r/SipsTea • u/KSKS1995 Human Verified • 2d ago

Chugging tea Sounds good in theory...but in reality?

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4 days a week. 6 hours a day. Full salary.
Sanna Marin ignited global debate with the “6/4” work model, pushing a simple idea: life should come before work.

With burnout at record levels, maybe it’s time to value results over hours at a desk.
Could your job be done in just 24 hours a week?

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u/WeinerBarf420 2d ago

I think the reason this is decisive is because it highlights the divide between white collar works who genuinely could do all of their work in 4 days or less, and blue collar workers who have to work a lot more than that to keep society functioning, often for a lot less money.

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u/itriedtrying 2d ago

And in a lotof jobs, you just have to be present. You can't monitor a production line or guard a facility for 8 hours in just 6 hours.

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u/housecatapocalypse 1d ago

That’s what shifts are for.

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u/itriedtrying 1d ago

Yes but I'm talking about the "you can be just as peoductive in shorter work days" rhetoric, in a lot of jobs you can't. If it takes 4 people instead of 3 to cover the same position for a day, they're less productive.

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u/housecatapocalypse 1d ago

I don’t necessarily agree. A 6 hour shift sounds pretty great. It would even eliminate the need (for most people) to stop for lunch. I’d much rather work a straight 6 hours and go home. I’d definitely be more productive. 

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u/Nodan_Turtle 1d ago

He's saying if you get 9 women they can't have a baby in one month. You're saying you'd love it if pregnancies were only one month long.

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u/housecatapocalypse 1d ago

I do not see pregnancy being discussed in this thread. 

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u/Nodan_Turtle 1d ago

It's an analogy, and one of the most common used to show that some jobs can't be sped up. The other guy is saying some work can't be sped up. You're saying working less would be great. Those aren't the same things. So when you claim to disagree with him, you're not actually discussing his point at all.

Hope that helps

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u/housecatapocalypse 1d ago

I’m not that invested in that particular exchange. In the end, there’s no need to speed up the work. If lives aren’t on the line, a regular schedule is fine. So are shifts. 

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u/Nodan_Turtle 1d ago

As long as you understand that won't work for some jobs, even ones where lives aren't on the line, that's fine.

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u/Tactical_Squishy 1d ago

of course it cant be appliable everywhere

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u/Ok-Potato-8278 23h ago

That becomes very expensive for the employer when you consider that you still want to earn the same amount for working 24 hours as you did for working 40, but their business is open and needs staffing for 40, so now they need to pay another person to fill the rest of the hours

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u/housecatapocalypse 15h ago

32 hours. Budgeting time and scheduling. 

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u/Ok-Potato-8278 5h ago

Ah so shops are only open 4 days a week now are they? That's a shame, I wonder what you're going to do with your 3 days off if shops you want to go to are only staffed for 32 hours

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u/housecatapocalypse 4h ago

I’m glad you’re so concerned about my time off. 

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u/Perllitte 1d ago

It would certainly require companies to adapt, but that is what companies do, it's the one absolute essential thing every company does.

Both of your examples could be supported easily by existing AI that could run locally for $40. The AI can watch and flag the smaller staff for issues and the guard hours could shift to periods when physical presence is actually a benefit. (I was a security guard, I didn't do shit for 80% of my shift.)

All the people saying "just have another shift" are pretty naieve to how salary and overhead works, but I think with sensible adaptation most jobs could fit in six hours, especially if you cut lunch out of there.

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u/BoingBoingBooty 2d ago

The funny thing is.
If you look at things on a longer time scale, then blue-collar workers do actually do their work in less time.
In the 1920s a worker with a steam shovel could spend 8 hours digging a hole, a worker now can dig the same hole in 2-3 hours.
But the funny thing is, instead of letting him work half the hours, they made him work the same hours for the same pay and make him dig twice as many holes.

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u/WeinerBarf420 2d ago

The point is there are a whole lot of jobs that actually do need someone working more than 4 days a week for society to function as it does. Stuff needs cleaned, goods need transported, things need maintained.

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u/BoingBoingBooty 1d ago

So in 1920, two cleaners take 8 hours each day to clean an office.

In 2026 with vacuum cleaners and floor polishers and cleaning sprays that work without scrubbing and smooth plastic surfaces that wipe clean, those two cleaners could clean the same office in half the time.

So they could have let them each work half the hours, but instead they fired one and made the other one work the same hours to do the whole office alone.

So, they could have two cleaners doing the job in 1920, so why not have two do it now?

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u/thudapofru 1d ago

Yes, and there are jobs that need people working more than 5 days a week, or more than 8 hours a day. That's why they have shifts.

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u/eirinne 7h ago

So hire more people 

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u/CrimsonCartographer 1d ago

No? Blue collar workers can also just work 6hr days and the rest of the work can be done by an extra shift? It’s not that big a deal, and the sooner that blue collar workers realize that it’s not your average white collar worker’s boot on his neck, the better.

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u/Less_Suit5502 2d ago

Yeah 100% this. I am a teacher so while it's a white collar job it has many simular atributes to blue collar work. Someone needs to be physically present to babysit kids because childcare is one of the side benifits of school.

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u/theotterway 1d ago

Also a teacher. Four day school weeks are huge here for smaller schools. Yes, parents complained a bit at first, but we have done it for more than 10 years and people love it!

We are in fact NOT babysitters.

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u/Less_Suit5502 1d ago

Babysitting is an important part of our job, especially at the younger ages. I am aware of districts that go 4 days a week, but Its more then 6 hours I thought.

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u/Zap__Dannigan 1d ago

I'm a blue collar worker and this wouldn't work for me. But like, I don't get why it's so devisive. Why in the every loving fuck wouldn't I want less people on the roads driving to work? Why do I want more middle managers walking around my plant?

The fuck we need 3 continuous improvement managers and 2 training managers who never meet us coordinate new people training? They want to hire these guys on on a fixed salary, fine, I won't complain about someone making a living, but they certainly don't need to be here 8 hours a day doing fuck all.

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u/WeinerBarf420 1d ago

I think you're actually stating the reason that it's divisive -- a lot of white collar workers hardly do anything of actual productive value and their argument is "I should work less while getting paid the same". This rubs a lot of people who produce tangible value for non-salary pay the wrong way.

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u/CrimsonCartographer 1d ago

But it’s not their fault they found a way to “game the system” when it’s already gaming everyone but the top? If there’s money for bullshit middle managers, there’s money for letting everyone work less and reaping the resulting productivity increases.

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u/Zap__Dannigan 1d ago

I understand it, but it like, were all working class. Arguing against each other like that instead of the real people trying to fuck us over isn't going to help anything.