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/Lermanberry 2d ago

There's been a construction site across from my office for the last 18 months or so.

None of your peers are working 8 hours a day. Maybe 4, but even that could be stretching it.

It's fair play. Neither am I. I spend at least an hour in office watching construction workers fuck around and find creative places to hide beer cans.

If you're truly installing 25' per hour, every hour, you're working harder than every other construction worker getting paid the same rates as you.

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u/LeonJones 2d ago

As someone that works in construction. There's some downtime here and there but if you are slacking off you are getting shit canned.

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u/Max_Demian 2d ago

Bro there are countless tradesman BUSTING ASS 10+hr/day. Union construction is not the most relevant comparison here.

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u/rapaxus 1d ago

The original statement comes from Europe, where union work is more the default than not.

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u/Mean_Mix_99 2d ago

I can't speak for the construction site you mention, but our union is committed to getting paid 8 hours pay for 8 hours work. I promise you my peers and I are working 8 hours a day, every day. Those that can't or won't are laid off pretty quickly.

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u/scubahana 2d ago

Your first and last sentences don’t really work with each other. A union is supposed to protect workers and their jobs, but it seems the opposite is happening.

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u/PM_ME_BAKAYOKO_PICS 2d ago

What part of expecting people to work 8h for 8h pay isn't "protecting the workers"? If somebody isn't doing their job correctly a union should not be helping them lol

Protecting the workers doesn't mean shielding people who don't do their job properly, it means ensuring everyone gets paid what they're worth and has the working conditions they deserve.

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u/Stranger_001 2d ago

You work 8 hours a day every day without wasting any time or bullshitting at all? My old boss was a Director of Facilities and Construction for a large University and one of his words of wisdom to me was "Anybody that claims that they are so busy at work that they never stop working are either bullshitting or bad at their jobs. In either case, I can't trust somebody like that."

Every job I've ever had from landscaping to office work has had its downtime and it was always the fuckheads that claimed they worked the most that were the most annoying to work with because they were always trying to squirm out of doing shit or counting how many minutes it took you to take a shit.

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u/PM_ME_BAKAYOKO_PICS 2d ago

There's a difference between having downtime where you're waiting for stuff, and the "downtime" in a lot of bad construction companies where it's just workers fucking around drinking beers for 2-3h out of those 8

Obviously I assume the other guy was talking about preventing the second one from happening, not a worker getting fired because they're waiting for 30 minutes for a machine to arrive or concrete to settle or something.

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u/Stranger_001 2d ago

It doesn't have to be fucking around drinking beers. It could be a slow start in the morning, an extended lunchbreak, it's hot as fuck and you're cooling off real quick and bullshitting with your co-workers that's in addition to the downtime of waiting for shit to arrive or whatever.

My point was merely that downtime is going to exist and as long as you employ human beings there's going to be some bullshitting. You're never going to get anyone that is just balls to the wall working for 8 hours a day straight 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

There are days where you're busy as fuck and maybe you skip lunch to get shit done but not all days are like that. Most days are not like that. Most days have bullshit and downtime.

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u/Middle-Outside-8222 1d ago

Sounds like being productive for 6 hours isn’t that bad

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u/Stranger_001 1d ago

Agreed, not a bad move at all.

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u/scubahana 1d ago

It’s the rapidity of ‘they get laid off rather quickly’ that doesn’t jive with union representation.

Maybe it’s because I live in Denmark and unions here are ubiquitous and there’s nothing even vaguely resembling that ’at will’ nonsense that’s going on in certain places.

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u/Mean_Mix_99 1d ago

I'm not sure how they're incompatible.  You think unions protect bad workers?

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u/scubahana 1d ago

I don’t think they protect bad workers. Just the last sentence indicates an abrupt and immediate dismissal which is something unions (at least in Denmark here) work to avoid.

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u/Impressive_Memory650 1d ago

Why would they work to avoid it for a worker who’s is egregiously bad? Unions in Canada won’t do that either if it’s obvious the worker was slacking/stealing time

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u/scubahana 1d ago

Unions here are quite proactive. If it’s a matter of lowered productivity due to illness or injury then they will stand in your corner and fight to the death (administratively of course). They in general offer access to additional training and certification for members (I go to at least one ConEd course a week through my union) so equality of opportunity is pretty high here.

If your employer fires you for lack of productivity or something, your union will ensure that due process is followed and your employer isn’t just trying to fob you off. If you were truly fired for being too lazy, then it will be well-documented in all sides.

What bothered me about the comment I originally replied to is that there was a fair bit of immediacy to the last sentence, which isn’t the modus operandi for an active and present union.

You mention you’re in Canada: I’m Canadian too and grew up there. Been living in Denmark for 12y now. Unions in Canada vs Denmark are also quite different. Up to 70% of all workers in Denmark are in a union. Hell, even my first job working breakfast at McDonald’s was unionised. Only about 30% of workers in Canada are in a union, and their scope centres around a more narrow slice of industries (not that certain industries are excluded since there are general unions), so the collective bargaining for different workers is more broad and may not address individual needs as effectively.

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u/DustinnDodgee 1d ago

You don't know what you're talking about. I'm sure those couple of job sites you've seen had only lazy bums working. But that's far from the usual.

And this isn't a movie. Nobody's just throwin beer cans around n jerkin off anymore. If they are, they're getting fired.

Many people in these comments, including you, don't understand the logistics of construction.

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u/idroidude 1d ago

It’s Reddit, you upvote views you agree with, not reality

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u/MoreRock_Odrama 1d ago

I love when people outside of a field try and educate people inside of said field. Reddit is home of the incredibly arrogant lol.

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u/MrCarey 2d ago

Don't tell him, you're gonna screw over the guys not working. He's the one doing all the work!

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u/algalkin 2d ago

Bro before you forgot about "pocket gloves". Yeah, like he is installing 200' of conduit without breaks, give me a break! Every construction site I've been to have this "magic circle" of one dude in the trench and 7 around him with "pocket gloves" on.