As a fun fact in closing- in Japan it has historically been a practice to give workers little to no work and pay them to just show up when you want to be rid of them.
Laws in Japan can make it very hard to get rid of an employee once they are established in a company. Because of that, it isn’t quite as simple as for example, most of the USA, to just fire someone. So they will sometimes give these workers unpleasant tasks etc. to both make it clear they are not wanted and also try and push them into quitting, but to give them effectively no work or literally no work so that they feel shame and unease and will quit rather than do nothing and be paid for it. So fun stuff.

So there isn’t a one size fits all answer but we certainly have enough people who want to work or want to make a living wage to fill many more jobs than we have open of those jobs provided those things, and we can certainly structure most industries or job types to facilitate a “many hands make light work” approach- and that’s without even discussing the possibilities for cleaning up the environment and cities, public policing, and what can be called “ethical prisoner labor programs,” but working those things into our culture and economics and such isn’t so easy.

Of course we have many segments like what is often called “unskilled labor” such as many retail positions where there are more than enough perspective workers for the available jobs. You don’t need 1000 people on every shift at the local retail store generally- so if we hired more pipe and had each one work less hours, we could have more jobs and more people earning a living while getting more work done with less burnout all whole each person had more free time. The obvious problem there is that many people across industries and job types struggle to make living wages and cover medical expenses etc. as is- so providing retirements and insurance and living salaries for 10x the workers will cost 10x or more as much but won’t likely generate 10x the profit- and to many the fact that each person is doing maybe 10x less work would make it seem unjustified to pay more for less to more people.

So for many jobs 20 hours a week IS a lot of work. Maybe the job is very difficult or physically or mentally or otherwise takes a strong toll, or maybe it’s not that 20 hours of work is a lot but that 20 hours on the clock is too much time wasted for the work being done. The seemingly intuitive logic is that if you could do your entire 20 hour shifts work in 4 hours that you’d only be paid for 4 hours of work- so employees aren’t super keen on maximizing their efficiency in that sense generally.
It would go against common sentiment to pay someone MORE who is able to complete all their work and go home early every day or only come kn once a month etc- on the surface it makes more sense though… but in reality that has perils and paying people to rush can often lead to mistakes and safety issues or other problems as many people will try to cut time by being clever or “cutting corners” as opposed to doing a proper job but with skill and efficiency.

Not all companies are heartless too to bottom either- they don’t always replace every human they can with a robot or cheaper human or automation processes etc. and many times heart or not it is either not ultimately seen as a wise move to do so from a business and perception/politics sense or other reasons, or you have management who are good at making a strong case a team is vital even if strictly speaking they could be replaced or eliminated. There’s a lot behind the scenes in these decisions and often entire departments or positions persist only because key advocates have created an image and perception that they are needed or a culture where that is a shared public perception so no one will say: “we don’t need that team” because the dogma is “that team is critical..” and if the right people say that enough all the brown nosers and people that want to fit in will repeat and support it even if they don’t believe it- so being the one voice of open dissent is often risky.

and ego boost and a salary raise.
Another one that is more common than ever in this day where many older people continue to work far longer and occupy middle management and upper management positions without moving up or retiring is that younger talent earns their dues and accrues the time, effort, results, and trust to become team leads or directors/department heads or VP/JR VP but you’ve got a 50+ year old sitting as a JR VP because the VP slot is held by someone 50+ who can’t move up and won’t move out either- so the younger talent has no where to go and either leaves or they create increasing levels of middle managers who often manage some title so specialized they have one report or are a manager of a team that is just them.

So in one sense if you say 20 hours is a lot of work you might be lazy or have low constitution etc- or you might be working somewhere that isn’t very effective with time.
In point of fact, on the whole while some work cultures are better than others, most of the system of work worldwide is pretty bad at this.
With automation and other factors we have lots of jobs that don’t require or shouldn’t require traditional “40 hour weeks” or schedules. In fact lots of jobs are just really not needed and pretty much exist only to provide disguised unemployment. Certain corporations are notorious for this- governments too. The need for a certain person vanishes but they are tenured or well liked or connected etc. so they are given a job with little to no real purpose. Or a person reaches a level of seniority where a raise is in order but their pay grade doesn’t justify it so some position is created, often management or quasi management- with no real purpose or power but to give them

So when it was slow you’d have guys sweeping or dusting their little areas or rearranging things- all things they’d done maybe 3 or 4 times that day- because even IF the offer to leave early was on the table- you didn’t get paid for leaving early and a lot of positions were standby- it could be slow for hours or days and then something happens and they need all hands- so they didn’t tend to let standby and service or response/compliance teams leave when it was slow.
You could work 20,40 hours or more and you wouldn’t do much besides be bored- but 20 hours was a lot of time to be there for a couple hours of work at most.
I’ve also worked jobs where you were flat salary- work an hour or 800 and you get the same check. Some of these jobs tried to milk you for every dollar they were paying and some have just said- “go home if the work is done..” or “sure, watch videos, read, surf the net, play games or whatever as long as the work gets done..”

