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Richard Pineger wrote:
>Now, this could be due to many factors but I prefer to believe that, in our
>knowledge based economies, shorter hours do give better productivity. Now,
>obviously there is a limit or base line below which this doesn't work but
35
>hours appears to be above that (as does 28.8 hours for VW).
Reminds me of the first company I worked for. It was in the centre of
Edinburgh, near a lot of pubs, shops, and the annual international beer
festival. (Also near a public library, several bookshops, and the annual
international book festival, if you want to know what I saw as benefits....)
Standard working hours USED to be 35 per week - figured as 7 a day with an
hour, unpaid, for lunch. 9 to 5:00. About a year before I started there, the
CEO announced that from now on (no change in salaries) everyone would get 75
minutes (unpaid) for lunch, but would be expected to stay on till 5:30.
(According to office rumour, the CEO expected that people would take the
usual time for lunch - say an hour - and thus he would get an extra 2.5
hours a week out of them at no extra cost in salary.)
Of course everyone took advantage of the full 75 minutes. So he cut it back
to 60 minutes, and when I started there, my contract specified 60 minutes
for lunch, leave at 5:30, 37.5 hours a week, as did everyone's who started
after me. But many oldtimers who had been persuaded to take the 75 minute
hour to compensate for staying till 5:30 refused to have their contracts
re-adjusted (the CEO was STILL not offering any rise in salary) and
continued to take their contractual long lunch hours.
Usually in the pub. Or at the international beer festival.
Jane Carnall
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