 So we've got a new study coming out of Iceland that confirms what I thought was pretty obvious already and It basically concludes that there are a plethora of benefits to having a four-day work week and to that I say Yeah, makes sense Because if you allow people to have more time to live their lives to travel to spend time with their family Of course, you know, if they have a better homework balance Their lives are going to be better and more fulfilling So I love this study because I think that it further confirms that in the fight for worker rights in the fight for unionization, we have to make a four-day work week Equally important like we have to elevate the salience of this issue because it's not enough to have a living wage It's also important to make sure that you're not being worked to death You still have to be able to embrace the human part of life where you aren't Waking up most days and going to a place that you usually hate But let's get to the study. So as Mary Popinfuss of Huffpost reports Four-day work week trials in Iceland were deemed an overwhelming success by researchers in a new report Worker while being dramatically increased across a range of indicators from perceived stress and burnout to health and work-life balance The report released Sunday stated at the same time productivity and service provision remain the same or Improved across the majority of trial workplaces Trials have shown that shortening working hours can have a powerful positive effect The report concluded the study conducted by the Association for Sustainable Democracy in Iceland and the UK based a think tank Autonomy studied 2,500 workers about 1% of Iceland's working population in two major trials between 2015 and 2019 The trials not only aimed to improve work-life balance But also to maintain or increase productivity note of the report There was no cut and pay for the reduced weeks of 35 to 36 hours a week the trials included a variety of workplaces from traditional offices to preschools and Hospitals in nine to five jobs as well as in non-traditional ships They were launched by Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic national government in response to shorter work week campaigns by unions and social Organizations the report also noted that 86% of Iceland's workers were now either working fewer hours or gaining the right to shorten their hours The study could function as a blueprint for future trials in other countries the researchers noted Yeah, so I mean this is huge and it's not the first study to come to this conclusion There was also a study out of Japan with a Microsoft facility I believe and it basically also stated that yeah There were a lot of benefits to decreasing the amount of workdays from five to four Listen, we live in a society that is we live in a society folks No, we live in a society where the culture encourages us to basically work ourselves to death I mean, I'm sure you've had a conversation with someone who bragged about how hard of a worker They are and that's great. Like I mean valuing good work. That's that's a good thing, right? But on top of that, I think that we also have to normalize being human beings if we work less That's good too. In fact, that's something that we should strive to do more of I mean, we're such An overworked society. Maybe that's why all of us Americans are fucking pricks Like we have to be able to indulge a little bit if we want to have a day where we sit back And we just fucking watch, you know, night-a-day fiancee That's not a bad thing if we want to play video games if we want to travel if we want to just enjoy Life that is a good thing sure, of course working hard is important for human beings No society is going to be devoid of work Even if we have some sort of socialist utopia, obviously work is an integral part of the human experience But we have to find the right balance folks and five days a week is too much it's too much and You almost become robotic like it's someone who was working two part-time jobs So basically full-time and going to school You eventually become so accustomed to it that you don't even think about like a vacation You just kind of go through the motions and you just keep going and going and going and you don't even take the time To think about what it might be like to have a day off and we all kind of have been there We've all been conditioned to think that this is a good thing the fact that I'm working myself So hard is a really great thing. It's it's a valuable it speaks to you know Me as a human being. I'm just I'm a I'm a hard worker. I'm a good person. Whatever the fuck It's just we can't keep having this mentality folks. We can't we need to actually Allow ourselves the ability to thrive and working five days a week so that way The overwhelming majority of the days that we wake up We're gonna have to go to a job that we fucking load with people we despise That's just not healthy If we want to do art if we want to take walks We should have more time to do that We should be able to explore our creativities because human beings are on this rock For such a small amount of time Such a small amount of time And how much of that time are we completely miserable? How much of that time are we thinking oh my god? I just want to find another job because this job is really terrible. It makes me depressed It stresses me out the people who I work with are terrible I mean and then you get to that new job Because thank god you found a new job and it's just more misery. I mean to work is essentially to be You know miserable It's not like you know, even if you find a job that you like everything is going to be PG The point is that we haven't allowed ourselves Of setting a good balance between work And home life and it's just work work work work work And you know on the weekends we take that time off and by the time Monday hits We're barely even recovered and we have to shift our thinking because I think it's also a value To be able to take time off. It's something that we should strive for Not only to have three or four day work weeks, but to take vacations each year Because again folks Life is short