The (Overdue) Collapse of the 9-5 Job

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Our Other Channel: @HowHistoryWorks

Edited By: Andrew Gonzales

Music Courtesy of: Epidemic Sound

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#career #business #jobs

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Companies are doing mass layoff while complaining about not being able to find enough employees, some workers are min-maxing the system by working multiple full-time jobs at the same time, while others need to work hours of unpaid overtime at just one job… This is not to mention that the gig economy is consuming entire sectors of the workforce… The 9-5 was created by American labour unions in the 1800’s and became mainstream over one HUNDRED [100] years ago, when jobs looked like this, and this… it was revolutionary for its time… but how many of the modern problems in corporate America are caused by trying to make an outdated system fit with every single modern job…

A report by the management consulting firm McKinsey and company found that two thirds [2/3] of the average humans wealth is in the work they can do over their lifetime. Everybody has time, effort and experience that they can trade for money and those tradable commodities are worth twice as much as all of the other assets that the average person possesses. A regular nine to five [9-5] job has been a great way for billions of people to safely exchange a predictable amount of their time for a predictable pay check, with predictable career advancement as they gain more experience.

But this one size fits all model for work doesn’t fit with every job and trying to make it work has been bad for employees AND bad for companies for three reasons, which is causing three equally terrible trends in the job market. The first trend is that it makes time a worthless asset. The Ford Motor Company was one of the first businesses in America to adopt the nine to five forty-hour work week. Henry Ford did this to make his company THE most attractive place for auto workers to get a job. This allowed him to pull talent away from other automakers without paying his workers more. In order to compete with Ford other automakers were forced to offer the same forty-hour work week with paid overtime. Eventually in order to compete with the automakers other companies were also forced to offer 9-5 jobs so that their best workers didn’t quit to go and work on a car assembly line. These auto workers had tightly defined and repetitive tasks, so unless the workers succumbed to exhaustion, they could do a consistent amount of work for every hour they spent at their post, and every additional hour would produce the same amount of output.

If you work in a modern office job you will know that your work is nothing like this. Sometimes there is a lot to do, and sometimes there is nothing to do, but you still need to be there eight hours a day looking busy no matter what. Back when the 40-hour week was being fought for by workers unions, most Americans worked in manufacturing, but today most people work in the service sector which is more diverse than you might expect.

Clearly these jobs are very different, and should have a different schedule but most of the corporate world has tried to make the 9-5 fit all jobs… Work comes and goes as internal and external customers make demands, and that means when people are busy and need more than eight hours in the day to finish their work they are expected to work “reasonable unpaid overtime” …

According to an ADP Research Institute Study of office professionals unpaid overtime jumped to an average of NINE point two HOURS per WEEK in 2021, more than a full extra day to keep up with employer demands.

BUT when there is little to no work to do because a project has just been completed or sales are seasonally slow, workers are still expected to put in their 40 hours a week, because “that’s what the business is paying them for”.

If you are in this kind of job your best option is to try and find something that makes you look busy, but “if you don’t have something to work on” you are probably going to be given meaningless tasks just to fill the mandatory eight-hour day…

So it’s time to learn How Money Works to find out why we might be in the midst of the overdue collapse of the 9-5.

[rickstevenson]

I thought 9-5 was already dead, it’s 8-5 now. Corporate America stopped paying workers to eat lunch a long time ago.

[lmattsonart]

I work a 9-5 in the animation industry - at Warner Brothers. Basically an office job. BUT my boss hates the 5-day, 9-5 structure and implements a tactic we call "slow start mondays" where nothing is allowed to be scheduled before noon on Monday and is generally discouraged for the entire day if possible. You have that time to do whatever you want - prepping work, making your coffee, or running your errands, essentially giving us an additional half to full day to our weekends. As long as we have our phones nearby just in case something explodes, she counts that as a "full day's work". Some Mondays I have another weekend day to my self. Some Mondays are busy and I do WB work, but without the burden of meetings so it's at my own pace. It's SO nice. She also has us bill every single minute of OT. You did 3 min of OT? Put it on your timecard. She correctly believes that if she allows us freedom and breaks we'll work hard when things come down to the wire. And we do, because this particular boss trusts us, values OUR time, and understands that we all have lives outside of the company rather than throwing us a lame quarterly pizza party. That's not Warner Brothers doing that. That's one incredible boss who knows how a good team functions in the 9-5 system. My husband on the other hand is contract and LOVES it. He works 20-30 hours a week on projects he likes and makes twice what I do.

[QEngineering]

The biggest issue that I see with a 9 to 5 is that whenever things are busy you are expected to work OT, but when things are slow you don't have the option to go home early and management gets frustrated that you're not "taking the initiative to find something to do".

[KylaFuller]

I just hate how the doctor is open the same hours you’re at work. I can’t be both places so I have to lose money to address my health or suffer at work. You work work work and when you’re off there’s no time to get things done. Self care costs more than getting a second job and focusing on money.

[gregboi]

There is no shortage of workers, just a shortage of workers willing to work for dirt pay

[lukewise]

The problem is that people are missing the bigger picture. In my grandparents' day, you showed your loyalty to a company and worked for them your whole career. Then when you retired in your 50s, you received a penison. My Mom's parents, both in their early 80s now, have been married for over 60 years. They were able to afford a house in their mid-20s WITH 2 kids already born.

If you want the masses to put in 20th century effort, they must have their 20th century lives back. There is NO substitute.

