Why Does Work Start At 9 A.M.?
forbes.com
forbes.com
- Citation needed.
Blaming "men" for the 9-5 workday is easily one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Come on.
And wasn't 9-5 a banker thing? There are a lot of professions that don't work 9-5 that were established a long time ago, like farming. They don't start at 9am, they start when it's light out so they can stop when it gets hot and resume later.
And the 2 weeks notice? That's because it's reasonable to find a McD's employee in 2 weeks after they post a "Help Wanted" sign. I hear tech employees can and will give longer notice in order to ease transitions.
It's also normal to have three months of notice (and it's not optional for the worker). It's not uncommon that they'll let you leave with a shorter notice if you ask for it, unless they really need you during that time (for e.g. training new staff).
To be let go earlier is not only a problem of asking, it's also that you are entitled to three months of salary. So, most of the time, they would like to keep you in order to not have triple the salary costs (one for you, one for the new guy and (virtually) a third for whomever is occupied with training the new guy instead of doing their regular job).
Usually means the article is link bait and not based on facts throughout. It's Forbes, so the new content strategy they have in place would align with this conclusion.
Worth noting that this is a fairly uniquely American standard and would be illegal in most of Europe.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lab_vac_min_vac_tim_aro_th...
It's a symptom of the belief that "you should feel lucky to have a job" - you should be grateful to have two weeks of leave, not expect more like most other OECD country. I am also constantly amazed at how many coworkers don't use the small amount of leave they get.
It'll be interesting to see if changes in employment patterns will eventually push the US towards a mandated number of vacation hours.
Perhaps two weeks of vacation is standard because many Americans want additional money more than they want additional vacation.
You know, it's even possible that many people from other OECD nations would prefer more money and less vacation - they just don't have the option to make that tradeoff.
Instead, it's a complex cause rooted in a country built on entrepreneurship and a strong belief in the "free market" (whatever that means). This is why it's not regulated by any government (federal, state, or local). The US has a lot of factors that lead to its vacation policy, but, "You should feel lucky to have a job" is not one of them--that sentiment is a more recent attitude.
If true, women should flock to tech startups and academia and avoid big banks/corporates/government. In reality, the opposite occurs.
Similarly, consider the "routine and structure" that men supposedly require. It seems that stereotypically female professions (teaching, HR) have lots of structure and thrive on enforcing it, while stereotypically male professions (programming, sales) are characterized by an individualistic "get shit done" attitude. The article more or less agrees with this - it's women, not men, who work hard at squashing changes and making the system remain as rigid as a 1900's factory.
Overall, this is a fairly weakly reasoned article that should at least acknowledge where it differs from reality.
Maybe you missed the part where she said she comes in a little before 9am and leaves by 5. :)
The benefit of everyone using Qwerty, though, is apparent.
So same with 9am starts. So that the team is together at around the same time, for example. This can be overcome with proper communication channels as in a remote worker setup, but that's a special case.
Sometimes the effects can justify the means.
If you're a service provider, there's a big advantage in being available at the same times as your clients.
For the real reasons you'd want to look to the industrial revolution and Taylorism.
PS. Women we're allowed to work when we standardized start times so everyone would arrive at their station at the right time. You can't run a mill with only half the workforce, so during the industrial revolution it was extremely important for everyone to show up on time. That's the real reason and it has nothing to do with men's inputs and everything to do with the needs of the means of production. Before that you started work as the sun rose because we had no need for standardized start times.
The 9 to 5 thing is more an evolution of a whole bunch of inputs, the final input being primarily Henry Ford and the 8 hour day / 40 hour work week that finally allowed everyone to actually consume all the goods they were producing. That is up until now when production has again outstripped consumption.
PPS. I really get annoyed with revisionist feminist history.
Her boss is in another country and doesn't enforce a starting hour for her schedule. But I'm having trouble convincing her to start earlier (I want 8 AM) in order to leave at 5 PM. Her reason: she doesn't want that the other girls in her department (Recruitment) mistakenly consider her a slacker behind her back. She thinks that sometime down the road, when asked, somebody will answer that she doesn't work hard enough because she's leaving earlier than 6 PM without mentioning that she's coming in earlier.
The same hours, the same amount of work but you should see peoples faces when you walk out the office at 3pm...
There is no scientific research on the adequacy of the current working schedule, as it was adopted arbitrarily by managers. Furthermore, it was established by men for men, without asking women for input, which makes juggling family, career, relationships... difficult for women.
Yeah, there's a wonkish phrase in the middle of it, which reeks of pseudo-evo-psych. I'm talking about "it’s well-established that men perform more effectively under routine and structure." So what.
I prefer: "In God we trust. The rest show data."
Working 9-5 makes this hard for men too.
Besides, you ever notice the more important the person the later they come in? None of the SVPs at my company are ever in before noon.
Are lunch and breaks included in that?
9 - 5 is 8 hours and a normal workday is 8 hours?
i.e. 9-5
I do pity fellow Americans working 8-5 or 9-6.
Looks like average is 37.5 in the UK. Some stats about Europe in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2795641/Britons-w...
It was established to be 9-17, historically in most countries.
There had to be some compromise, in order to co-ordinate a lot of things: the start/end of the school day. The start of services such as buses and the subway. 9 o' clock was a nice compromise.
Probably it also had something to do with, well, electric light not being available at the time (not everywhere at least). And people of course has to wake up before 9 o' clock in order to go from their home to work.
The 8 hour day was before idiocies such as "my work is my life/passion" were uttered by mere employees. It was a time that people struggled to work less and have a more balanced life.
Hackers are especially bad at understanding this, because they tend to have little personal life (citation: judging from a lot of people I know, hacker's blog posts, the typical stereotype --which must have some basis--, and most hacker's cultural artifacts), and because they work with interesting problems tend to think that everyone must equally strive to work as much as they can and that "if you love your job, you won't have to work a day in your life".
Well, it doesn't hold for most people, the very people that provide all the infrastructure you use everyday. Few ticket collectors in theaters want to work more. Few burger flippers. Few mailmen. Few policemen. Few grocery store employees. Few gas station attendants. Few pilots. Few truck drivers. Few farm workers. Few nurses. Few iPhone or Android phone builders. Few accountants. Few office workers. Few garbage collectors.