Is it time to consider a four-day work week?

[LC EFA]

Primitives trying to look like they care about the unemployed while seeking to attain their goals of more lazy for more money.

olegramps  (638 posts)    Sun Jan-25-09 09:23 AM
Original message
Is it time to consider a four-day work week?
   
The need to create jobs could be greatly alleviated by reducing the 40 hour work week. I would be interested in other people's opinion on the effect this could have on the economy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4907291

What about those people that want to work more hours ? Are you going to prevent them from doing so ? Sounds like just another wonderful plan to keep everyone as poor as each other to me.

eilen  Donating Member  (798 posts) Sun Jan-25-09 09:44 AM
Response to Reply #1
5. Four day work weeks
   
allow for more people employed. It means less pay but you at least keep benefits. There is still 5 days of work but the work is shared.

Students can easily fill in the 5th day with research, field work/field trips and enrichment. Most high schools have a schedule similar to universities now anyway. (Science MWF, Lab on T,Th) My son's schedule is in 6 day cycles.

Doctors... well different doctors do different things but I have not seen one that actually performs surgery straight for 8 hours unless it is a special circumstance. It happens but they don't do it every day. Most only schedule their surgeries two days a week, the rest of the time is seeing patients. There are so many shortages of doctors in certain specialties it would be impossible for them to work a four day work week but then again, they are professional level and like self employed people, they put in an over abundance of hours to either build their client base/practice/business or service the one they have built. If the AMA opened more medical school slots as well as speciality residencies and if the cost of the education was not so crippling ($200,000 debt by the time you are done), many doctors would not be so overworked.

Low paying jobs are mostly part time by design.

4 day work week, but you still have 5 days of work. Hmmm. Someone hasn't thought this through very well have they.

Shiver  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)    Sun Jan-25-09 09:31 AM
Response to Original message
2. Not unless they double my pay
   
I'm lucky if I get thirty-two hours a week, and even then I barely make enough to pay all my bills. It's near impossible to save up for anything - like the dental work I needed done four months ago - on my paychecks as is.

That art appreciation degree is really paying itself off.

Lastlaughin08  (1000+ posts) Sun Jan-25-09 09:37 AM
Response to Original message
3. I don't understand why we still have the "business day"
   
This mindset that only the serious stuff gets done between 9 and 5 is so bogus.

I'd love to see a four day work week. Why not?

That's 4 days more than you usually work. Sure you're up for it ?

glowing  Donating Member  (1000+ posts)  Sun Jan-25-09 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
4. I would say, what would be better is to cut the time in each work week.
   
The avg. work week should be perhaps 30hrs/ week. This way anything over that time is overtime.. AND adjust everything including min wage etc for this adjustment. The reality is families now consist of 2 persons out of the house per week. You barely get home and make dinner or head to a soccer game before your head hits the pillow and the next day begins. Our way too busy lives need more free time to spend with the family. But if you do this, we would have to change our trade policies. We would have to insist that trading countries adhere to the same qualities of life that we wish our own citizens to have.

Obama really wishes to usher in a wave of vollunteerism and community involvement. This cannot happen when a household has two adults out of the house 40+ hrs a week to scrape together enough to pay bills. AND with a little extra time, people could take classes and re-train or increase their training. People can give back to their community. People can have more time to excercize and eat healthier. Its time to have some damn time. AND with as many people experiencing massive amts of time off, they are realizing how much time is consumed away from loved one's and away from doing things they like as hobbies or whatever. Its time to have 4wk vacations, pd. time off for having children or attending to an illed loved one, and its time to work on our relationships again.

We have an opportunity to change the way we do many things. Our capitalistic sick society is breaking down. This is the time to involve ourselves into demanding time. We are not born to work ourselves to death. We are born to experience life. Life won't find you inside a cubicle box or stuck working your butt off. We can be what we want and we can change things the way we want them.

You think it's bad now, just wait for the EUro-peon style socalisim you're advocating is implemented.

Here's the thing. If you really want a four day working week, feel free to set up your own company that only operates 4 days a week. Lemme know when it's failed and you're disabused of this fantasy.

In the meantime don't attempt to dictate to anyone how long they are allowed to work or how much they're paid for said work.

[Carl]

We would have to insist that trading countries adhere to the same qualities of life that we wish our own citizens to have.

Just how do you propose to do that DUmbass?

Gonna call up China,Korea,India and give them an ultimatum?
Yeah,bet that will work.

Idiots,don`t have even a basic understanding of economics or world affairs yet they claim to be the super intellectuals entitled to rule over all humanity. 

[NHSparky]

I work a 4-day week, every other week.

I do this because of a 9/80 schedule.  Work 9 hours every Mon-Thu, and 8 every other Friday.  Alternate Fridays off.

So yeah, I'm helping--myself.

And if cutting back hours is so wonderful, ask the French how much they like 12-14 percent unemployment.

[jtyangel]

They are called 4 x 10's dummies...Companies have been using them for a while...do the math...that's right...still 40 hours a week, but it affords you an extra day off. Somehow though I think you all wanted 4 x 4's instead of 4 x 10's lazy idiots!

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

They are called 4 x 10's dummies...Companies have been using them for a while...do the math...that's right...still 40 hours a week, but it affords you an extra day off. Somehow though I think you all wanted 4 x 4's instead of 4 x 10's lazy idiots!

