4 day working week? beneficial or necesary?

The Gambia has announced that Fridays are now officialy another day off work.

The Gambia has started a four-day week for public sector workers, with Fridays now an extra day off.

President Yahya Jammeh has said the shorter week will give The Gambia's mainly Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to fields.

Mr Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, is known for his eccentric behaviour.

Critics say his latest decision will promote laziness and disrupt the poor West African state's economy.

Agriculture, especially peanut exports, forms the backbone of The Gambia's economy.

www.bbc.co.uk...

So why not the rest of the working world?
Especially here in the West with our busy lives.

How do we define what is a 'day off'?
We wake in the mornings to get ready for work, then commute to work, work, commute home, replace lost energy and repeat the cycle 5, or in some cases, 6 days a week.. even nights..
Then on your 'day/s off' you get the car serviced/washed.. go get your food shopping for the week/month, make sure all your laundry is done for the next working week..

Yeah that's what we know. But recently we are seeing a decrease in job vacancies, a rise in population and troubled markets. More and more part time jobs are becoming available.

In the UK if you work you are entitled to 'working tax credits', but only if you work more than 24 hours a week. It used to be 16 hours, but the Gov. raised it recently. More than likely to save money. Most part time jobs are around the 16 hour mark..

Are we going to see an increase in part time jobs in order to get a larger population into work? Is 'part time' the newest thing?

In the tiny African nation of The Gambia, public sector workers will now clock in at 8am and clock out at 6pm, Monday to Thursday. They'll still do a 40-hour week but have the luxury of Friday off.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Do we need an extra day off in order to have some "me" time? Could jobs be spread out more fairly so that part time work is available for all?
If all jobs were part time, we could have almost zero unemployment whilst still letting people have the "me" time they need.

Stagger the working week into four sections in order to be sure to cover every day, if needed, as not every job will be able to have three days of 'closed' in a row.
Monday to Thursday
Tuesday to Friday
Wednesday to Saturday
Thursday to Sunday
Or variations of that sort as, in general, there are three working shift patterns per day to cover the 24 hour society we live in.

As it is, Christians are not supposed to work on Sunday, the day of rest.. but Western society demands it.
Muslims in Gambia now get Fridays off for extra prayer time.. so why not other religions?

I think that those in power may be worried that if it's allowed for one religion, then all religions should be allowed this extra time off.. it would then become almost impossible for companies to have any real work done as too many days in the year would be taken up by religious practice..
If you doubt that, check a thread I did a few years ago.. it lists the holidays..
Planet Earth is on holiday.. please call again later

So far, that is 139 possible days off of work to follow religious, cultural and other holidays that are observed by many as part of their way of life.
This does not include the 21 day average that the UK is allowed to take oof work for personal holidays.

so what happens if you are not religious? Should you work the hours that is demanded by the profiteers, or would you demand equal rights.. in which case, you could claim every holiday by every religion to be yours as well..

Farmers work sun up to sun down.. how could they get a fair deal? Almost every other profession could have extra employees in order to cover 'off days'..

The way we've worked has reached a peak where we have to change or it'll all collapse.. but if we adopt a new system of part time work to reduce unemployment, this too will reach a peak..

So what to do? Extra day off or carry on slogging your guts out for little benefit to yourself?

reply to post by Extralien

I love the idea of having an extra day off per week.

The human race should get machines and robots to do all the work.

A human consciousness is far too precious to be wasted as a "wage slave".

reply to post by QMask

The human race should get machines and robots to do all the work.

I agree and I think their are plenty of jobs which could easily be handled by robots or machines. But then who would maintain those machines? Maybe the worker whose job the machine is taking on?

If you find your passion .. 7 day work week isn't enough.

2nd.

Originally posted by QMask
reply to post by Extralien

 

I love the idea of having an extra day off per week.

The human race should get machines and robots to do all the work.

A human consciousness is far too precious to be wasted as a "wage slave".

edit on 2-2-2013 by QMask because: (no reason given)

And there lies one of our major problems when it comes to getting a job.. We already have a massive amount of robots and machines to do the jobs we used to do.

A lot of these machines work faster, longer and better than most things that we can produce. But in some countries, manual labour is still part of the system due to development and/or finances..

Gudang Garam The Biggest Cigarette Factory in Indonesia

Everyones working.. but if machines took over this lot, what would these people do? Become employees of Mcdonalds?

And yes, I do believe we are far more than just wage slaves. But we're not being allowed the opportunity to expand and grow in the way we naturally would..

I have always said this, I used to work for a manufacturing company doing 40 hrs a week 8 hrs Monday to Friday.