[alexsteven.m]

Our economy struggling with uncertainties, housing issues, foreclosures, global fluctuations, and pandemic aftermath, causing instability. Rising inflation, sluggish growth, and trade disruptions need urgent attention from all sectors to restore stability and stimulate growth.

[DeenanTheKemon]

"We don't pay overtime. We pay minimum wage. We offer 0 sick days per year. We offer 0 annual raises. We don't do Holiday pay. We deduct your lunchbreaks even if they're 10 minutes long. We don't offer healthcare even if you pay for it. We expect you to work 3 positions by yourself. We will never thank you òr even say "Good Job." We will make you regret your loyalty to the company in one way, or another. We will funnel every literal penny of profit directly to the owners who were born into wealth. WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD WORKERS GONE?!?!" -American Companies (corporate or private, doesn't matter anymore) in 2024

[evanrogers]

I had a job as a janitor at a university and I worked 7-3. My boss let me knock it back to 5-1 so I could take college classes. It’s amazing how big of a difference a good boss can make.

[thearbitersteven]

Entry level is absolutely dead. That's another thing too

Requiring 5 to 10 years of experience is a joke. That's not entry level, entry level means the employer has to train that's what it used to be. This society makes no sense.

[RolandKoller]

To me, there’s a huge disconnect with us as a whole across the world. The goal seems to be, get the job done for the cheapest, by people who will sacrifice most of their time and health. A shift really needs to happen. Where peoples time is truly appreciated. Living and working should be harmonious. All humans shouldn’t work more than 30-35 hours a week. Companies should be ok with clocking less revenue. The world just needs to slow down.

[milo_thatch_incarnate]

I've been hearing about and seeing more and more companies shifting towards a 4-day work week model, because I've heard that there are more and more studies proving its efficacy for productivity. My husband is an engineer, and at his office job, they have every other Friday off, and work nine hours a day the rest of the week. It's not a straight 4-day work week model, but MAN, that 3-day weekend every other week makes my husband LOVE his job. Just giving your employees space to BREATHE and have TIME to live their own lives just. makes. sense. I have hope that we'll see different versions of this 4-day work week continue to take root and spread!

[jwetzel]

If tech firms were in charge of the fire department, they’d lay everyone off if there was not a fire every day. “You’ve gone three days without putting out a single fire! I can get someone from India to put out three fires each day!”

[dot_boi]

Can't stress enough on companies overworking people. I worked for a company for 3 years. Had a really good track record with them and did very well. They upped our workload and wanted us giving tech support to 3 customers simultaneously. I was able to keep up for a few months but got burnt out. I started not getting enough sleep at night, showing up late to work and they fired me because I was 2-3 minutes late a few days in a row to a job that expects you to work 1-2 hours overtime every day if necessary. Honestly I think its insanity that some people are expected to do the work of 3 people without going insane.

[OctagonalSquare]

I’ve got an 8-5 but salaried. My boss straight up said “if you’re getting work done, leaving early/coming in late is fine”. Obviously within reason. I can’t take off half the day all week. But he even instructed me that if I stay late a day, take that time off another day.

I have to drive to a customer twice a week. He specifically instructed to not leave early and to make sure I get back before 5. He doesn’t want me to be working outside my normal hours, and counts driving that far as work.

So yesterday I had to stay at the customer’s office for about 30 minutes longer due to a meeting running long. So I came in 30 minutes late today. It’s about as much flexibility that a position that requires tons of meetings can have.

[lockedon]

I work an 8-5 in an open plan office, and i can describe the job in 3 words: den of snakes. It's just too much togetherness and exhaustion. No one has the time to actually unwind, so morale continues to plummet, and no one trusts each other because everyone is concerned about being tattled on.

[kellyevans]

Thing that really grinds my gears is that banks and government offices tend to run 10:00-5:00 so now I need to schedule time off work to renew my drivers license or talk to my bank person.

[theresanoelle]

another issue that contributes to this is death of entry level positions. entry level use to mean people with no experience could get the job because the company would train you, and you were essentially seen as an investment for the company, but now most companies don't to take on that costs that proper training requires, which is why you see a lot of "entry level" job postings requiring at least several years of experience now; the more experience you have, the less time and money they have to spend on training you while also paying you less because it's "entry level." Combine that with a low starting pay that's only a a dollar or two above minimum wage (or sometimes just minimum wage!), then it's no wonder they can't fill these positions or have people constantly leaving for better jobs

[aidanfriedfeld]

In manufacturing it’s often a 6-3. I overheard a plant manager saying they were experiencing more accidents due to workers being overtired. So they began starting their days earlier so they could run mandatory stretching in the beginning of the day. Instead of ya know letting their employees get more sleep.

[Harrison.DuRant]

Your boss is everything.

I started at my current company and had a great boss low down in the IT sector. She didn't care WHAT we did if we worked our tickets and kept our users happy. I watched YouTube half the time, and when tickets came in, they got my full attention.

7 years later I got an opportunity to move up to the Security sector and got a boss with the same attitude, only slightly better. The pandemic had happened, and he just didn't care if we stayed in the office after lunch. We were already working a hybrid week in week out system, but 100% of our job is done from behind a PC, and the team constantly chats through MS Teams. So now we all leave around 1 PM after lunch on the week that we go in.

There's still a lot to do, it's not a particularly thrilling job and can get stressful but being able to work from home and use my own bathroom, eat from my own fridge, and pet my cat during work has been SO good for my health.

Your boss can literally make or break your job.