We Need A Different Kind Of Work
In the News (BBC.com): “Trials of a four-day week in Iceland were an ‘overwhelming success’ and led to many workers moving to shorter hours, researchers have said.
“Productivity remained the same or improved in the majority of workplaces, researchers said. …
“Workers reported feeling less stressed and at risk of burnout, and said their health and work-life balance had improved. They also reported having more time to spend with their families, do hobbies and complete household chores.
“Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy, said: ‘This study shows that the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success.'”
My Response: Iceland is not a place for this experiment. This doesn’t prove to the world that a four-day week works.
They are all frozen people in no hurry. I remember what struck me when I arrived there. From the plane you go to the airport building and from the airport building to the street. No stamps, no controls. You are free to go wherever you want! It is just incredible!
Question: Where is customs? Where is border control and border guards?
Answer: There is nothing! There is no such thing at all! It was so unexpected!
Question: So is that the character of the people?
Answer: And the character of the nation. They each have 200 – 300 sheep, their own house, and not just one. They have a house they live in and a couple of houses that they rent to tourists. And each of these houses is fully equipped including an open-air sauna with snow all around and so on.
Question: Do you think that even a three-day week would do for such a country?
Answer: It doesn’t matter. This is not a place for experiments. They are self-sufficient, they are at peace.
Question: And how do you feel about this experiment that everyone in the world is talking about, a four-day working week?
Answer: What, you want to free a man from his work? What will he do?
I don’t think this will give humanity what is seemingly expected. We must clearly educate people to a new lifestyle. And in general, we should have started doing this a long time ago.
Question: What kind of lifestyle?
Answer: When one will have a lot of free time aside from necessary work. And today, he clogs this time with unnecessary work, pollutes the earth, the environment, and so on.
We need to make sure that this person uses his time correctly for self-improvement, to become human and to study how to get closer to other people because this is the correction of the world.
It is a job. And it is necessary to make it so that it is a real job, and not that it is three days off and you can do what you want.
Question: So one is never free from this work of connection with others? Is this a full-time job? Like at a company, at home, and in general, all the time?
Answer: Yes. It does not matter where or what.
Question: And one is always in this work of building connections with each other, good relations?
Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/8/21
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