Working nine to six, what a way to make a living…” was not the lyric Dolly Parton went for when she penned her famous anti-rat-race anthem back in 1980. And not just because “five” has more rhyming opportunities. No, Parton was referencing the commonplace, standardised workday, consisting, for most humble employees, of a seven-hour shift with an hour’s lunch-break in the middle – equating to 35 hours a week. This, she concluded, was a bit of a drag: lining a boss’s pockets for little reward or recognition, all while being passed over for promotion and having your best ideas nicked.
Today, however, many of us would be thrilled to find ourselves confined to a straightforward 9-5. Google co-founder Sergey Brin raised eyebrows at the beginning of March after writing in a leaked internal memo that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity” – and that anyone working less than that was doing “the bare minimum”.
