The dilemma of a Four-Hour Work Day

by Robert McLean

Sitting at my feet was a poster about the Four-Hour Work Day and sitting next to me was Kylie Legge, of Place Partners in Sydney, writing notes from an earlier event and preparing for a presentation she was about to give.

Kylie Legge.

The juxtaposition had a decided dissimilarity with which I mentally struggled – at my feet was an illustration (literally) of an idea to restrict work, as we know it, and to my right was a practical illustration of someone enthusiastically enjoying their work.

How, where and was it possible that the two could meet?

The difficulties and challenges facing the earth are not bound up in the fact that we work too hard, rather that our time is appropriated for the wrong tasks.

Therein lies the difficulty as for many our modern world has untold seductive and addictive avenues in which to work; processes that give people a sense of completeness, the idea that they are actually making a contribution to our greater wellbeing and of course they are, if you see life through the prism of growth and within that an ideology that puts profit ahead of people.

That is a remarkably dangerous observation for few people, beyond those who actively set out to deceive and profit from others, honestly believe that what they are doing is not in the greater good.

Kylie’s company Place Partners has done, according to its website, some startlingly good work, work that has enriched neighbourhoods and so the lives of many people, and so it would be difficult, if not impossible, to argue that their interest is not in the “greater good”.

This, however, is not a conversation about what is and isn’t good, rather it is about looking at a societal position that will preserve the planet and allow for the flourishing of people everywhere, including those who can’t even image the wonderful places that Kylie and Place Partners have guided to reality.

The dedication to and excitement people have for the seemingly endless array of opportunities in our modern world is to be applauded, but critically examined they are inappropriate for world in which we will be able to survive, a world that will need similar dedication, innovation and psychological contentment, but a world that is going to demand a re-focus and re-direction of that enthusiasm toward building a world in which solutions are to be found closer to home.

The idea of international and national “anything” will have to be replaced by the intense development of local – that is food, work, health, leisure, shopping and, importantly, ideas.