As I sat enjoying the rest and relaxation that comes with the Memorial Day holiday, I wondered why we can’t find a way to make three-day weekends a part of our city’s culture. I know it doesn’t seem possible, but think about it hypothetically for a moment. What if we only worked 4 days each week? Would our city benefit? Yes!
Let’s say a company wanted to relocate here. They would have to abide by the four-day workweek. They would have the best and the brightest employees breaking down their doors to get work. Employees would work hard on those four days, knowing they have one less day to do the work. Because, as anyone who has worked in business knows, more time at the office through having more workdays just means more time to surf the Internet, chat to the friend in the next cube and more coffee breaks. More isn’t always better. (I suspect that City Hall workers already abide by the four-day workweek, judging by how long it takes to get things done in that building.)
With three-day weekends, people would know they had more than two days to get things done around the house, run errands and sleep in, and they would go out and spend more of their hard-earned (or not so hard-earned) money. That would mean the bars and restaurants in San Jose would be crowded on more days. Wednesday night would feel like a Thursday (with only one more day to go), Thursday night would be the new Friday night, and Friday would be a bonus day. I can see the money rolling in right now, and the restaurants that would be vying for real estate in this “four-day workweek kind of town.” No more subsidies for this city!
Also, people would have more time with their kids, lead better and more productive lives and probably live longer because they would have less stress and more sleep.
So what—besides common sense, greed, money and power—is stopping us?
Some employers already do this. It’s referred as working “4-10s”, i.e. 4 days/10hours per day. If more companies adopted this practice, it could help alleviate traffic congestion, as people would only have to go to work 4 days per week. Some other employers do modifications to this theme, like closing every other Friday. As you can see from their calendar, the City of Palo Alto does this:
http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/cals/default.asp
While 4/10s and alternate Friday closings might be a good idea, employers should be allowed to run their business as they see fit. Hence, I object to “They would have to abide by the four-day workweek.” Government should not be dictating to private employers on how to schedule their employees. But I have no problem if government wants to encourage this, as long as it’s strictly voluntary.
I also think that telecommuting is a good idea and should be encouraged.
I’d rather have Mondays be the 3rd day of the weekend. Studies have shown that the Sunday blues set in early, as everybody hates the thought of Monday and it ends up wrecking their Sunday. Plus, lots of people are already off on Monday since many restaurants and barbers/hair salons are closed. That leaves Fridays intact as the day to do less at work, essentially reducing the work week to 3 days. Now that sounds like something I could handle.
When science conquers ‘sleep’, we will all be able to take drugs that lets us control our sleep cycles.
What this means: Stay up for 40-50 hours, your employers owns you for 2-3 days a week. Your family gets you the other 4 days. Sleep off one day, three days weekends for everyone!
We’ll be able to work in shifts on construction related projects. We’ll be able to more efficiently use land and business space (not to mention schools) by moving to shift usage. 24-hour business cycles, news, entertainment.
(1.) Yes, some companies now offer 4-10 and (2.) I believe one can often choose between taking Friday or Monday off.
Flextime is an option that would help to alleviate traffic problems. I worked at a company that allowed me to do 9:30-6:30 and my commute was a piece of cake.
Telecommuting is another option with the potential to save a lot of gasoline, but surprisingly a lot of local companies are rather resistant to it. I say surprisingly because currently a lot of business activity is moving onto the net, and surely in Silicon Valley we should realize that an employee can conduct such business without being physically present in a cubicle every day of the week.
Perhaps a good idea for a start-up would be to develop a cubicle-occupying robot employee whose actions are controlled by a telecommuting person at home!
I currently have fairly flexible work hours and I like to take Friday off to run errands, avoiding the crowds, and then work on Saturdays when there are fewer people around to waste my time.
I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that employer-employee relations are basically controlled by the state. I think that cities are pretty limited in what they could require along these lines, and as per (1.) it might not be such a good idea.
On the other hand, encouraging flexibility is a good idea and could be a big help in reducing commute delays and reducing gasoline consumption and air pollution.
I’d really just be happy if we all got a standard 6 weeks of vacation every year as is the case in Europe. Here in the U.S. many people work long hours and get so little time off that there is no chance to ever really enjoy life. In that regard, this country is one of the more backward of the industrialized nations. Here in the Bay Area in particular, there is so much to enjoy and yet nobody has the time. Employers have made people feel guilty about taking any time off, or workers dread the backlog of work that will await if they do go on vacation. It’s a travesty and corporate America should be ashamed, very ashamed. Oh wait. Corporate America has no shame.
#6
What is really bad is the way that high-tech companies have abused the exempt employee classification. They have turned it into meaning that high-tech workers are suppossed to work 50-60 hours a week, every week.
The additional problem is that they bring in H1-B workers who know that if they do not work 50-60 hours a week they will lose their visa, and have to go back.
So, between the exempt employee classification, and the H1-B employees, the high-tech industry is now a sweat shop for slave workers.
They’re enjoying “7 day weekends” over at the Sobrato Tower. Or shall I say, Downtown San Jose’s monument to failure, collapse, and “rolling over.” No Oracle/BEA ensures a ghost tower for the foreseeable future. Anyhow, where people do work SG, three-day weekends do sound awesome!
I wonder if there are any cost savings associated with doing a mandatory city-wide 9/80 schedule?