Sweden : A 6 Hour Work Day : Should Canada Follow Suit?

The theme of overemployment is a current problem in the United States. Americans are overworked. Workload has increased and society has experienced a loss of leisure. Overemployment and overworked can be defined as negative effects that occur when individuals are required to work more hours than they want to work. “Personal perceptions of workload are critical, as individuals have diverse reactions to the number of hours worked depending on their needs, lifestyle, expectations, and experiences. Individuals have different tolerances for demands and stress. While many, including professionals

Over the last two decades, American workers have been clocking more and more hours on the job, and they now work more hours than workers in any other industrialized country. Annual work hours are 4% higher than they were in 1980, amounting to an extra 1 hour and 30 minutes at work per week, on average (ILO 1999). Workers are also clocking more overtime hours. Almost one-third of the workforce regularly works more than the standard 40-hour week; one-fifth work more than 50 hours. The growth in overtime work, while helping to drive the healthy growth in output in the U.S., has unhealthy social costs. It is taking its toll not only on workers, but on their families, communities, and, ultimately in many cases, patients, customers, and

To begin with, there are many things that cause the increase of workers working more than 50 hours. For instance, technology

According to the passage, I believe it is important to work six hours a day with the appropiate break time. It will reduce stress and fatigue as well. It is also, healthier for our

The scheduling of hours of work is undoubtedly one of the major social problems of industrial society. Statistic estimates that 30% of Canada's workforce are involved in some kind of shiftwork. Of those, 33% work irregular shifts, just under 30% work rotating shifts, 17% work long term evening shifts, 10% work on call, 3% work split shifts, 3% work long term night shifts and just over 3% are classed as "other". Present estimates tell us that before the trend slows, fully 35% of the workforce will work some type of shiftwork (Siroonian 123). Companies are feeling the need to maximize their efficiency by spreading their operating costs over 24 hours. However, on the other hand, working other than the standard

In our stress ridden country, so focused on the hustle and bustle of work, we have lost sight of how to relax, and enjoy family time. With a six hour workday people can enjoy work, and life off-duty without feeling like they have to trade one for the other. Change will take time, and be difficult, but it is

In an office job, perhaps shorter, six-hour workdays would be plausible. However, if a job such as construction or something else requiring physical labor were to have six-hour shifts, many more people would have to be employed to complete the job on time. This means it costs an employer more money, and that could be quite dangerous for his

The amount of people working more than 50 hours has increased since the 1980’s. Anna Burger, researcher and provider of charts in this article, believes there are two important things that contribute to less increase in work hours. One being “‘labour-market regulation.’” It is, in her words, “comprised of things like how difficult it is to fire people and how rigid working-hour rules are.” This is saying that giving employees fewer rights, allows their bosses to pressure them into staying later. The second being the amount of part-time employment. The more part-time employees there are, the less hours for one person to work. Burgers work attempted to explain why people begin working extreme hours, but she didn’t discuss the "Veblenian” explanation.

The 4 day work week is not a new idea. It is one that has had its share of controversies over the years. Introduced in the 1970’s the idea of the 4 days work week has been making a comeback as of lately. There are several issues to look at here. One of the main statements in regards to it is that productivity will decrease because of fatigue. A 10 hour work day is too long. On the flipside, another of the main issues pointed out by proponents is that productivity will increase because you will have a workforce with higher morale. In this paper, we will discuss

Workaholism, defined broadly as work addiction, still lacks a specific, widely accepted definition, even though it is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States. As job insecurity has increased following the Great Recession and technology has allowed for employees to be constantly connected to the office (Shifron & Reysen, 2011; Foster, 2014), people often find themselves working more. Indeed, Americans are taking less time off than they have in the past (All Work, 2014) and 25-30% identify as workaholics (Robinson, 2001 as cited in Shifron & Reysen, 2011). There is still a debate over whether workaholism is a genuine addiction/disease, or just the set of associated behaviors, i.e. working excessively, thinking ceaselessly about

A six-hour day will never work in this day of time. Cost of living for most state's is at a out time high.Family will not be about to take care of living expense.You,will need another money to commute back and forward to work.Those are the reason I feel that a six-hour workday want work.

One can distinguish a few reasons of why people choose to work long hours. Some are struggling to make ends meet, they have little choice but maintaining three jobs to support their families. Many are in constant fear of losing their jobs, so they may work more and take less vacation time to impress their boss by being a hard worker the company can't afford to lose. Some of us are very competitive, driven by desire to be the best of the best. There is also a group of workers, who simply love their job, and in it they find escape from family and other personal misfortunes.

There is a good chance that we are all guilty of overworking. We often neglect our families, our diets, our stress level, and most of all, our sanity. We are so tired that we do not have the energy to keep up with our daily duties. Our laundry and dishes pile up, and we can’t find that small amount of time to take our kids to the park. We lost track of what a real vacation felt like, because if for some small reason we actually took days off work, we spend them catching up on the areas we have fallen behind in. The question is why? Why do we choose to over-do ourselves for work? It’s simple, we all want to feel and show that we are

We must look at the adverse effects that those long work hours have on the human body. Overworked individuals can suffer from work related illnesses as a result of excessive stress. Work related stress can result from extended hours due to mandatory overtime in some case. An employer’s rigid work hours which can prevent employees from tending to occasional issues at home can also be blamed for stress on the job. Employees suffering the effects of stress in the workplace tend to have bouts of absenteeism.

The days of the regular 9 to 5 workday, 40-hour week and relaxing vacations have all but gone by the wayside. Today, they have more often than not been replaced by workdays with no set timeframe, a workweek consisting of up to 60 hours or more and vacations that are for the most part nonexistent. With such extreme changes in modern work habits, things such as relationships, health and lifestyles suffer. Sadly, this disorder is not new to researchers nor is it as small as a problem as most people think it is. People that worked harder and longer than needed were considered ideal employees in the past. Today, companies are implementing mandatory time-off as to battle the addiction to work. Researchers have discovered that not only is there