Lots of people need to work with other people. Crane operators need people on the ground. Teachers need students. Stockbrokers need investors. Lumber yard guys need carpenters. Office drones need managers. Junior editors need senior editors.The management overhead of coordinating everyone you need to be at work for you to work would be nightmare. Sure, you could hire more people, but that’s going to bring more management overhead, which will result in having to hire even more managers, and do you really think the world needs more managers?
Every job I've been in, I keep seeing particular people that the project couldn't do without. When this person is away sick, particular things just don't get done.
I always fight for knowledge sharing in my jobs. I've just set up a wiki to use as a knowledge base at work to try to get this going. I never want to find myself sick for a week and find when I get back that the project is a week behind. It's madness.
Some say keeping knowledge to yourself will ensure a big pay raise. Maybe. But when that knowledge is just grey goo on a bus tire what good have you done anyone? And less dramatic, if you want to have a couple of weeks off, and you can't because YOU have to do the job, how do you feel?
Do crane operators need particular people on the ground, or just people? Do I need a particular manager or just a manager?
Does a student need a particular teacher or just a place to go to learn? Isn't that more what University is like?
I will admit though I like working in a team. I like having the same people around me. People who's skills I know. But we have a rotating team here. Sometimes someone is here, sometimes they're not. At times stuff has to wait a day. Most of the time it doesn't. Someone else does it.
As I commented in the last post, my four day a week system doesn't have to be any different to today's system. You can work five days a week if you want (or have to). Or even 7. You just get time off for it. Like everyone does now, with Annual Leave. Or the 20+ sick days nurses get. Or the extra Annual Leave police get for having to work on special events.
My core idea isn't anything special. I guess what I really wanted to discuss was the idea of killing the weekend, and my desire to only work four days a week. And my naturual push against something that "just is" (ie. Monday to Friday). Why not change it?
My core idea came from the new West Gate Bridge project. Rather than spend $2b on a new bridge, just make everyone spread the work over seven days instead of five. Surely that'll fix the problem quicker? If we were a little village we could do this.
My utopian idea is to remove the requirement for particular people to be in a particular place at a particular time. It drives me nuts. Who is really that important? Why do we have so much stuff that has to happen right now?
I can't see anything other than essential services should be this way. Or creators. People creating something new have their knowledge in their head and their head only. At least for a while. Hopefully the expectation in society that "you might not be there tomorrow" would encourage sharing of knowledge.
But the economy and time rule today.