Lately, the issue of shorter working hours has come to the fore and sparked serious debate among employees, employers, politicians and trade unions.
And in last week’s episode of “Economibyrån”, which is led by Carolina Neurath, the number of working hours was the focus. When SVT shared a video clip from the program, the reactions were strong.
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The issue of shortened working hours is a matter of debate. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT
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The psychologist: “No one can concentrate for eight hours”
More specifically, it is a video clip, published on SVT’s official Facebook page, where the psychologist and the author Björn Hedensjö guests of the program that made the comment section boil.
– Eight hours per day, how well does it actually work for us humans?, asks Carolina Neurath in the segment.
– It’s actually a completely arbitrary idea that we should work eight hours straight, Hedensjö answers and continues:
– The fact is that no one can concentrate for eight hours. The brain doesn’t work like that, but we work on it for maybe 20 minutes or 45 minutes concentrated. Then we think about something else or click something online or read private e-mail. So we are not created to concentrate on one task for eight hours. None of us.
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SVT viewers: “Laughing”
But not all viewers agree with this. At the time of writing, the video clip has over 550 comments and many say that, in their professions, they do not have the opportunity at all to take the breaks that Björn Hedensjö mentions. This is how some of them write:
“Laughing grease! In the bakery industry, nobody checks private emails or small talk at the coffee machine. Can you be efficient for eight hours? Of course, it is individual and fewer people fix both efficiency and pace these days. It was sad to say that it is a generational issue but more about upbringing and work ethic.”
“Laughable reasoning that is based on having a pretend job that is not really needed. Unfortunately, a large part of the white-collar sector consists of so-called adult kindergartens where the individual production/contribution consists of circulating emails and booking meetings without any purpose. However, there are plenty of people in other industries who can work 10-12 hours a day without getting burned out, bored or losing focus. The idea that we are so sensitive that we can’t work 8 hours is bullshit.”
“I work as a nurse and there are many shifts when I barely have time to pee or drink a glass of water… So it’s certainly possible to concentrate for 8-10 hours. Easy to say when you’re just sitting at a desk and pretending to work.”
“Is he talking about 08s? Because at my job you don’t click on awake e-mail, internet or the like. At my job you work. Phones prohibited and my workplace is similar to most people’s. So where does he work because it’s so free! ?!?”
“Just as the others wrote, it’s hardly the industries where you can check private emails that really need a shorter working day. On the other hand, nurses or us as teachers who are happy if we have time to go to the toilet sometimes and hardly have breaks in a working day, yes please!”
“Read private e-mail or click something online? Sounds incredibly luxurious. I myself work 8 hours a day in dental care, I can’t zone out and take micro breaks. I’m happier if I have time to go to the toilet at some point during the day .”
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Photo: Screenshot/Facebook/SVT
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