4 day work week
Because Monday was Labor Day and I had the day off, this week was a short 4 day week. Why can't every week be a short week? I'm not saying this because I'm lazy and want to have longer weekends (even though I am lazy and want longer weekends) but I think it's fairly easy to squeeze 5 days of work into 4 days. You could just add on 2 extra hours of work each day and continue to have a 40 hour work week but that wouldn't be necessary. You just need to work more efficiently. Imagine if you cut out all the stupid little breaks, took a shorter lunch, eliminated the useless meetings, the social hour chit chat, and the occasional web surfing and just worked for 8 solid hours each day. I am positive I could do the equivalent of 40 hours of work in 32 hours.
I've always been an advocate of the adage to work smarter not harder. Not that hard work isn't great but working efficiently is even better. We leave in an age of technology and advancement. If you have to chop down a tree why would you use an axe when you can use a chainsaw. We have methods at our disposal to do great amounts of work in very little time leaving us with more time for the finer things in life. I would happily trade my wasted time at work for an extra day of the weekend and I think most people would do the same.
The choice is simple. Either bust your butt for 4 days and take 3 days off or waste away 5 days working at a more leisurely pace and only get 2 days off. You shouldn't get paid based on the amount of time that you work but instead get paid based on the amount of work that you do. If you can do an 8 hour job in 6 hours, you should get paid for 8 hours of work. Hourly pay is a joke. It encourages laziness. I see it all the time with road workers. They spend more time talking and smoking cigarettes then doing the road construction. A project that could have been done in weeks takes months. If they got paid the same amount no matter how long it took, they would finish much faster.
So why would any business want to do this? We'll it saves them money. Imagine a manufacturing plant that only has to run for 4 days a week instead of 5 but still produces the same amount of product. They save 20% of their daily costs for heating/AC, electricity, etc. The workers will be grateful to have an extra day off each week. The question is not whether or not to do it but whether or not it can be done. I personally feel that I can be much more efficient at my job if given the incentive. But right now, the incentive for working harder and getting your job done faster is .... well.... more work.
Let's get together and start a 4 day work week movement. Let's all go to our bosses and managers and CEOs and propose this idea. If enough of us do it, it just might happen for a few of us and start a new trend but it will die a painful death if we can't hold up our end of the bargain. Examine your work week and see if you can "trim the fat" and get things done in a better way. The only thing left to decide is whether we want Mondays or Fridays off.
I've always been an advocate of the adage to work smarter not harder. Not that hard work isn't great but working efficiently is even better. We leave in an age of technology and advancement. If you have to chop down a tree why would you use an axe when you can use a chainsaw. We have methods at our disposal to do great amounts of work in very little time leaving us with more time for the finer things in life. I would happily trade my wasted time at work for an extra day of the weekend and I think most people would do the same.
The choice is simple. Either bust your butt for 4 days and take 3 days off or waste away 5 days working at a more leisurely pace and only get 2 days off. You shouldn't get paid based on the amount of time that you work but instead get paid based on the amount of work that you do. If you can do an 8 hour job in 6 hours, you should get paid for 8 hours of work. Hourly pay is a joke. It encourages laziness. I see it all the time with road workers. They spend more time talking and smoking cigarettes then doing the road construction. A project that could have been done in weeks takes months. If they got paid the same amount no matter how long it took, they would finish much faster.
So why would any business want to do this? We'll it saves them money. Imagine a manufacturing plant that only has to run for 4 days a week instead of 5 but still produces the same amount of product. They save 20% of their daily costs for heating/AC, electricity, etc. The workers will be grateful to have an extra day off each week. The question is not whether or not to do it but whether or not it can be done. I personally feel that I can be much more efficient at my job if given the incentive. But right now, the incentive for working harder and getting your job done faster is .... well.... more work.
Let's get together and start a 4 day work week movement. Let's all go to our bosses and managers and CEOs and propose this idea. If enough of us do it, it just might happen for a few of us and start a new trend but it will die a painful death if we can't hold up our end of the bargain. Examine your work week and see if you can "trim the fat" and get things done in a better way. The only thing left to decide is whether we want Mondays or Fridays off.
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