mentioned, the average employee might physically sit at their desk for 8 hours or more per day but they are only “working” for approximately 3 hours.

I won’t even get into the well documented health issues that are associated with sitting for extended periods of time….but, sitting is the new smoking people.

And one more thing to add here…enough of the 1/2 day kindergarten. Whoever determines the kindergarten schedule, what the hell?

More family based perks.

Hello companies. You are offering all sorts of perks to attract the best employees: free lunch, an onsite bowling alley and free Friday afternoon beers.

All great but, if you really want to attract the best of the best candidates who are also moms and dads, why don’t you offer affordable onsite childcare options. I can almost guarantee this will increase your pool of qualified applicants.

Universal access to affordable childcare.

Crazy thought. If we didn’t charge parents a small fortune to put their kids in daycare it might make their lives a bit easier. In fact, they might be able to work less and spend more time with their children.

I know, I know, I can already hear the cries from some non-parents…”why should my tax dollars go to subsidize your children’s care?”

I GET IT. I can see your point of view.

But, if we all get to complain about where our tax dollars go I would like to put it on the record that I don’t want to pay for anyone’s health care if they drink, smoke, don’t exercise or if they fail to use protection and get a nasty STI that requires treatment.

The argument is the same for those who don’t drive, whey should their tax dollars go to repave the roads or upgrade our bridges.

We all pay for other peoples “stuff.”

Investing in our future (aka the care of our children) is so important.

Government subsidized childcare would help families in so many ways. When people have multiple children it would allow both parents to keep working/contributing to the work force thus generating more tax dollars.

It can also help to keep the workforce equitable in terms of sex, as it is usually the mother who ends up staying home to care for the children when care becomes too expensive.

It would allow both parents to pursue their interests/passions making them better parents and people.

And who knows, that tired mom or dad that is able to pursue a meaningful career might just come up with the next big thing, open their own company and provide jobs for hundreds of people.

BUT. I recognize there are two sides to every story.

Quebec provides a good case study of a province that has implemented subsidized daycare which costs parents between $8.75 to 22.00 a day, depending on their income. Looking at my current situation where I pay $75.00 per day, I can only dream of these prices.

However, there have been issues with their system including not enough spots for all of they children which has resulted in insanely long waiting lists. There have also been some issues surrounding quality of care.

But, do the benefits outweigh the downside?

According to this CTV News article, the answer is yes. And here’s their explanation for why….

“The head of the Bank of Canada is pointing to Quebec’s child-care policies as possible tools to boost the entire Canadian economy, thanks to their potential to unlock the greatest untapped resource in the labour force: women.”

In 2017 Alberta introduced it’s Early Learning and Childcare Program, a pilot program spanning over 100 sites across the province. Access is open to anyone, regardless of income, at a cost of $25.00 per day.

While some of the same problems that Quebec has experience are already being encountered (some waiting lists are sitting at 18 months + for a spot) there are also many positives according to this article by CBC.

Pros:

Allows both parents to be able to keep working when they have multiple children (previously people were losing money or just breaking even due to high childcare costs)

Because there is no criteria for access (e.g. low income) children from all different socio economic backgrounds will receive access to the same daycare, arguably making things more equitable for all.

Of course, other people see this in a different light and feel the spots should be filled back on a set of criteria (those with lower incomes should fill the spots).

What’s the answer?

This is not an easy problem to solve but it’s one that requires a lot of attention.

There are some case studies to look to. Many European countries have experienced great success with affordable sliding scale daycare fees (based on family income) but….they also pay higher taxes in general.

The bottom line is that change is needed.

I recognize these are not small changes. A lot of time and effort needs to go into researching the best strategies, or perhaps thinking up completely new and innovative strategies to redefine what we want the modern workday to look like.

After all, women, minorities and other groups who were marginalized during the late 1800’s didn’t exactly have a lot of say in terms of what they wanted the workday to look like.

I want to hear from you….

Are you satisfied with the traditional 8 hour work day or would you like to see a fresh take? Do you have any great ideas on what the modern workday should look like and how it could be restructured?

References

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