It's a wonder what we could do with our team if we were freed from the burden of work. Unfortunately, most of what we want to do, like vacations and travel, requires work to earn the money to get where we want. However, something as easy as changing the amount of days we work can open up our time. The four day work week, maybe?
Reddit user, u/upvoteifurgey, wanted to know what the kingdom of heaven might be like when they asked:
How do you feel about a 4 day work week?
The Coveted Three Day Weekend
My company switched to 4 10 hour days. We are diesel technicians and work 7-5:30. Half of us work Monday through Thursday and the other half work Tuesday through Friday. We have did this for over two years and we all love it. It is so nice to have a three day weekend every week. Another thing about it that is nice is if you doctors appointment or something I can make it on a Monday and don't have to miss any work.
Plus I forgot to mention having a two month this helps out a ton. More time for me to be with my wife and daughter. And if there is a lot to do I can just come in on Monday and boom 10 hours of overtime.
Do The Math
GiphyI work in public works for a city in Minnesota and we're trying to go from 5 8's to 4 10's during the summer.
People are fighting it because "But that's two more hours a day I have to work! I won't be getting off at 330 but rather 4:30 if we start at 6am (instead of 7) or 5:30 if we still start at 7!"
Yeah but you get that ENTIRE day off. 24 full hours to spend doing house/yard work. 24 full hours to spend with your family. 24 hours to do nothing compared to that measly 2 hours a day. You'd EASILY catch up on the stuff you're missing out on by working 2 extra hours a day.
24 hours off is more than 10 hours off.
That adds up to WEEKS (4 days off a month for 5 months would be 20 days off....just short of 3 weeks) off during the summer instead of 4-5 days adding up that two hours a day.
Then you think about the money you're saving by not driving.....I drive 60 miles a day. I get 20 to the gallon. That's 3 gallons of gas per day. 15 gallons a week. Say a gallon of gas is about $3....that's $45/week. Trim that to 12 gallons a week...$36. That's $9 saved a week over 20 weeks....$180 saved over 5 months. That's an extra $18 an hour on top of your regular $25/hour.
Then you're saving PTO/Sick/Comp time by not using those days to get an extended weekend. That's even MORE money saved and MORE time off.
It makes too much sense NOT to do it.
More And More Days
Life would be that much better. I would have somewhere around 50 extra days a year to do all the yardwork and home projects that I don't want to spend all weekend doing.
When you put it like that (~52 extra days per year), it becomes a slam dunk yes. Unfortunately I am teacher, and it won't switch for me unless the rest of society changes to it first. Only districts that do 4 days right now tend to be rural.
It Doesn't Have To Be Every Week
My employer gives us every other Friday off. We work 80 hours over 9 days (M-F, M-Th). It's really helpful to have those Fridays to schedule appointments, and I have less desire to burn PTO throughout the year just to take a much-needed Friday off (through the end of October, I had only used 2.5 PTO hours for the year, mostly for doctor's visits). The only real downside is that on the Fridays that we do work, nobody wants to do anything.
"They're gone just as soon as you start to feel comfortable."
I would gladly work 4 ten hour days to have an extra day off.
2 day weekends are too short.
They're gone just as soon as you start to feel comfortable
Honestly, free time is the biggest luxury
Attitudes And Mentalities Have Shifted
They talked about this in the 70s. Yay everyone said. My dad did it. He worked 4 12+ hr days and took off Friday. Everyone else was like, if I work the 12 hrs the 4 days plus another 12, I can make even more money! Yay!
I remember this happening with one of the Kellog companies. They reduced the number of hours of every worker in order to avoid massive layoffs. Then everyone was just so happy with the new structure, they kept it for decades, until larger shifts in the economy made workers rethink what they wanted and they went back to a 40 hour work-week in order to make more money.
I think the workers were just reflective of what people wanted at the time--more money in order to purchase more things/leisure activities/etc.
But there's a pretty significant shift in what people want now, where I feel a lot of younger people care more about how much time they have. Possibly because they grew up seeing that the race to acquire wealth wasn't really paying out the benefits that were promised. (Happiness, life satisfaction, etc.)
Not The Time, But The Time On Task
Given that we now have more people in the workforce and supposedly more "productivity" because of automation, we ought to be dropping down to 32 hour weeks to compensate for the changes in our household structures.
What I don't get is why we work on hours instead of you know, the work being done. I apparently get paid to carry out certain responsibilities, not to just be physically present at a workplace, but if I finish all my work I don't get to leave. It incentives wasting just enough time that you look busy all day, otherwise they just hit you with even more work, effectively punishing you for being good at your job.
Everything Is More Open
Working a 5 day work week just makes life seem so much more pointless. By the time I get the other things I need to do (grocery shopping, appointments, etc.) done, its Sunday night. A 4 day work week might give me time to play the piano I bought to combat depression.
Oh Yeah...The Planet
GiphyIn terms of climate change it'd be about 20% less CO2 emissions from commuters which is nice.
Not just commuting, but running a workplace. Industrial jobs are the most obvious, but even an office building full of computers, lights, climate control, etc uses a lot of energy.
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