Would you prefer a 4 day week?

[Melakon]

In one of the old Three Stooges shorts, Moe (maybe as Hitler) promises a 2-hour week.

[JoeZhang]

Working at home is fine but you can get cut out of the loop of the organisational politics which are often more important that your actual work.

[Warp Coil]

In my current job, with my current schedule? Probably not. I work 9a-5p, Thursday - Monday (with Tuesday-Wednesday off). In order to accommodate a four-day work week, I would theoretically work 8a-6p and I'd gain an extra day off (Monday or Thursday). That would severely limit my free time in the evenings. Plus, what the hell am I going to do with a day off on a Thursday or something? None of my friends are off. I'd probably be bored.

[RoJoHen]

Warp Coil wrote:

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In my current job, with my current schedule? Probably not. I work 9a-5p, Thursday - Monday (with Tuesday-Wednesday off). In order to accommodate a four-day work week, I would theoretically work 8a-6p and I'd gain an extra day off (Monday or Thursday). That would severely limit my free time in the evenings. Plus, what the hell am I going to do with a day off on a Thursday or something? None of my friends are off. I'd probably be bored.

What if you threw your extra day off into the middle of your work week? Just because you have 3 days off doesn't necessarily mean they need to be consecutive.

I rarely work more than 3 days in a row. I love it.

[Sakrysta]

Yes yes yes! I'm always exhausted at the end of a work day anyway. I don't see how 2 more hours would change that. And on weekends, I always end up using most of Saturday to recover, and spend most of Sunday in church-related activities. If I could have Mondays or Fridays, I might actually clean my house once in a while.

[doubleohfive]

I would absolutely love a four day work week/three day weekend as a regular schedule.

[tighr]

I proposed a 4x12 schedule to my peers in a meeting to discuss work life balance (we are in management at a 24/7 production facility). Essentially, two managers would cover a department four days of the week, and the fifth day (and weekends) are covered by managers from other departments. Every 4 weeks, you would rotate to a different work week (but keep the same hours). Eventually, you would work weekends once every three months, but you would always have a 4 day on, 3 day off schedule. Work weeks would be M-Th, T-F, and F-M.

I think this would have been fantastic, but believe it or not the other managers in my group turned it down because "they are friends outside of work and they wouldn't get to hang out anymore because they'd always be on different work weeks".

Stupidest reason ever to not improve your work life balance. I live in California, and all my friends and family live in the midwest, so it is simply impossible for me to travel on the weekends to visit them. With flights, you almost have to fly back as soon as you land. Meanwhile, a lot of my coworkers are from California, and its not impossible for even a day trip to go see parents or friends.

[JarodRussell]

I noticed that managers tend not to have a huge personal life, sometimes they are even afraid of it, which is why they work 24/7, sometimes even at Sundays.

I had a boss once who would call me on Christmas for a meeting, just because he didn't want to hang out with his family.

[MacLeod]

tighr wrote:

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I proposed a 4x12 schedule to my peers in a meeting to discuss work life balance (we are in management at a 24/7 production facility). Essentially, two managers would cover a department four days of the week, and the fifth day (and weekends) are covered by managers from other departments. Every 4 weeks, you would rotate to a different work week (but keep the same hours). Eventually, you would work weekends once every three months, but you would always have a 4 day on, 3 day off schedule. Work weeks would be M-Th, T-F, and F-M.

I think this would have been fantastic, but believe it or not the other managers in my group turned it down because "they are friends outside of work and they wouldn't get to hang out anymore because they'd always be on different work weeks".

Stupidest reason ever to not improve your work life balance. I live in California, and all my friends and family live in the midwest, so it is simply impossible for me to travel on the weekends to visit them. With flights, you almost have to fly back as soon as you land. Meanwhile, a lot of my coworkers are from California, and its not impossible for even a day trip to go see parents or friends.

So your proposal was voted down because it would have had a negative impact on the other managers work/life balance. Sounds a valid reason to vote it down. You were in favour because it would improve your work life balance. This is always the problem for some the status quo is better for others something else might be better.

Just look at 24hr opening, many of us love the idea of being ablt to go pick up a pint of milk or what ever else we want at 02:00, but when asked would we like to work it. It becomes less attractive.

4 day weeks might work in certain job sectors, but I'm not sure if they would work in all job sectors.

[tighr]

MacLeod wrote:

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So your proposal was voted down because it would have had a negative impact on the other managers work/life balance. Sounds a valid reason to vote it down. You were in favour because it would improve your work life balance. This is always the problem for some the status quo is better for others something else might be better.

It's almost ironic; the reason that they don't have any friends outside of work is because they spend all of their time at work. As it is, when they cover weekends (currently, one in 4) they end up working 12 days straight without a day off. It became natural to want to hang out with the people you already spend 70% of your life with. Most of them even hook up with/date each other, which has negative consequences when those relationships end.

[Kelthaz]

I prefer the five day week. I don't live for the weekends. The idea of working long and hard for 4 days straight with little time to myself between shifts just for an extra day on the weekend isn't appealing at all. I like a balance to my life rather than all or nothing.

However, Spot's Meow's idea would be great. I mean, think about it, if this 32 hour week was made mandatory our unemployment problem would be gone instantly. If anything we would have a shortage of workers, so us 99% would have more bargaining power.

[Gary7]

YES. 2 days is not enough to really decompress from a strenuous week's work. However, if doing so means reduced annual vacation lengths then... eh. Not so sure about this.

[tighr]

Gary7 wrote:

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YES. 2 days is not enough to really decompress from a strenuous week's work. However, if doing so means reduced annual vacation lengths then... eh. Not so sure about this.

Ugh. Our vacations are short enough as it is.

On a recent trip to India, we met several other tourists and talked to them about their vacations. Most were from Europe or Australia. We visited several cities for 2-3 days at a time (barely enough time to see everything a city has to offer) on our two week vacation. Some of the folks we met were in each city for 2-3 weeks at a time.

[Marc]

The call centre I worked had a few shifts available as 4x10 hours for 40 hours (or sometimes a bit less depending on what the phone company we did the work for wanted). Most who got them didn't want to let them go thought they were a drag.

The good ones would get there 10 - 15 mins before shift start to get logged in, you'd have 10 hours on the phones, 15min break, 45 min lunch, 15min break so it was pretty much 11 hours in the place.

And not sure why doing 4 x 10 would mean less vacation time than 5 x 8. You've clocked up the same number of hours.

Guess you'd also have be working in an environment were you it could be done but I guess as 9 - 5 opening hours are dying out it's less of an issue.

[Use of Time]

We have a two week cycle (working for Dept. of Navy) where you work Mon-Thu 9 hours and you will get every other friday off. The other friday is an 8 hour day. I like it.