When a working week was cut to 37 hrs we only worked 8am to 1pm on a Friday and I would have much preferred to have worked those 5 hours on the Friday through the week and had Friday off.

Not everyone works a 9-5, Mon-Fri type of job (I don't anymore) but those that do could easily do their hours over 4 days and I think a 5-2 split creates imbalance in your life but a 4-3 would be far better for families and personal health (as long as you don't spend it getting hammered).

I do things with the wife and kids on a weekend but if we had a Friday off with the kids in school we could do things as a couple.

Even if I still did a 40hr a week job I would prefer 10hrs over 4 days than 8 hrs over 5

But even though this is my preferred choice I actually think we all should have flexible hours to some degree.
We have to fit our lives around our jobs but it should be the other way around.

when I worked 40 hrs a week for this firm it was the type of job where it did not matter when I did the hours even though they were fixed. As long as I did the hours it would not have mattered to the company really as it did not effect operations.

Originally posted by Kram09
reply to post by QMask

 

The human race should get machines and robots to do all the work.

I agree and I think their are plenty of jobs which could easily be handled by robots or machines. But then who would maintain those machines? Maybe the worker whose job the machine is taking on?

Well, let's take that one step further....

Imagine working from home.. and all you do is watch a monitor and think about controlling a machine..
not possible?
Well it could be..
In this video you'll see a 'mind controlled skateboard'.. (starts at 1.17)
Could this be the future of production? An entire factory controlled by just a few people..from their homes.. The only time you'd need anyone in the factory is if a part breaks or the machine gets stuck/stopped for some reason..

I used to work night shift at a timber yard around here once, 4 days a week, 10 hours a night, 3 days off.. start at 3pm and finish at 1am. mon-thurs, but it was working with a good team, and the work was engaging enough as we came up with way to be more efficient than the day shift guys. lol..

But that was a good deal I think, 4 days on, 3 off. It's a pity that work ended.

4 days of work per week is still a lot, we want to be free!

reply to post by Shuye


Yes...be free... run to the hills and shout out how free you are..

Then go home (a structure someone worked to build) sit on your sofa and put your feet up (on something someone made) and have your dinner... (which someone worked to grow, harvest, prepare and cook)

We know what you mean.. but it does make you ask what would actually get done if we had true freedom of going where we wanted, when we wanted and how.. would we revert to all out raiding and pillaging in order to sustain ourselves and family?

There's work, then there's work.. work for yourself and aid others for the greater good of all ..or work for a boss who tells you what to do, how, where and when and get peanuts back for it.. The 'commune' idea might be do-able on a grand scale, but we'd still need to have some form of commitment in order to help sustain everything and everyone, so a structure must be in place. Just do your part..

Originally posted by Extralien

Farmers work sun up to sun down.. how could they get a fair deal? Almost every other profession could have extra employees in order to cover 'off days'..

The way we've worked has reached a peak where we have to change or it'll all collapse.. but if we adopt a new system of part time work to reduce unemployment, this too will reach a peak..

So what to do? Extra day off or carry on slogging your guts out for little benefit to yourself?

Working patterns are based on agricultural models. We work daytime hours that are similar to farming communities and could perhaps be described as male-pattern working behaviour. The hours suit the so called traditional nuclear family with a stay at home mum/care-giver. The male/father/worker does not have to concern himself with domestic considerations as these are well attended to, leaving his time free to be exploited by his employer.

Changes to these patterns were introduced, first to increase production/profits for the factory owners' balance sheets as well as Treasury coffers through increased taxes due and then by the 'womens movement', who demanded flexibility in working hours and practices, largely because of lack of access to appropriate and affordable child care.

Since then, it has become widely recognised that a work/life balance is essential to general health and happiness and some employers will/do provide flexible working arrangements. It would be good to hear of any employer who has dared take this to it's, IMO logical conclusion; that a workforce is made up of diverse individuals with diverse abilities, idiosyncracies and personal responsibilities and empower their workers to select the working pattern that best suits them. I think that allowing complete freedom of choice to the worker, employers may be suprised to see increased production as worker who are 'owls' could man the night shifts, mum's the school hours, students the tea-time shifts etc.

All the religious stuff aside, I think spreading the job pool out is going to be a necessary component of the massive automation of manufacturing that is taking place. But that's not happening, and its obvious why.

CEOs want to keep all the profits of automation for themselves and instead of spreading the work and profit among many people, employees are fired and put on the street. I have always wondered why people insist on a 40 hour work week like its written in stone somewhere that "thou shalt work 40 hours a week, or thou shalt not work at all" and lightning is going to strike if this commandment is broken.

