I can definitely see that, and can foresee certain critical projects also that may require longer shift times. I worry about endorsing an exception system allowing people to continually subject themselves to longer working hours indefinitely though, because I believe that much of the ability of the current 40 hour system to sustain itself lies in its reliance upon necessary but uncompensated labor. Domestic labor is part of our responsibilities to our community just as much as engaging in compensated labor, and when we allow for such long working hours, it often becomes untenable for many to maintain both their compensated and uncompensated responsibilities, which leads to the uncompensated portion of the responsibilities falling on a partner or relative or lower paid roommate. This to me, is unsustainable.

If you do not have the time to engage in your personal domestic responsibilities, it often means you’re neglecting your wider community responsibilities also. We need an active and engaged populace, and that means we need time for the populace to engage in governance, time that 8 hour days 5 or even 4 days a week do not allow for. Participating in governance isn’t casting a ballot once or twice a year. It’s going to every city council meeting and most community events. It’s engaging in shared labor such as community gardening. It’s volunteering in different contexts depending on one’s ability to help sustain others with differing abilities.

So while I think there will always be auteurs and geniuses who will want to work all of the time, I am hesitant to allow them, because by doing so they are withholding those talents from the rest of society for their own personal benefit. It would be better to have the Einsteins in the meeting room, than to have them off researching all of the time, because limiting those insights to one realm in order to full exploit them is allowing myopic thinking to cloud our idea of progress.

I do think that specific projects may warrant burst activity, wherein individuals work long hours, but I think those need to be contrasted with extended periods of respite, whether or not those involved want to do so.