I would love to do 4 x 10's. As it stands now I do 5 of them!

[jtyangel]

I would love to do 4 x 10's. As it stands now I do 5 of them!

That's one difference between you and the DUmmies in that thread...I'm sure not the only

[Chris_]

I would love to do 4 x 10's. As it stands now I do 5 of them!

That's how it is in my office.  If they cut us back to 4 days, we'd all have to work 4 - 12's + to keep up.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

I have to work at least 70 hrs/week, usually 80 to 90 with an odd 120 thrown in every other month. Since the price of gas dropped we've only been allowed to work 54 hrs/week.

These idiots would bankrupt me in a month with a France-esque 35 hr week.

[franksolich]

Given the way the primitives perceive things, one suspects most of them at this bonfire thinks the idea involves working 32 hours and but still being paid for 40.

[JohnnyReb]

I worked 10 to 16 hours a day, 6 & 7 days a week for 40 years...I was self employed.

There's so much stupid in the DUmmies....you'd have to write a book to address it all.

[Strider]

no way are the primitives gonna work 2 more days a week!!!

[USA4ME]

Here's the thing. If you really want a four day working week, feel free to set up your own company that only operates 4 days a week. Lemme know when it's failed and you're disabused of this fantasy.

Uh oh, you're asking them to put their money (or lack thereof) where their mouth is and prove to us how it would work by actually doing it first.  How dare you ask them to sacrifice their time, blood, and sweat, to prove their point, you fascist.

.

[Flame]

I worked 10 to 16 hours a day, 6 & 7 days a week for 40 years...I was self employed.

There's so much stupid in the DUmmies....you'd have to write a SERIES ofbook to address it all.

fixorated

[Splashdown]

I think afternoon naps should be federally mandated, too, while they're at it.

[Flame]

I think afternoon naps should be federally mandated, too, while they're at it.

Can I have my nap in the morning?  IF I nap too late in the day, I just don't sleep well at night!

[Splashdown]

Can I have my nap in the morning?  IF I nap too late in the day, I just don't sleep well at night!

There'll be a few forms you'll need to fill out and have notarized, but I think we can arrange a nap variance.

[dutch508]

let me think about this for a moment:


In at 0630, out at 1700. 10.5 hours a work a day. 1 hour off for lunch, so really 9.5 hours a day, five days a week. 47.5 hours per week, minimum,

because I am in usually 1.2 hour prior and leave around 17.30 to 18.00. Once a month a pull a Weekend shift of 0600 to 1800. Then there are TDYs, late conference calls, early meetings, etc etc etc. Average about 50 to 60 hours a week. Not bad, and I consiter that typical for most working class joes.

Now, this is in what is not a deployable unit, but a major command headquarters.

When I was at BH, we were working 7 days a week, on call 24 hours a day, usually putting in 18 hour days. We did that for two years with a two week break once a year. I almost wanted to go back to iraq, just to get some down time.

A four day work week would do what for the DOD? Nothing.

[jukin]

Just spreading the misery around equally.

[Crazy Horse]

I've been working 10 hour days six days a week for the past months.............along with rotating shifts.  We still need to work more.

Yep Dutch, this does nothing for the DoD

[jtyangel]

Given the way the primitives perceive things, one suspects most of them at this bonfire thinks the idea involves working 32 hours and but still being paid for 40.

Oh there is no doubt of that, frank. That is most certainly what they are speculating is a 4 x 8 work week versus a 4 x 10.

[Karin]

There are a surprising number of people who really do believe that with the ushering in of the Age of Obama, we should have tremendous quality of life gains.  "We should be able to LIVE LIFE FULLY, not worry about where the next paycheck or meal is coming from," as one ebullient worshipper put it.  I wonder if she or her kids are getting hungry yet? 

I notice that one of the DU posters above who complained about just barely making bills, is that  she is a donating member to the DU. 

[jtyangel]

There are a surprising number of people who really do believe that with the ushering in of the Age of Obama, we should have tremendous quality of life gains.  "We should be able to LIVE LIFE FULLY, not worry about where the next paycheck or meal is coming from," as one ebullient worshipper put it.  I wonder if she or her kids are getting hungry yet? 

I notice that one of the DU posters above who complained about just barely making bills, is that  she is a donating member to the DU. 

Well believing that means no longer believing in oneself. What we are seeing is a group of individuals who have abrogated their freedom to make their own lives 'quality' and are sitting on their hands instead waiting for something to happen to them. AS someone who is about to graduate college and has lost a considerable amount of weight in the last year,through my own willingness to unaffix my ass from its place of comfort and grab the opportunities that were laid before me, i say get off your ass your pathetic leaches and do something for you own damn self. Nobody ever promised life would be easy or that everyone would be 'equal'(in pay, time off, etc) just because they exist. Our choices in life dictate our own financial equality at some point and that's a hard reality to accept if you've made some bad mistakes along the way, but you can't change anything unless you accept the crappy choices and move forward. You can't change how you rparents raised you or where you grow up or damage done along the way, but you certainly are afforded every opportunity in this great nation to turn those circumstances on their heals. I think what makes me saddest is that the generation we are seeing now watched their parents send this poisonous message of 'can't do nothin' and those parents largely did it out of their own selfish desire not to look like such a loser in their childrens' eyes. Now we have a nation fueled on this defeatism and gimme gimme gimme for nothing. Once again, God help us!