I’m trim tired. I’m going to bed. Just know what can and can’t be asked if you before saying rashly.

and technically you aren’t performing a job function. So for various legal reasons and to track performance and get insight into periplos capabilities, accurate time tracking was a a key tool which time cards didn’t protect t enough.
Then there were mistakes. People accidentally punching over or forgetting to punch etc. the justification was enough for them to switch to a computer based time tracking system.
The system was designed so that you could download a phone app that had automatic time tracking features with manual log edits. Otherwise you had to use your work computer to log time manually. Technicians work had them moving around locations and within the technical building itself. They were often very busy and when and if they were working with their terminals near by it was usually because they were using the terminal to complete their tasks. Manual time logging required them to run a specific program and

That can mean missed promotions, missed opportunities, even discipline or being let go to try and find more efficient workers.
So like- if you have 5 things to do and your boss thinks those 5 things should take 8 hours but you take 10 to finish them, when a cool project or predictive project comes up even if it is 1-2 hours work, your boss isn’t likely to give it to
You- you already can’t do the work you are supposed to do within your day so giving you more seems bad for you and the company. You’ll be seen as not being able to handle it. So some workers would hide their overtime and not get paid for it just to avoid the potential negative career impact.
The problem being that if you’re working and you aren’t on the clock the company can be in violation for labor laws even though they never gave the on. It’s also the case that their insurance may not cover you or the property or equipment if anything goes wrong while you are working off the clock as you technically aren’t an employee

Come in late or leave early, take “long lunches” or miss your breaks (if employees did not take their mandated breaks and did not take them within certain rules like no later than X hours after or earlier than X hours before the end of shift” based on shift times etc- the company could be fined or sued.
If you didn’t show up and no one noticed or could prove it you had a punch showing you there.
Employees would also sometimes use it to work when they weren’t supposed to. The company liked to track and judge on efficient and other metrics so the technical employees often wanted to get more
Work done than was practical within their work day. Hourly and contract employees working over the allotted hours meant premium wages and the company had discretion to authorize those.
In short- if your boss gives you what is supposed to
Be in their mind 8 hours worth of work but you constantly need 10 to finish it, they can get a perception you aren’t very good at your job or how to manage time.

Here is a real example I saw at a company I worked for that was legal or mostly legal at the time:
Employees used a manual time punch, you placed a paper card into a clock that stamped the time and date onto the card in the spot you positioned under slot.
This method was full of problems.
Employees could and (few) did cheat the clock. All sorts of ways to cheat it but one example is that you’d cover the half of the sheet with the dates using a sheet of paper or something when punching it. You’d punch one “perfect day” of times all on the same day for the entire time card. You then remove the paper and position it on the time side and stamp the date each day in the date side and at the end of period you have a time card with perfect punches, you came in on time and left on time and took your breaks on time every day and were never absent. If you actually did keep that schedule it was convenient and true, but just as easily and more often it was a cheat.

is sufficient to avoid being illegal.
The key is in giving the employee a choice but making one choice obviously the one to take because the other is just not good from their perspective or makes it impossible to do their job effectively as they normally would.
Of course there are levels to these things. Almost anywhere with “at will” type employment laws can simply fire you for almost any reason save for any prohibited reasons such as common ones like race or sex or retaliation.
So even where you are legally protected, refusing to comply could cause issues for you because unless your employer is dumb enough to say “we are firing you for not downloading an app..” or they make it super obvious- they could find or create any number if performance or business reasons to fire you or demote you or lessen your prospects.

