The 30 Hour Work Week
We are all well aware that the standard full time workday is forty hours in the United States. Those forty hours are supposed to include some break time and an allotment for lunch time. Many of us understand, though, that finding time during the workday to actually take breaks or lunch can be difficult, especially in demanding work environments. With the advent of performance metrics software, allowing dedicated time away from the desk for a break, lunch - or even to use the restroom - can feel downright out of reach. Add to this reality the competing demands of work and home which call to working moms all day, everyday. The result is a forty hour a day scramble that leaves many working moms overwhelmed.
Hunting for solutions
For some, a hybrid work environment may seem like a solution. This way of working allows face time for management and opportunity to meet with colleagues in person, while also affording some work time at home. Many working moms feel that having some capacity to work remotely enables them to attend to a myriad of household tasks – especially laundry – while they are working. Possibly, too, it’s easier when working hybrid to squeeze in a doctor’s appointment or knock out a quick local errand that otherwise would have to wait until after work hours or the weekend.
When working hybrid or remotely, though, it can prove difficult to keep a boundary between work and home. It’s just so easy to let one bleed into the other as demands mount on either side of the equation. Inevitably, also, the day that you are supposed to be working at the office presents a complex juggling act with the family calendar. Then even more juggling is required, than if there was one single, established, work environment. A feeling of nearly constant disruption and inconsistency creeps in. The work week winds up feels bumpy.
the 30 hour work week alternative
Possibly the solution lies not finding the ideal work environment, but rather in establishing truly reasonable work hours for mothers. After all, time is the most precious commodity when a mom returns to work after having a baby. Maybe, then, a standard thirty hour work week is a better answer to ongoing struggle to find work/life balance.
This work schedule can be difficulty to find - and may be lumped together with the outdated “mother’s hours” position. This term refers to a work schedule typically applied to lower-tier positions that enabled mothers to work when the children were at school. This schedule allowed mothers to start work a little later and leave work by two or three in the afternoon.
However, a typical mother’s hours position also paid less and afforded much less work time than a standard thirty-hour work week. Once summer, school year breaks and professional days are added to the mix, kids are out of school quite a bit actually. By contrast, a thirty hour work week would permit a more consistent commitment to the job and employer. Working thirty hours a week would allow a working mom to still maintain a presence in the office and remain on track in her career.
So much happens in the family on the bookends of the workday. A thirty hour work week could give moms a break - literally. Setting aside open hours at the backend of the work day to fully focus upon and attend to family needs could be a game changer for many working moms.