Posts Tagged ‘21-hour workweek’
Work-life balance. It’s the subject of ongoing studies that make headlines in industrialized countries around the world. But the New Economics Foundation (nef) is putting a new twist on the topic by suggesting a 21-hour workweek could be the answer to work-life balance – and much more.
In the final segment of this five-part series on “Work-Life Balance and the Virtual Office,” we’re going to take a closing look at key points nef made in its study called 21 hours. The study explores how a 21-hour workweek could, among other benefits, spur a robust and prosperous economy, give people more time to care for children, and ultimately lead to stronger public services. Let’s look at these three aspects of the study and see how virtual offices fit into these benefits.
Robust and Prosperous Economy
A 21-hour workweek could bring more women into the workforce and give men an opportunity to live more balanced lives, according to the nef study. A 21-hour workweek would also reduce stress, nef says, because employees wouldn’t have to juggle work with home responsibilities and family commitments.
Nef also pointed to evidence that suggests people who work shorter hours are more productive, hour for hour. A 21-hour workweek would also put an end to one of the main causes of the credit crunch – the consumer debt bubble – by moving from an economy based on consumerism and economic growth, to one based around stability, resilience and adaptability, nef concludes.
Caring for Children
Here’s an interesting calculation: If you put a price tag on the average time spent on housework and caring for children and adults in 2005, it would be worth nearly £253.7 billion. That equals 21 percent of the British Gross Domestic Product for that year. “By moving towards a 21-hour week,” nef says, “unpaid care and housework would be seen as equally valued and important as paid employment, and men could take a more equal share of these home-based tasks.”
Finally, nef suggests a 21-hour workweek would breed stronger public services. A 21-hour workweek would give people more time to care for each other, spend with children, stay healthy and contribute to neighborhood activities. As nef sees it, workers could partner with the public sector to become co-producers of public services.
Virtual Offices Breed Benefits
With all of this in mind, could it be possible that the virtual office will become a facilitator of the 21-hour workweek? I think it is possible. Although a 21-hour workweek might seem impossible to some, a virtual office could, at the least, help employees do more in less time – and do it from the homefront so they could be more available for children and family.
A virtual office space, for example, gives employees the flexibility to work several hours in the morning, take a break in the middle of the day to deal with household, health and family issues, then work again in the evening. Virtual assistants and virtual receptionists can help bear the load and keep business moving while workers are tending to personal matters that breed stronger work-life balance.
In conclusion, although a 21-hour workweek seems nearly impossible in a society that’s driven to productivity, it is possible that spreading the work among families – where men and women both work and both help care for family – could benefit the society. Virtual office technologies could play a key role in this transition if and when it happens.
Could a 21-hour workweek be the answer to many of society’s ills? And where do virtual offices fit into the mix? That’s been the topic of our weeklong series on “Work-Life Balance and the Virtual Office.”
In today’s post, we continue looking at findings from a recently published study from the New Economics Foundation (nef) called 21 hours. According to the study, a 21-hour workweek could accomplish the following: reducing unemployment and overworked employees, improving life quality and lowering carbon emissions, and spurring new levels of civic engagement. Let’s explore each concept, then look at how virtual offices, virtual assistants and virtual receptionists facilitate these benefits.
More Equitable Work Distribution
According to nef, a 21-hour workweek could help distribute paid work more evenly across the population, reducing ill-being associated with unemployment, long working hours and too little control over time.
A 21-hour workweek would, nef concluded, “make it possible for paid and unpaid work to be distributed more equally between women and men; for parents to spend more time with their children – and to spend that time differently; for people to delay retirement if they wanted to, and to have more time to care for others, to participate in local activities and to do other things of their choosing.”
As work gets redistributed, nef suggests, incomes will become more equal, thus reducing the vast range of social problems associated with inequality.
Higher Quality of Life
With a 21-hour workweek, some may earn less but they would have more time. This translates to a higher quality of life, the study reports, because people can start growing their own food rather than buying ready-made meals, walking and cycling instead of riding cars and buses, and mending and repairing goods rather than throwing them away.
“Living life at a slower pace, with more time to do everyday tasks, would cut carbon emissions and improve life satisfaction,” study authors believe. “A more egalitarian culture would also reduce the need for conspicuous consumption driven by people’s anxiety about where they stand in the social pecking order.”
Finally, the nef study determines, a 21-hour workweek would give citizens more time to engage with government. Citizens need time to learn about political issues, get involved in decision-making and join and support political parties. Spending fewer hours at work would allow people to spend more time as active citizens in their local community, nef says.
The Virtual Office Tie-In
Could a virtual office help facilitate a 21-hour workweek? A virtual office could play a role in driving higher quality of life for entrepreneurs and employees who are trying to accomplish more with less. With virtual assistants, for example, you can manage your time more effectively by having someone to take care of the administrative details of running an office. With a virtual office, don’t have to commute to the office, which save time, money and lowers your carbon footprint.
With remote receptionists, you can work from the road or from home and still have your business phone lines answered by a professional during business hours. A virtual receptionist can also save you time by screening your calls and call forwarding services can send your calls to your mobile device while you are on the road so you make the most of travel time. Indeed, a virtual office can help you shave your work hours without hindering your productivity, making a 21-hour workweek possible.
A brand new study predicts a 21-hour work week is inevitable. Dubbed 21 hours, the New Economics Foundation, or nef, study forecasts a major shift in the length of the formal work week as a consequence of dealing with key economic, social and environmental problems. Could the virtual office play a role?
Nef says there are several forces pushing us towards a shorter working week: lasting damage to the economy caused by the banking crisis, an increasingly divided society with too much over-work alongside too much unemployment, and an urgent need for deep cuts in environmentally damaging over-consumption.
“So many of us live to work, work to earn, and earn to consume. And our consumption habits are squandering the earth’s natural resources,” says Anna Coote, co-author of the report and Head of Social Policy at nef. “Spending less time in paid work could help us to break this pattern. We’d have more time to be better parents, better citizens, better careers and better neighbors. And we could even become better employees: less stressed, more in control, happier in our jobs and more productive. It is time to break the power of the old industrial clock, take back our lives and work for a sustainable future.”
Could a virtual office help? I think it could. A virtual office can cut down on commute time, for starters. Even if the workweek doesn’t shrink to 21 hours, employees and business owners could save 10 hours a week – or more – dressing and commuting to work. People can also cut business overhead costs with a virtual office space, from the bricks and mortar under which they work to the costly lunches at local restaurants.
Virtual offices may not ultimately lead to working fewer hours on the actual job, but virtual office technologies can make employees more efficient. Greater efficiency could lead to the need to work fewer hours – or the ability to take more time off. Even if you go in to work early and work late, a virtual office still offers more freedom – and more work-life balance.
We’ll look into more of the implications of nef’s new study in tomorrow’s post.
Follow Us
