If the constant thought of weekend is what keeps you going at your 9-5 jobs from Monday – Friday then relieve yourself because soon it might not be the case.
Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson shared in his blog post on how he feels 9-5 jobs are getting outdated and will soon be history. In his blog post he spoke about the company’s flexible work arrangements and also one or two things about the 5 day work weeks.
“The idea of working five days a week with two day weekends and a few weeks of holiday each year has become ingrained in society. But it wasn’t always the case, and it won’t be in the future,” Branson wrote.
“As Google’s Larry Page and others have said, the amount of jobs available for people is going to decrease as technology progresses. New innovations will drive industries forward, but they will also reduce our reliance on people power.”
“Ideas such as driverless cars and more advanced drones are becoming a reality, and machines will be used for more and more jobs in the future. Even pilot-less planes will be become the reality in the not too distant future.”
Branson is not the only one with this viewpoint. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has also in past issued dire warnings about technology usurping human jobs.
“There certainly will be job disruption. Because what’s going to happen is robots will be able to do everything better than us. … I mean all of us,” Musk had told the National Governors Association in 2107.
In complete agreement to Musk, Branson had said, “On the face of it, this sounds like bad news for people” but also reminded that “governments and businesses are clever, the advance of technology could actually be really positive for people all over the world.”
Model Of 5 Days Of Work In A Week
This model of working was established in the US in the early 20th Century. Their Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set the 9-to-5 Monday through Friday work timeline, as a way to stop employers from exploiting workers. And that was great, it’s just that the system has remained in society as the concept of an ideal work week.
Conclusion
Interestingly what we can conclude here is that Branson and his viewpoint may be right as the system maybe getting outdated as the technology advances. With technological developments like automation and artificial intelligence swigging in full speed human jobs will soon face a hard time to exist.