Likewise they will often do things like institute “multi factor authentication” and have one method be to authenticate through a means that can only be done from your desk.
They didn’t say you couldn’t work remotely, but anyone wanting to work remotely would need to download their app because the only way to log in is to authenticate either from your desk or via the app.
For full time remote workers and those with remote work promised in contracts, you can simply change the security software you use. If your server side software makes it impossible to log in without the app, they need the app to do their job. If you’ve already supplied the hardware then they have no means to really resist that and if they started out using their own hardware then you likely had them agree to certain terms including provisions that they agree that by using their own hardware they will comply with any updated security policies and stay up to date with your standards and practices. In most places that

So as an example, say you have your personal phone set up so you can do work tasks- maybe you like to take long lunches or pop out of the house to drop the kids off at daycare or whatever else and you want to be able to check your messages or emails or take meetings, or maybe you like being able to see your calendar and other employee calendars when you’re away from work to check the schedule to make decisions or plan or see if you forgot anything-
The company wants employees to download a new vpn or launcher to their devices but you say “no way.” Instead of “forcing you,” they might simply forbid accessing company data from outside the app or set up their servers to not allow access to their data off the app. They haven’t told you that you must do those things off the clock and away from your desk so they have no obligation to provide you a device. They are just saying that people who want to do those things must download the app.

Terms and conditions apply. Discontinue use immediately if you are allergic to firearms or taking socialism. Sudden burning and unexpected coups may occur.
Pregnant women and certain individuals with chronic health conditions may experience difficulties.
Consult your doctor on wether America is right for you.

*places hand over heart while a single tear rolls down my cheek*
Aaaaameeerica…

to many people. We cannot make everyone respect the flag or the pure form of what it is supposed to stand for, we can’t force people to believe that all the “bad” that has stood under that flag doesn’t erase the “good” or force some equation of respect for the people who have done right under the flag and stood behind it vs. the people who have done wrong while waving the flag in front of them as a shield. That’s not what that flag stands for. If we behave in ways that people can respect then people will respect the symbol of what we stand for. If people don’t respect your symbol, you have to look at what you’ve done to reflect that symbol and what you might do to be a symbol of the flag instead of worrying about the flag being a symbol of you.

When you set goals and standards so high as to be unachievable, when you keep moving the goal post as you reach the end zone- there isn’t shame in failing because people who do that will always fail. They understand that setting a goal just to be able to achieve it isn’t a challenge worthy of anyone wanting to be the best, you need to stretch and grow and struggle and fail and keep reaching further so that no matter how good you get it is never good enough. The best do not settle for complacency. But America isn’t living up to being the best. We aren’t just missing the goal by a little bit in the end zone because we pushed the goal further away. If anything we have at times moved the goal back to places it had been before and yet someone still fell short.
We can do better. We have to do better. The America that flag stands for is an America that never believes it has done enough or reached the pinnacle. So to each their own when it comes to the flag. It means many things

Or what it stands for. It would be a bit ironic if the symbol of American freedom did not allow you the freedom to disrespect it. Wether or not one believes that people should by default manners and ethics respect the symbol of the America the flag represents even when the country or its people fail to meet those ideals; the fact that people can choose to disrespect the flag is in it’s way a good thing. So long as someone is disrespecting the American flag it is a sign that America has not yet achieved its potential and the nation and its people are being called on to do better. Part of the ideal that underpins America is to set a bar we cannot achieve. No matter how free or secure or prosperous or at peace we are or no matter how much good we do- to set a bar that there is always more. Always a better America than the one we have, and to reach for that. America has failed to reach that bar at home and abroad by a great wide margin quite a few times in modern history and the past.

This is done places like Disney parks for examples. The “American Flags” that are often seen in Disney parks in the states or on “Main Street” all have the wrong number of stars and/or stripes. This allows Disney to ignore the flag code, they don’t have to lower the flags in mourning or properly care, display, or dispose of them, but it creates an iconography or image that they want for the park. Films and other media commonly do this as well.
Of course the flag code is not binding. It does not specify that you must follow it nor does it prescribe or suggest penalties. The flag code is a guide on how to respect the United States flag, what it stands for, and those who stand or stood for it.
The United States and its people are not and have not always been perfect or lived up to the ideals of the nation, but the flag stands for those ideals, what we could be and should strive to be. One of those ideals is an ideal of freedom, so it is not mandatory that you respect the US flag

Now- there is some debate as to whether or not printed items depicting an American flag accurately and within the bounds of what is identified as a flag by the flag code is a violation, and outside the flag code there is debate and individual opinion as to whether the symbol of a nation which man and women have fought and died for should be used as a beach blanket or to cover your private parts etc.
Most of the time those depicting or using the image of the flag avoid the issue but doing as said in the open- they just make sure the flag isn’t an American flag but looks enough like one to be perceived that way.
Having less than the proper number of stars or stripes for a current or past flag is one method.