Economic Theory and the Five Day Weekend (2007)
money.howstuffworks.comI feel as if even a three day weekend would make me feel so much less stifled by work.
I love my job. I love what I do. And yet the grind of going day after day, five days a week, every week except for maybe three or four times a year when I take vacation (and I try to take more than I'm allotted believe me...). It's just stifling. It's tiring. It makes me not want to get up for work in the morning. But after a three day weekend and with only four days to work in the week, I always feel better.
If it doesn't happen at my work here I'll figure a way to make it work somewhere else I hope. But it's not an option for most people, and maybe it should be.
I agree with you, but I think there is far too much cultural baggage (at least here in the U.S.) for a less-than-five-day week to ever work. It strikes that in white collar jobs, people feel the need to think that their work time and presence is absolutely necessary for the well-being of their employers. Of course, this attitude often comes from above, such as when you get an email from an executive near the end of the year reminding you that you can carry-over vacation days, and if you a job that directly affects revenue, maybe you should consider carrying some days over.
The most interesting bit, for me, in the article was the observation that culturally, we've often forgotten that work is only part of our lives. So many of us base much of our identity on what we do for a living that we forget that the concept of vocation encompasses more than just what we do for a paycheck.
An alternative could be to encourage four ten-hour workdays. People will feel.like they're putting in their forty hours (perh fewer productive hours) but that could acclimate people to four-day weekdays....
Then eventually transition to 4x8-hour days as people accept 4 days as normal... Just a thought.
I work construction and would love this, but our issue would be customers thinking we're "slacking" because in a month long job we're taking three day weekends every week.
Compound this with employers who don't value productivity over "time put in", and I genuinely think this won't happen until it's either forced or the current generation of senior management are ousted via retirement/death (as most seem to work until very close to the latter).
I think the older generation is so stuck in its mindset that it's going to take a cataclysmic shift for them to realise they've been stupid for decades, and it's the younger generations that are dragged along with it because they're yet to be the ones in control.
I have done that for a while and, if you have a commute, there is no time left for anything else during those 4 days. It may be a nice option sometimes, but it's not viable for people with other obligations during the week.
i work 4 10's in a machine shop currently. maybe being a machinist is different from programming, but you can't do anything for those 4 days. you just won't be productive after work, you'll be spent. then you spend your first day of the weekend recovering from the lack of sleep during the 4 days, because a longer workday usually means you get up earlier, rather than staying later.
There is a similar article in the Orion Magazine:
https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-gospel-of-consumption/
that goes a little more in depth into the history of the 40 hour work week.
If anyone is hiring for a position that requires <40 hours/week, this would probably be a good place to advertise. :-)
OR if anyone is OK with 50 hrs in 4 workdays (4 12.5hr days) post away :)
There's also a system of 9 hour days Monday-Thursday and then every other Friday off. It averages out to 40-hour weeks but you get two 3-day weekends a month.
My company works a four-day week, and it's excellent. Note that the transition from five to four days has the most pleasure impact (+50% weekend) for the least work cost (-20% work). The next two transitions – 4->3 and 3->2 – would be a lot harder. But I'd love to make it to three days a week, when you work fewer days than you relax.
I'd really love to hear more details about what your company did and how they did it:
* What size is the company?
* Who proposed the change?
* Were people resistant to the idea? Which people? How were they persuaded otherwise?
* What differences are noticeable about the company now? Productivity? General happiness in the office?
* Any advice for people wishing to follow in your footsteps?