It all comes down to the centralization of profit and benefit to those at the top, and to hell with the rest of us. I'm still waiting for when people get tired of this type of thinking and take what should rightfully be theirs.

In reality there is plenty of work to go around as we systematically rape the planet of its resources. Artificial scarcity is the name of the game though. It is a very powerful tool for control of large groups of people, or should I say, peons.

My work week consists of 36 hours one week 48 the next. I have every other weekend off. I get days off through the week to get things done as well. With vacation time I can take off more then a month at a time. It is awesome having a month off work and getting paid.

I work 12 hour shifts and it is rotating, meaning I work nights one set of shifts and days the next set.

Not sure how benificial it is for your health though. My health is good though, it is about listening to your body, getting exercise and sun, not to mention not eating fast food daily.


Raist

reply to post by Extralien

To me, there's not much difference between 30 and 50 hours per week. Both will make you feel more confident. Although the 50 hour work week might make you more fatigued.

But there's an enormous difference between being unemployed and doing 30/week. Being unemployed destroys your confidence in yourself. Nothing is worse than that for the economy.

I like 35. Seems right. But if people want to do 45 or 50, how can you stop them? And if enough are doing that then the people who're doing 35 will be made to feel ashamed. And if the companies start favoring the people who do 45 or 50 then it won't be long before 40 or 45 becomes the standard again. It all depends on how far people are willing to go on average.

Originally posted by Extralien


How do we define what is a 'day off'?
We wake in the mornings to get ready for work, then commute to work, work, commute home, replace lost energy and repeat the cycle 5, or in some cases, 6 days a week.. even nights..

The days of the week that are worked should be decided by local communities based on what is best for them.
The mentality that government needs to tell you when you can work or take a day off is ridiculous.

Just remembered this book published last year.

Top five regrets of the dying
A nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying, and among the top ones is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'.

*I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

*I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

*I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

*I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends

*I wish that I had let myself be happier

www.guardian.co.uk...

reply to post by teapot


Wonderful comments.. thank you for posting those..

Kinda ties in with todays news...

The former boss of Tesco has described the rise of supermarkets and closure of small shops as "part of progress".

More like cornering of the market by the big boy profiteers..

Sir Terry said seeing boarded up local shops was sad, but this happened because consumers were choosing to shop at the bigger supermarkets.

Partly due to the 'super cheap' offers the big boys give.. buy one get one free etc.. plus the big boys ability to obtain, or rather force, the buying price of their products so low that anyone else cannot compete.

The benefits of out-of-town stores outweighed the downsides, he added.

Only so for the petrol companies as people need to drive to get there and with more supermarkets being built it's just adding to the concrete jungle we see growing around us. with shops in towns closing, we're left with very little choice but to go to supermarkets.

The British Independent Retailers Association said 98% of the the UK's £150bn grocery industry was controlled by just nine stores.

I am not surprised..

He said as large chains such as HMV and Blockbuster closed, more retail premises would become available at cheaper rents.

www.bbc.co.uk...
but who has really got the money to go buying up the stock and setting up a business where they are instantly outpriced by the supermarkets and the internet?

does this guy have any real idea of what he is saying or what?

Then we see a big problem about to raise it's ugly head..

Some people on the government's welfare-to-work scheme are being inappropriately pushed towards self-employment, the BBC has learned.

It found they were being encouraged off unemployment benefit, so they can claim more money from working tax credits.

The work programme pays companies for helping people into sustained employment - including self-employment.

These 'back to work' scams...errr schemes.. appear to be juggling the numbers and getting people to do something they do not want to do or are incapable of doing.. all in order for these companies to get paid..
It amazes me as to how fast these companies suddenly sprang up.. the system was introduced and then, incredibly, there were companies ready and waiting to take on the roles..

the report is a bit misleading in places due to the possible inaccuracy of the 16 hours required to claim working tax credits.. (but it may depend on your situation) for as far as I know , it is 24 hours a week..

but...
some of these companies had, apparently, been suggesting to people to 'make up' the fact that they were working welf employed...when in fact, they were not able to.. so when the tax year ends and you havce to put in your tax report you may find yourself in a rather sticky situation..

CAB's Sue Royston warned: "Someone could have been receiving working tax credits for a year and at the end of the year the tax credit office could turn round and say that they were not realistically working in the expectation of earning - you owe us thousands of pounds."

www.bbc.co.uk...

I can see a breaking point on the horizon, but how far away is the horizon? It definitely seems like the system is all messed up and in dire need of a reform..