A Four Day Work Week

[Calgaryborn]

I've worked 8, 10, and 12 hour days before and found the 10 hour days to be long but, productive. If your work requires a high level of physical effort after 10 hours you will be quite bagged. 12 hours would be too long when doing physical work. Productivity would suffer.
Perhaps a 36 hour work week might be the answer. Work 9 hours a day 4 times a week. Some get Fridays off and others get Mondays. I doubt there would be much difference on the pay slip. Again the benefits go beyond just having more family time. You drive into work one less day a week and your commute on either Friday or Monday is quicker because you have half the traffic. That would save more than a few barrels of oil nation wide.

[Resolute 14]

I used to work four ten-hour shifts when I was younger. 4PM - 2AM. Absolutely loved it.

Would love to do that again now, though with more realistic hours. Hell, 7AM-5PM would be awesome. Get every Friday off, and miss all of morning rush and most of evening.

[Ozy_Flame]

We get every third Friday off, and build up a plethora of lieu time working for the City. Plus, I never have to put in more than 35 hours per week, and never have to work past 4:30. Back home by 5, I've got a good 5-7 hours to enjoy my time each day.

I couldn't imagine being one of those workaholics stuck in front of a computer for 12 hours a day, starting at 6 AM, like a few people in the finance and energy industries I know do. Blech.

[llama64]

The major problem with the 4 day work week is managing to get work done while juggling meetings.

Meetings are the single biggest time waster in an office. They suck hours upon hours away from a persons day, requiring that person to work overtime just to keep up with their work load. Restricting the work week to 4 days would just compact all the meetings and lead to people working Friday in order to get some actual work done.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I have heard rumours in the past that other countries, especially in Europe, like the 30 hour work weeks. I heard that Germany does this, it might have even been on this board, can anyone confirm that?

If so.. I need to live there.

I'll see what I can dig up. IIRC, France might have 4 days. I think Germans work 5 days, but they get 6 weeks minimum holidays. The Germans I know all seem to work 12 hour days, so I don't know if they are any further ahead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1859891.stm

The average French worker has never had it so good - or so it seems.

The introduction of a 35-hour working work means millions of employees spend more time having fun with family and friends, instead of slaving away in the office or factory.

The legislation, introduced in phases since it was approved by Parliament in 1999, has resulted in shorter working days, four-day working weeks or extra long holidays.

But the 35-hour working week has come at a price.

With fewer people at work at any one time, more jobs have been needed.

And it has largely been the French tax payer who has had to foot bill to pay for their wages.

French corporate taxes are among the highest in the EU and many firms have moved to "business friendlier" countries like the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time

Be thankful you don't work in South Korea.

By far, workers in South Korea have the longest work hours in the world. The average South Korean works 2,390 hours each year, according to the OECD. This is over 400 hours longer than the next longest-working country and 34% more hours than the average in the United States. A typical workweek in South Korea is 44 hours or longer. Most people start their day at 8am and end at around 7pm or later, often having dinner before returning to work. Until legislation in 2004 that virtually abolished the six-day workweek in large corporations known as "jaebol", South Korea was the only country in the OECD that worked Saturdays.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/08060...r_lifestyle_us

Skyrocketing energy costs have fueled fresh interest in the four-day workweek across the United States as a means to help workers as well as employers cope with the surge.

[troutman]

Annual work hours (source: OECD (2004), OECD in Figures, OECD, Paris

Lazy Dutch.

[Locke]

Moving to the Netherlands...

[Sylvanfan]

I guess when you have that type of access to pot and prostitutes...it makes it hard to go to the office all the time. Knowing how socialist they are in Holland, I bet that each employee gets 600 hours sick time on top of their holliday pay too. Carve me up some wood shoes, I'm going to Holland with Locke!

[Calgaryborn]

So if we went to a 36 hour work week we probably be somewhere around Austria.

I wonder if Frances work week was forced on the private sector.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

Basically I'm suggesting the government(Provincial and Federal) mandate it for their massive work forces. With government services like schools and post offices following a four day work week many businesses would do the same.

Forget schools going to a 4 day work week, at least not perhaps until high school. Young children would simply not be able to concentrate for such a long time period.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by redforever

Forget schools going to a 4 day work week, at least not perhaps until high school. Young children would simply not be able to concentrate for such a long time period.

Yeah but think about it, thats an extra day a week for them to be working in the mines picking coal out of the dirt with their small fingers.

[Calgaryborn]

Originally Posted by redforever

Forget schools going to a 4 day work week, at least not perhaps until high school. Young children would simply not be able to concentrate for such a long time period.

Right now a student only gets 5 hours of instruction per day here in B.C. That's 25 hours a week. Would 6.25 hours be too much for them to handle?

[Calgaryborn]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah but think about it, thats an extra day a week for them to be working in the mines picking coal out of the dirt with their small fingers.

It would provide more opportunity for a part time job if you were in high school and so inclined.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Calgaryborn

It would provide more opportunity for a part time job if you were in high school and so inclined.

Very true, so there could be an economic incentive there. This city in particular requires more people flipping burgers on weekends.

Conversely, for those not inclined, thats another day of the week where these teenage hooligans are loosed upon our fair town to cause mayhem.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

and barbecued unicorn on the second wednesday of every month!

I'll have mine rare...