Where the time goes

In 1894, Labor Day was designated a national holiday in the United States.

At the time, 60-hour workdays were the norm in the U.S., typically spread over a 6-day work week. It would be another 45 years before the 40-hour workweek would be amended to the Fair Labor Standards Act, in 1940. In the 80+ years since, tremendous progress has been made on many other aspects of worker rights, but the 40-hour time standard still endures.

Teaching courses on human resource management gave me a lot of chance to reflect on the role of work in our lives, for good and for bad. It got me very interested in how people spend their time, both on the job and off, and what it might all mean for the health and well-being of individuals and societies. In the spirit of Labor Day, I'll provide a few country-level findings that I have found particularly intriguing.

I'll start with the familiar market-based rationale for longer workweeks: economic output.

Productivity

Intuition might suggest that as people work longer hours, economic output will be higher. But research suggests the opposite: people in countries with lower GDPs work the most hours. As a country's GDP expands, hours tend to decrease. You can see this unfold over time graphically using the link below:

What about at the company level? Research also suggests a negative association, with longer workweeks linked to lower organizational performance.

Outside of the economic realm, working less may have other benefits, including:

Higher well-being

Numerous studies have linked shorter work-weeks to better health. People working 55 or more hours per week have an estimated 35% higher risk of stroke and 17% higher risk of ischemic heart disease, compared to people working 35-40 hours per week. People working less than 35 hours / week outside the home are also more likely to eat healthier.

Stronger democracies

The decline in workweek length is not uniform across the world. As GDP/capita increases, individuals in democracies spend fewer hours at work than their counterparts in dictatorships. This may be a result of the democratic process, which offers a more direct voice in legislation. It may also have reinforcing effects: with more time, people have more capacity for civic engagement, including voting.

Lower environmental impact

Although individual experiences vary widely, a day spent outside the workplace often has less environmental impact than a day spent within it. Commuting is a familiar reason. Food is another: on days that they work, people are more likely to eat prepackaged foods, go out to restaurants, or order take-out - all of which have a higher environmental impact than dining in.

Adding it up

When the ceiling on working hours is lowered, it may do more good than just giving people more discretionary time. It may also improve well-being, strengthen democracy, and lessen the environmental damage our modern society is creating.

If you have this day off from work, I hope you have the chance to fully embrace it - and the progress it symbolizes. If you are working today, consider going outside for your breaks if you can - research suggests it may be significantly better for your well-being.

Recent items of interest

• Protecting people from the heat exposures. An analysis recently published in JAMA suggests that heat-related deaths in the U.S. have tripled from their 2016 levels. The findings will hopefully strengthen the case for stronger federal guidelines on safe working conditions. The National Resources Defense Council has created a searchable map of federal and state heat safety standards here.
• Reigning in plastics. Reuters reported that the United States will support a global treaty calling for a reduction in how much new plastic is produced each year. Hopefully, the deluge of recent news stories on the health impacts of microplastics and their increasing presence in humans will add urgency to these efforts. Meantime, Bloomberg offered this advice on how to reduce microplastics exposure.

Upcoming events/deadlines

• [webinar] - "How to reduce single-use medical items" (Sept. 3, 13:00 - 14:30 CET Geneva time). Climate Action Accelerator is hosting this free webinar, in English with simultaneous translation into French. More information and registration are available here.
• [conference] - World Hospital Congress [in-person, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil] - "Navigating Net Zero mini-masterclass" (in-person, Sept. 9, 9:00-12:00 BRT, Rio de Janeiro, BR). I will be co-facilitating along with Sonia Roschnik, Executive Director of the Geneva Sustainability Centre and Jonathan Perlin, CEO of the Joint Commission. More info and registration is available here. You can also read about the sustainable conferencing steps WHC is taking here.
• [conference] -"Climate Week NYC" (in-person + some hybrid/virtual options, week of Sept. 23rd, around NYC). Main events related to health can be viewed here. Economist Impact will also host a roundtable side event on building resilient health systems. I'll be participating in that one on behalf of the Geneva Sustainability Centre. More information and registration for that one is available here.

Anyone experimenting with a shorter work week? What effects have you seen? I'd welcome your comments. Thanks for reading - and your help healing our future.

Andy Garman