What if working less isn’t a luxury—but our path to a golden age?
When South Cambridgeshire debated a four-day council workweek, most people said no. I admit I was sceptical. But then:
- 21 out of 24 council services improved or stayed the same
- Job applications jumped 120%
- Nearly £400,000 saved
And still, it was called a “waste.”
Why are we so resistant to change—especially when change works?
This is where my recent conversation with Hilary Cottam for the How To Academy began. She draws on Carlota Perez’s analysis of five technological revolutions, each cycling through:
- Mania
- Crash
- Doldrums
- …and finally, a golden age of shared prosperity
Cottam says we’re currently stuck in our own doldrums. The challenge is not if we’ll break through, but how quickly we’ll reshape our institutions to fit what’s possible.
Remember Kellogg’s? In 1930, the company cut hours from eight to six, kept pay the same—and saw productivity soar, profits double, and accident rates fall by 41%. “Liberation capitalism,” Kellogg called it.
Fast forward: my daughters’ pub jobs function on constant standby, zero guaranteed hours. It’s like Uber or Deliveroo. We’ve built work around the wrong idea of people: as if we’re just machines for economic output.
But decades of science tell us something else. We are “Sapiens integra”—whole humans who crave connection, meaning, time to care and play (thanks to Cottam and Anne-Marie Slaughter for the phrase). Does that sound like you?
Nowhere is this more vital than in care work. Shockingly, 1 in 5 calls to a UK’s modern slavery helpline comes from care workers whose rights are denied. Nancy Fraser calls it “cannibal capitalism.” Is that the best we can do?
Or could we follow examples like the Netherlands’ Buurtzorg, where 950 self-managed nursing teams deliver holistic care:
- 40% fewer hours per client
- Hospitalizations cut by two-thirds
- Admin overhead at just 8% (vs. competitors’ 25%)
All while paying carers well and trusting their autonomy.
So, do we double down on old habits—longer hours, more surveillance, sharper inequality? Or do we rethink work for real human flourishing? Can even rigid public organizations change when we dare to try? Absolutely.
The question isn’t whether we can afford to work less. It’s whether we can afford not to rethink how we work.
The golden age is waiting. All it asks is courage.