Do We Still Need This Day?
I looked up the history of Labor Day on Wikipedia. For over a hundred years, there has been a struggle to make the maximum 8-hour workdays possible and to combat other forms of exploitation. Now, that has been quite successful, but the existing economic structures are under pressure. More and more jobs are being automated away, and most of the money is concentrated in the hands of a very small group of people. I suspect that within one generation, many people will be happy to have a job. You can already read about governments discussing a basic income, but where does the power lie? I doubt it will be with governments. Multinationals already possess much more money than the countries where they are based.
At Payt, we have encouraged co-ownership from the start. This way, you are not just a replaceable employee, because we all are, but you are also a co-owner of the story and our DNA. With my children, I often realize that I am a guide and spectator of my growing children, but our joint child, Payt, we can shape as we think is best. That gives a lot of satisfaction and also makes working feel less like working.
And then the working hours, because that’s what May 1st was mainly about. At Payt, we have implemented that people should determine their own working hours. Of course, within certain limits, because the service desk must be open within the service window. But exercising in the middle of the day or starting later because you need to arrange something is all possible. You get freedom and with that responsibility to organize your day yourself. This keeps our employees energetic and creative, and the hour you missed during the day can be made up, for example, in the evening.
The second is that the arrangement of the workweek, days off, and vacations must be managed by the employees themselves. We really don’t put a boss on that. And I must admit that this has sometimes gone wrong, but if you look at how easily you can solve that, I am convinced that putting a boss on it does more harm than good and also costs a lot of money.
Are we missing anything? I think so. We can do much more for the environment and our fellow human beings. An example we have just started with is donating a portion of our revenue to “Doctors of the World.” It’s wonderful to be able to do this and contribute something on a social level.
