Gemma Speck
speaker
6,373 appearances
17 recordings
1 series
first heard Jan 2026
last heard 13 Jun
Gemma Speck’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 17 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 4.
Appearances
There was a 2021 study that found that workplace and life satisfaction is equally influenced by being underworked as it is by being overworked.
It's so hard to find like just that sweet spot with a nine to five where you're like equally challenged whilst overworking.
Also not feeling like entirely dominated by work.
The routine and I think just the system in itself is not designed to work in parallel to a fulfilling life because of that reason.
And because of many reasons, including reason number three, why your nine to five at time feels so unnatural.
And that is that the nine to five was designed for when people had a domestic partner to take care of all the other little things that life requires from us.
The first nine to five, like 40 hour work week was introduced in the 1920s, I think 1926, almost 100 years ago, when almost 90% of men who were working age died.
were married by the age of 40.
Women traditionally did not work once they got married.
They were only, I think they only made up a quarter of the workplace, meaning a nine to five model at that time operated on the idea that most people, men, you know, had someone who could do the groceries, could maintain their home, could take care of the kids, could organize their lives.
So you're basically at this point doing the job of two people and then you're expected to have a personality on top of it.
An article I read from MIT actually found through historical records that pre-industrial workers actually had shorter days and work weeks than we do today.
Back in those days, many people only worked like 150 to 180 days per year, according to UK historical data.
They basically got a six-month holiday due to the agricultural seasons, due to church holidays, due to how
wages and hours were structured.
I think it's a common misconception that these days, like we must have the most progressive working conditions and wages and hours of all time.
And that the nine to five is basically just normal and natural because of course it is.
That's how it's always been.
Research shows that it's not the most normal and natural and it's not the way it's always been.
I think the final reason our nine to five can feel so stifling is because
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