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An interesting clip landed on my social media feed about five months ago. It was an interview that Kim Kardashian and her family did with Variety magazine in which the reality star suggested girlbosses around the country were… being lazy, and that’s why they aren’t ~successful like her.
“I have the best advice for women in business,” Kim said matter-of-factly during the interview. “Get your f***ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” Her sister Kourtney, the most irrelevant and boring member of the Kardashian clan who just got hitched to Blink-182’s drummer, Travis Barker, casually chimed in with a “That’s so true” before Kim continued: “Show up and do the work.”
I’m not going to use up my word count to point out all the reasons why the Kardashians acting like they became billionaires by toiling away at work is so funny (people commenting on the video, which you can watch in full here, already did). But I think Kim’s incredibly un-self-aware comment signifies how lots of people—conservatives and liberals alike—often view labor: that people shouldn’t be precious about it.
Let’s not get it twisted: when rich people like the Kardashians say people are being lazy what they usually mean is that people who work regular jobs—like the staff who works for them—should be willing to give all their time and energy to do work that benefits their interests. That typically means demanding workers make “sacrifices” like performing overtime work without overtime pay, prioritizing work over personal needs, and other things of that nature. But that attitude is dumb and demoralizing (not to mention illegal in some cases), and it certainly doesn’t sound like the foundation of a healthy work environment (Kim herself seems to know nothing about ensuring a healthy work environment for those propping up her business empire).
The fact is, labor is precious. Even with our technological advances today, the labor workforce is what keeps our world spinning—workers building buildings, tending farms, staffing factories, and buzzing in offices. Imagine if all that labor just disappeared one day, like in some dystopian horror story. What would happen then?
Well, we did come close to something like that. The eerieness following the coronavirus outbreaks in early 2020 due to quarantines and lockdowns worldwide completely disrupted our lives as factories and offices were emptied out. It also spawned a collective realization that conditions in the workplace were not acceptable as they were, actually. People around the world from educators in the US to social workers in Taiwan have begun demanding better workplace protections (especially with the life-threatening dangers of COVID-19), better pay, and fairer treatment at work. Just this week, the US railroad system was under threat of shutting down because railroad workers were fed up with the inhumane conditions of their work—railroad engineers and conductors reported being fired for fulfilling doctor’s appointments and attending funerals, and having to be on call for weeks without any days off, all without being afforded sick days (imagine working under those conditions?!). Officials from the US Labor Department said that a tentative deal was reached this morning after 20 hours (!!) of negotiations between union reps and the government.
Many who were unhappy with their bosses or companies quit—in 2021, more than 47 million people in the US left their jobs, spawning what’s been cheesily coined as America’s Great Resignation. One survey cited the various reasons people were leaving their jobs including: burnout, stagnant wages, poor work-life balance, and a lack of fulfillment.
But beyond the mass resignations, another interesting phenomenon has emerged from the pandemic’s chaos: a movement to enact a four-day work week. And it’s exactly what it sounds like—companies are adopting a four-day work week for employees, meaning they spend 32 hours working per week instead of 40, without suffering a pay cut.
Some US companies began adopting pilot programs to test out a four-day work week, and the results so far have been astounding. San Francisco fin-tech firm Bolt saw a 30% increase in job applications; Kansas City retail brand Charlie Hustle reportedly saw an increase in work efficiency and productivity among employees; and the Wanderlust Group, an outdoor connectivity tech company, says they’ve increased their annual recurring revenue by 100%. The shift toward a four-day work week has also been taking hold overseas with giant companies like UK’s Atom Bank and Japan’s Panasonic brand shifting to a shorter work week for employees.
The proposal to have people working four days a week may sound whacky at first—being able to enjoy a *three-day* weekend? Sounds like a nice fantasy—but is it really that far-fetched of a concept? It might not be all that crazy if you look back in history.
Before the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century, economies in the world were largely agriculture-based, allowing working-class families to make a living through farming, at-home textile work—they were Working From Home, basically!—and other types of slow production labor. But as the world began to shift toward industry, people were pushed toward fast-paced industrial employment which, at that point, was an unregulated free-for-all since labor laws didn’t exist. Employers could treat workers however they pleased as they strived to gain maximum profit. By the early 1900s, it was common practice for factory workers, including child laborers, to work 16-hour days amid unsafe work conditions. What about “employment benefits” or “weekends”? They didn’t exist.
That all changed on May 1, 1886, when US workers nationwide agreed to go on strike to demand an 8-hour workday—a “radical” notion at the time. Long story short, that multi-day labor strike at Haymarket Square in Chicago, which eventually turned violent due to police interference, became the origin of May Day, which is celebrated worldwide as International Labor Day. The US Library of Congress has an interesting digital archive of newspaper articles covering the Haymarket protests that you can access here.
