Thursday 30 April 2009

This whole 48-hour week doolally

It strikes me that when you decide what sort of job you want to do in life, one of the things you think about is working hours - do you want long holidays or short holidays; are you prepared to do shifts in the early morning, in the evening or at night; what about overtime; holiday and weekend work; are you prepared to be 'on-call', and so on and so forth.

We all know that there are plenty of true 9-to-5 jobs and plenty of jobs which traditionally have long hours (or involve shift-work, holiday work etc). So on the whole, people get what they ask for, so what's the problem? Surely, those jobs will pay a slightly higher wage to compensate for the inconvenience? Why does this need to be regulated? If you don't want to work 48 hours a week (and I certainly don't), then just don't become a lorry driver or a junior doctor (about the only two jobs I can think of where your tiredness actually endangers other people's lives, and where I can see a point in having a restriction, practicalities aside).

There. That's that fixed.

13 comments:

AntiCitizenOne said...

I often do a 30 Hour working weekend!

48Hours per week is for slackers.

formertory said...

There's a major problem in this small, remote, corner of the world because local fire services are provided largely by "retained fire fighters" - people who do another job entirely and are on call for fire duty. They have to count the hours they're on call as working time; so ordinary job plus on call hours greater than 48, woopee, no fire services.

I imagine the same logic applies to lifeboat crews but haven't heard anything mentioned about that so I may be wrong.

Bloody stupid, though.

FOAMYOB is an appropriate acronym.

Robin Smith said...

Yeah but people have to work wage slave hours to pay off all their debt. Granted they shouldnt have been so greedy in the first place.

So they might get what they ask for, but do they get what they want?

I bet most people would also rather be self employed anyway. Or do art instead of work

Lola said...

Robin Smith - I reckon LVT could solve the mortgage/wage slave/PAYE trap at a stroke.

MW - In my ideal world you as a 'tax adviser' wouldn't have a job at all!

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, indeed. But I'd find something in bookkeeping or similar, I'd still be better at that than most people.

Anonymous said...

"There. That's that fixed."

Oh come on.

You don't think the EU is in the business of just leaving people to make up their own minds, do you?

Lola said...

MW - there you go - double bubble. Not only are taxes cut by removing them and hence more state 'workers' are released to find real wealth creating jobs in private business, but whole rafts of 'consultants' dealing with the Byzantine quangocracy and its rules will be able to enjoy the same liberation. And I like you would be able to do a proper job in my case in real wealth management - at which we are also in the top 10% to 15% - rather than buggering around with yet more pointless and expensive 'pensions' 'rules'.

Why oh why don't people understand the benefits of simplifying their lives?

Stan said...

When I was young I did a job where I would frequently work between 60 and 100 hours a week. Nobody forced me to - it's just that I got paid overtime (and weekly with real cash in a brown wage envelope) and was saving to fund a motorcycle tour of Europe. I did the job for 6 months over the autumn and winter of 1983/4 then set off on a 6 month tour of Europe on my Yamaha XT500 over that spring and summer. Fantastic - but if the EU got their way, something I couldn't do again.

manwiddicombe said...

Robin Smith - I bet most people would also rather be self employed anyway. -

That's because they think the grass is greener on the other side. Being self employed isn't all sunshine and flowers.

Dr Evil said...

Most doctors and nurses have made mistakes owing to be tired. Some of these mistakes entail decimal places and morphine. Draw your own conclusions.

Robin Smith said...

captainff: Not really. Most people want to be self employed because their wages will naturally be higher.

Mark Wadsworth said...

RS, I was once sort-of-self-employed and have been an employee for two decades since. I vastly prefer the latter.

Robin Smith said...

MW: Didnt I say self employed not sort of self employed? Thats probably OK though. Not everyone has enterprise nurtured inside them. Thats not a crime. But I reckon most people would want it if they knew the rewards.