This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Technological progress has taken more than its fair share of the workload from humans over the years. Washing machines clean our clothes, tractors plow the fields and computers sort out administrative work.
Meanwhile, economic growth and redistribution of wealth mean most workers in industrialized countries do not need to spend most of their waking hours on gainful employment. The 12-hour workday that was common during the 19th century has been largely reduced. So will developments in AI help us gain even more free time?
In fact, AI might cause working hours to increase. One reason for this has to do with the effects of AI on people's bargaining power in the workplace. If workers are fearful that their jobs might be lost to automation, research shows they may be inclined to increase their efforts as a way of signaling to employers that their labor is still valuable.
My research on the rat race suggests that this kind of response is to be expected. Employers must continuously decide whom to hire, promote or dismiss. In making such decisions, employers seek to reward productivity.
But productivity is often hard to measure, so employers rely on alternative metrics such as the amount of time spent working. Checking whether a workstation is still occupied after everyone else has gone home is much easier than assessing the accuracy of a complex project. And from a worker's point of view, increasing the time they spend at work seems like an effective way of setting themselves apart from other (apparently less motivated) workers.
But when everyone pursues this strategy, it becomes self-defeating. No one gains a positional advantage, while everyone works more. The introduction of AI to workplaces can turbocharge this dynamic.
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