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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Billionaire Jack Ma, long an outspoken advocate for China's extreme work culture, says that people should be able to work just 12 hours a week with the benefits of artificial intelligence.
People could work as little as three days a week, four hours a day with the help of technology advances and a reform in education systems, the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder said at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai Thursday. He spoke on-stage with Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. who is building manufacturing facilities in the city.
[...] Just this year, Ma endorsed the China tech sector's infamous 12-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week routine, so common it earned the moniker 996. In one blog post, China's richest man this year dismissed people who expect a typical eight-hour office lifestyle, defying a growing popular backlash.
"I don't worry about jobs," Ma said on Thursday, making an optimistic case that AI will help humans rather than just eliminate their work. "Computers only have chips, men have the heart. It's the heart where the wisdom comes from."
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 14 2019, @04:24PM (6 children)
I don't know exactly at what point efficiency drops off. I expect it falls in terraces, or plateaus.
Let's take the 40 hour work week, for starters, and compare it to 6 ten hour days, or 6 12's. You get two days off, you tend to forget minor details of where you were at, and what you were doing on Friday evening. Working 6 10's or more, you never forget. You are so heavily invested in your work, you CAN'T forget where you're at, or what you are doing. Working only 5 8's, you forget some, maybe even many minor details, and it takes you ten, fifteen, thirty minutes to grasp all the threads on Monday morning.
Euros can chime in here. What's it like to come back to work, routinely, after three days off? You only work 4 days in any given week, and three days off. Does someone else sit in your desk when you are gone, or does your job wait idle, waiting for you to come back? Either way, it's going to take minutes to grasp all the threads, and get them wrapped into the bundle you need to proceed. Maybe it's only the length of time you take to drink a coffee - maybe it's a lot longer.
What happens when you work only three days? FFS, some of us will forget the way to the job site! Forget where the restrooms are. The job? Hell, I don't remember where I put anything, let alone what I was doing with it!
How about a fifteen hour workweek? Or twelve? You're only on the job for two days?
Oh-kay, if some of you insist that you are THAT GOOD that you won't forget a single thing - you are ready to produce the instant you arrive on site, or at your desk, at your work station - let's just accept that all of YOU are THAT GOOD.
What about the FNG? That fuckin' new guy, who just graduated from high school / trade school / college. He don't know jack shit. Seriously, he doesn't know how to find his ass with both hands. He's here for two days, learns almost nothing, then he's off for five days. He gets back, he's forgotten who the hell he works for, and the shop/office/jobsite looks brand new to him. Work for two more days, off five again, when and how does he develop the expertise he needs?
How many of you learned to ride a bicycle like that? On Saturday evening, when parents feel like it, you can ride for fifteen minutes. Holy - you're never going to learn to ride that bike with only fifteen minutes practice each week!
I find it hard to believe that new hires are going to develop genuine expertise with only twenty hours per week. It's going to take exceptional young people to do so. I just can't see it happening with less than 20.
You people who insisted that YOU can work only a couple days per week, and still do a great job? Tell us, how many hours have you invested in your career, to attain that level of proficiency? Then, tell us, how some kid who only dabbles at the job for a day or two each week is going to develop that proficiency?
It hardly matters whether you exercise your back on the job, or exercise your brain, you're a manager, a tech, a laborer, or an engineer, or a hard corps scientist. If you're not DOING THE JOB, you're never going to LEARN THE JOB.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @04:48PM
I had a job working four 10 hour days per week with 3 days off. I never forgot what I was doing. Then five 8 hour days, then five 6-12 hour days (hours at my discretion). Again, never forgot what I was doing since I was the only one that did know what I was doing. I did work 14 straight days in a row 10 hours each day only once. Made a lot of money but would never do it again. Forcing six 10 hour days on someone will lead to burnout. People have a life and family that work shouldn't cut in to.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday October 14 2019, @04:50PM (1 child)
Whether that's good enough, depends on the job. I'd be leery of an air traffic controller or a surgical doctor who only did 12 hours a week in their job. I don't know if that's enough for someone to stay in the necessary head space.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 14 2019, @05:15PM
I see an obvious invitation for the line about "part time gynocologist" here . . .
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by zion-fueled on Monday October 14 2019, @09:18PM
Depends on what you do and how much you get paid. A service tech could work a few days a week and still make it. So could a doctor. Hourly/customer service can't since you'll never make it worthwhile for either the employer nor employee.
Where it mainly shines would be salary positions with a whole bunch of downtime. Instead of warming a chair for 40 hours, you could go home when your work was done. Nobody says you can't work longer if the need arises. One would train the FNG up until he earns the privilege of a reduced work week.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday October 14 2019, @11:05PM
On a site owned by that usian conservative Rupert: Productivity soars after Aussie company introduces four-day work week [news.com.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 15 2019, @11:31AM
These people should probably be euthanized.