{"id":20341,"date":"2025-10-05T13:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/996-work-culture-is-sad-and-inhumane-whatevers-wrong-with-888-or-even-000-emma-beddington\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T13:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T11:37:27","slug":"996-work-culture-is-sad-and-inhumane-whatevers-wrong-with-888-or-even-000-emma-beddington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/996-work-culture-is-sad-and-inhumane-whatevers-wrong-with-888-or-even-000-emma-beddington\/","title":{"rendered":"996 work culture is sad and inhumane. Whatever\u2019s wrong with 888 \u2013 or even 000? | Emma Beddington"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Silicon Valley is keen, once more, on a working pattern of 12-hour days, six days a week. It really is time for a new approach &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>My current cultural comfort food is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2025\/jun\/23\/the-gilded-age-review-so-gloriously-soapy-the-suds-practically-foam-on-the-screen\">The Gilded Age<\/a>, Julian Fellowes\u2019 deeply silly Manhattan toffs-in-bustles drama, in which one storyline (summarily dealt with due to lack of taffeta-rustling opportunities, I suspect) features a tycoon\u2019s downtrodden steelworkers going on strike for \u201c888\u201d: eight hours each of work, sleep and recreation.<\/p>\n<p>That wasn\u2019t a revolutionary demand in the 1880s. The slogan, coined by the utopian social reformer Robert Owen, dates from 1817 (his <a href=\"https:\/\/newlanark.org\/introducing-robert-owen\/\">New Lanark mill<\/a> workers still did 10.5-hour days, though). Even then, it wasn\u2019t unprecedented: apparently, a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eight-hour_day_movement\">16th-century Spanish ordinance<\/a> limited New World construction workers to eight-hour days.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/oct\/05\/996-work-culture-is-sad-and-inhumane-whatevers-wrong-with-888-or-even-000\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/41bee57de0c1755abb1a45388693c8a22dfb45cb\/475_0_4750_3800\/master\/4750.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=60b67388e28414014c9c53e4fe730bb7\" title=\"996 work culture is sad and inhumane. Whatever\u2019s wrong with 888 \u2013 or even 000? | Emma Beddington\" \/>Silicon Valley is keen, once more, on a working pattern of 12-hour days, six days a week. It really is time for a new approach &#8230;<br \/>\nMy current cultural comfort food is The Gilded Age, Julian Fellowes\u2019 deeply silly Manhattan toffs-in-bustles drama, in which one storyline (summarily dealt with due to lack of taffeta-rustling opportunities, I suspect) features a tycoon\u2019s downtrodden steelworkers going on strike for \u201c888\u201d: eight hours each of work, sleep and recreation.<br \/>\nThat wasn\u2019t a revolutionary demand in the 1880s. The slogan, coined by the utopian social reformer Robert Owen, dates from 1817 (his New Lanark mill workers still did 10.5-hour days, though). Even then, it wasn\u2019t unprecedented: apparently, a 16th-century Spanish ordinance limited New World construction workers to eight-hour days. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Silicon Valley is keen, once more, on a working pattern of 12-hour days, six days a week. It really is time for a new approach &#8230; My current cultural comfort food is The Gilded Age, Julian Fellowes\u2019 deeply silly Manhattan toffs-in-bustles drama, in which one storyline (summarily dealt with due to lack of taffeta-rustling opportunities, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/996-work-culture-is-sad-and-inhumane-whatevers-wrong-with-888-or-even-000-emma-beddington\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">996 work culture is sad and inhumane. Whatever\u2019s wrong with 888 \u2013 or even 000? | Emma Beddington<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":20342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20341"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}