Is Our Working Time Model still up to Date? A Look into the Future of Work
During the lifetime of mankind there was always work and rest, and this in constant change. A lot of physical and mental activity has always been part of the daily structure. Work and performance as well as the time structure changed flexibly according to the productive and time requirements. But how is it today? Is our working time model in 8-hour rhythms even up to date? Or do the new expectations of digital possibilities perhaps require new work structures? And if so, which ones?
The Work through the Ages
In the Middle Ages, the natural alternation of day and night, for example in agriculture, structured the work process in order to ensure the physically very strenuous and time-consuming care of cattle and grain. On farms everyone took care of physically difficult tasks and worked them off almost to their own exhaustion. In small craft businesses, a master worked with his assistants to develop a single product from material to completion, from procurement to small details, in a lengthy process that could take days or weeks.
Finally, in the 19th century, industrial mass production could be introduced through the use of machines in order to make the difficult work processes easier and shorter. However, since the machines could consequently also be in…
