Bradford Plumer at the New Republic digs deeper to find even more reason to start the weekend one day early.
Some 106 million Americans drive to work alone each day, an average of 16 miles each way. Cutting out one workday's worth of commuting would not only lower U.S. oil imports by 5 to 10 percent, it would also prevent thousands of traffic fatalities, as well as cut down on the costs of road maintenance, since people tend to drive less on weekends. And workers would see a real income boost by saving on gas.There's another way to realize those kind of savings: Asking workers to telecommute. As I've written before, the benefits of telecommuting are pretty diverse. From the employer side, it can save office space, utilities and overhead for employee services. From the employee side, it allows parents to spend more time with their family and cut down on increasingly expensive travel given the rising price of gas and public transportation. And of course, fewer cars on the road means less traffic, which means quicker travels (and less gas) for other Friday commuters.
A quick question: what will ten-hour days do to workers with children? Will daycare be open longer? Will the schools adjust? Will latch-key kids proliferate? I often see this idea bandied about, and the problem of childcare is usually not addressed.
Those are excellent questions. I'd like to hear answers from someone in Utah, or another place where the idea has gone past the bandying stage.
How does having an extra day with your kids each week balance against having two hours less with them on four days? Financially? Emotionally?
I don't think you have to worry about schools adjusting. Most school schedules are not anywhere close to 9 to 5 as it is. It's the rare public school that is still in session after 3pm. If you are a latch-key kid now you will be a latch key kid under the 4 day work week. I don't expect the number will increase. Daycare is a whole other issue. That's where it gets tricky.
I assume the author, and the other author he quoted, are relatively young and do not know about the 4 day (10 hour days) weeks of the 80s. It was just the latest and greatest thing back then - until it died.
A lot of employees found that they spent far more money on that extra day off, creating a financial hardship on themselves. Without spending money to entertain themselves, some employees found themselves bored.
From the business standpoint, companies found themselves at cross currents with other companies that worked 5 days. Joe, from company A, could not get hold of Bob, from company B, on Friday. When something had to get done NOW, that presented problems.
The whole thing fizzled out as people just found it unworkable.
What about those of us who already work 10-12 hour days 5 days a week? How do we move to a four day schedule? Government jobs might be able to get away with this, but in my industry it won't fly. Having people work from home 1 or 2 days a week gives you the environmental savings of not driving, plus works with most current businesses. My employer does this, because they know that they end up getting not only the normal work hours, but also that additional hour that would have been spent driving to/from work. 1-2 extra work hours a week = an extra week of work out an employee a year, just by letting them work from home. Seems like successful win/win to me, without the difficulties of a 4 day work week.
this may work for entry-level 9-to-5ers. but at mid mgt level and beyond you are likely already working 10+ hour days just to hang on do the work of those who have been layed off. 'be grateful you have work and stop whining' is the unspoken message from sr. mgt. want a shorter week? move to the EU.
The 4 day work week can work. It's just like knowing you can't trade the stock market on weekends because the market is closed. You have to wait until Monday morning. Like wise when ed mentioned that back in the 80's it worked for a while then fizzled because Harry from company A couldn't get a hold of Bob from company B because it was closed on Fridays...so what. Harry just has to wait to get a hold of Bob on Monday. There could be nothing so earth shattering that Harry couldn't wait on and further more, if there was anything earth shattering, Harry knows Bob's cell number. Trust me, they all know how to get a hold of each other when they absolutely have to. Go here for more info everyone should know.
A couple of friends of mine work for the Utah DMV. They like working 4 10's, but they live in small towns with 5 minute commutes. I'm not sure how someone on the Wasatch Front with a 30+ minute commute would feel about it.
What is this "40 hour week" of which you speak so glibly? Corporate America in 2009 is held together with spit, baling wire and unpaid overtime by its exempt employees. Project plans are created with the underlying assumption that anyone lucky enough to have a job these days will be available every minute of every day and at a moment's notice. There are no boundaries and no respect for employees' personal lives. We're all just indentured servants with degrees to the C-Suite.
What's wrong with this picture? For starters, the four-day, 32-hour week was the big story back in 1957. That's more than a half century ago. Chevrolets had big tail fins, then. Remember? There's nothing sacred about 40 hours. But there appears to be an apprehension that there is something sacred about that number.
Hey, that's the length of the workweek that Henry Ford introduced in 1926, one year before he introduced the Model "A" Ford. "The five day week is not the ultimate, and neither is the eight hour day," wrote Samuel Crowther in 1926. The forty hour workweek is, at best, a "Model 'A'" workweek.
Personally, I favor "24/7". A 24- hour workweek with seven weeks vacation. I have it and so could you.