[Note: Within US history, this incident is known as the Haymarket Affair, but its connection to the global labor movement is seldom emphasized in American history books. Some researchers argue that was deliberately done by the country’s special interests to cut off the US worker movement from the international labor movement. Hence, why Americans now shun May Day and instead celebrate Labor Day (which is on a completely different date!) and why in practice Labor Day seemingly has less to do with honoring workers’ rights and is more about having a nice summer cookout.]
Fast forward to over a century later, the 8-hour workday and five-day work week is the norm. Given the history of the labor movement, is it really so unimaginable that society would try to change the rules of work again? According to researchers, the answer is “not at all!” During a recent Ted Talk, economist Juliet Schor, who is currently studying four-day work trials in the US and Ireland, made the case for the shorter work week based on prior studies from other countries—including those done in the pre-pandemic era—and early results from her current research.
According to Schor, in most four-day work trials, the shorter work week actually pushed people to use their work hours more efficiently (since they had less time to complete their tasks during the week) and even increased company productivity. Other benefits companies saw included lower turnover and a higher-quality applicant pool, a decline in resignations and sick days, reduced poor service, and reduced health costs (because people were less stressed). Meanwhile, employees reported having a better life outside of work and were more inclined to feel committed to their companies thanks to a better work-life balance and improved work conditions.
“Unlike policies in which one party profits at the expense of another, the four-day week can benefit workers, companies, and societies. And it can even be a gateway for addressing climate change,” Schor said during her 11-minute presentation. Schor gave a lot of fascinating insight into the data around four-day work weeks which you can watch in full below.
So, even though popular belief might have you think cutting people’s work hours while maintaining the same five-day-a-week pay will somehow crash the economy (??) or make people lazy (side-eyeing you, Kim Kardashian) studies have found the opposite. In fact, giving people more time off actually results in a net-positive effect for both companies and workers. Treating people like human beings is actually good for everyone? Who would’ve thunk it!
Of course, it’s obvious that the way we think about work or labor is still pretty stuck in outdated ideas that are shaped by the rule of capitalism. Even with a growing number of studies showing the merits of enacting a shorter work week in the workplace—or just better work conditions overall—it feels like the rules around work are changing very slowly. I doubt a four-day week will become the societal norm anytime soon, but it’s clear the momentum is there.
What are your feelings about a four-day work week? Are you already enjoying a shorter work week at your job? Do you love or hate your job? I wanna know cus I’m nosy like that so please share your thoughts in the comments or reply to this email!
CHEERIO, QUEENIE
It happened, folks: Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, passed away last week on Sept. 8 at 96 years old. Her coffin went through a grand royal procession yesterday, with thousands of Brits lining the streets and gathering in parks to watch. People lined up for HOURS just to get a glimpse of a few seconds of the Queen’s coffin passing by, spawning its own hashtag on social media: #TheQueue.
I have many thoughts about the British Empire relating to Queen Elizabeth’s legacy but I don’t have the energy to write about it all after this past week. Instead, I encourage you to check out this episode on Vibe Check, a delightful podcast hosted by Sam Sanders (who is my favorite podcast personality), author and poet Saeed Jones, and journalist Zach Stafford where they gab about all things politics and pop culture (my favorite). The trio discuss the Queen’s passing and what it symbolizes, especially for people of color who come from countries formerly colonized by the British Empire, which at its height was **the largest colonizing empire in history**.
Also, if you’ve got time to kill and you want more Queen-related things, you can also revisit this previous issue of the newsletter where I dove into how the British monarchy has been able to survive well into the 21st Century amid its declining popularity, and how Queen Elizabeth II played a crucial role in its survival.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: ON THE DECAY OF MONARCHY 👑🚫
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SOME THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT
🔥 How mutual aid organizations have stepped up across Pakistan to support flood victims in the aftermath of its severe climate crisis. | Gal-Dem
🔥 Is Hungary—whose PM Viktor Orban has trafficked white nationalism into the country’s national policies—still a democracy? According to EU lawmakers, not really. Yikes! | Al Jazeera
🔥 Confused about why Chileans elected a young leftist president yet voted *not* to enshrine progressive changes into the country’s Constitution? A Chilean American journalist breaks down the possible reasons behind that disparity. | New York Times
🔥 Netflix might be getting sued by Suriname, a small country in South America that is the backdrop of the hit Korean action drama Narco-Saints (which is a great show, btw) due to the show’s negative depiction of Suriname’s government. | Reuters
🔥 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis routed two planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, another display that’s part of Republicans’ morally-bankrupt political stunt of bussing asylum seekers to blue states. | CNN
🔥 The billionaire founder of the outdoor hipster’s favorite brand, Patagonia, just gave away his company (and his family’s fortune) to combat climate change. | Guardian
🔥 Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina without shame introduced a bill to ban abortions earlier this week, which would shift the matter of legislating abortion access from states. Apparently, neither Democrats nor some of his GOP colleagues liked that he did that very much. | Politico
If you enjoyed this, you can check out The P Word’s greatest hits here.
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See ya later,
Natasha