World’s Richest Man Calls For 3 Day Working Week

Splendidly monikered Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire with a strong claim to be one of the richest people on the planet, has called for a complete rethink of the world of work. Speaking at a conference in Paraguay, Slim has claimed that the average workers quality of life would be immeasursably improved if we completed our work in three 10-11 hour days, retired later, and had 4 days in a week for the pursuit of leisure.

"With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life,” the Financial Times reports Slim saying.

“Having four days [off] would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied.”

Few people seem aware that our current 5 day working week – entrenched as it is – is a relatively modern phenomenon, started with the industrial revolution. Pre factory workers such as weavers used to complete the tasks in bursts of shirt, frenetic energy, leaving themselves ample time to get hammered on ale and throw mud at sheep (or whatever it was that people did for kicks back in the day). 

Slim himself is worth around £8billion, a fortune accrued from his ownership of mining and telecommunications industries. He has already put his theories into action, offering employees the chance to work past normal retirement age for reduced hours – whether this is a scam to squeeze more blood from the population til they drop, or a genuine attempt to recalibrate our ridiculous work/life balance remains to be seen. We'd love to hear some responses to the idea – hit us up in the comments below…