And more than this we lose the ability to be and do things that make life valuable and worth living. Working long hours can add to the risk of having a stroke, coronary heart disease and developing type 2 diabetes.īy working most of the time, we also lose time with family and friends. These include lower physical and mental health. It is a mark of how we have come to accept work and its dominant influence in our lives that we do not grasp this idea more readily.Ī growing number of studies show the human costs of longer working hours.

Yet, the idea of working less is not only feasible, it is also the basis for a better standard of life. Working less is presented as a threat to our health and happiness, not a means to improve it. It also offers an ideological barrier to the case for spending less time at work. Such pro-work ideology is used to legitimate welfare reforms that seek to coerce the non-employed into work, whatever its rates of pay and qualitative features. Indeed, its achievement would come at the expense of lower consumption and increased economic hardship.įor some advocates of the work ethic, the route to health and happiness lies with the perpetuation of work, not with its reduction. While a fine idea in principle, working fewer hours is not feasible in practice. To even pose these questions is to invite the criticism of Utopian thinking. What if all weekends could last for three or even four days? What if the majority of the week could be given over to activities other than work? What if most of our time could be devoted to non-work activities of our own choosing? As we approach the August bank holiday and a three-day weekend, it is worth reassessing the amount of time we devote to work.

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