Should You Lobby for a Four-Day Workweek?
What's better: Five straight days of 9-5 toil, or four 10-hour days followed by a three-day weekend? If you said the latter, now's the time to have a sit-down with your boss.
According to a new Scientific American report, the four-day workweek is a money-saver for companies and a health and well-being boost for employees.
Here's an excerpt that spotlights some of the benefits for the bean-counters:
There's no longer a need to turn on the lights, elevators or computers on Fridays--nor do janitors need to clean vacant buildings. Electric bills have dropped even further during the summer, thanks to less air-conditioning: Friday's midday hours have been replaced by cooler mornings and evenings on Monday through Thursday.As for workers, those employed by the state of Utah, which switched to a four-day workweek last August, were overwhelmingly (82 percent) in favor of keeping the system. And why not? It saves gas, saves wear and tear on the car, and, of course, provides an extra day of rest. (More time to shop, too, so the economy gets a boost.)
The trick, of course, lies in keeping your same salary while working one day less per week. Plenty of corporations and government agencies have forced a four-day workweek on employees and cut their salaries a commensurate 20 percent. Ouch.
On the other hand, for some folks, an extra day of freedom might be worth a pay cut, even if they're putting in the same total number of hours.
What do you think? Would you support "hacking" your workweek this way? I sure would, but blogging is a cruel mistress: Unless everyone has the day off, I don't.
Share your thoughts in the comments. Photo by Stevan Sheets.