A Good Idea That Will Conserve Energy and Protect The Environment: 4 Day Work Weeks

[Yavin4]

Give businesses a tax break if they switch to a 4 day work week for their employees. They could still operate 5 days a week if they stagger the days off. This would save energy because it would take a lot of cars off the road.

[redqueen]

1. and it should increase employment

reduced productivity = higher employment

executive pay should be CUT to finance this

[Warpy]

2. Nurses were sold on the idea of the 12 hour shift, three days a week

a long time ago.

Then they brought in mandatory overtime, 12 hours at a time, at mangement's convenience.

You get a lot more exhausted working 12 hours than you do 8.

Companies need to be policed to make sure they are not forcing employees to exceed that 40 hour workweek against their will.

They will work us to death any way they can. You know that.

[tk2kewl]

3. Let's make it 3!

:bounce:

[Uncle Joe]

4. They could have 10 hour workdays instead of 8

and still have a 40 hour work week.

Kicked and recommended, good idea Yavin.

[Yavin4]

5. Or, People Could Work From Home For One Day

I thought that was the whole purpose of the internet any way.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Exactly, I believe as the Internet grows,

it could prove to a be a major part of the solution to the threat of Global Warming.

I don't believe there will be a single answer to this problem, there will be many, however a flexible work week such as you mention is definitely a good idea.

[Occulus]

6. It's a good idea, but try implementing it

I work for USPS. We now have the contractual option of "working with management" to establish 'four tens' as an option the employees of the local can exercise.

It's not happening, even though we have the "option". But then, the USPS is the most fundamentally mismanaged company I've ever worked for- most Saturdays, for example, find me with literally nothing at all to do for most of the day. Now, in a "regular" business, the employee would likely be allowed leave without pay if there's nothing at all to do.

Not so in the USPS. In that company, using leave without pay only proves that employees are not needed, and therefore, new hiring doesn't occur. Our supervisors actually get in a heap of trouble for authorizing LWOP, even though it saves money on the slow days.

And on the heavy days, we don't have the help we need. I work on the Low Cost Tray Sorter, or LCTS (I refer to this often as the Cheap-Ass Tray Sorter by Accu-Sort Systems, aka the CATS ASS). This is a machine that requires lots of people when there's a good bit of work to do; on weekends, if there's a lot of mail, I often get to work it all alone (it's work for four or five people, too).

Sorry to rant, but sometimes I gotta wonder what postal managers are thinking....

[Yavin4]

8. No Business Would Be Forced To Do This

and not every business can do this. Also, this won't be available to every employee within a business. However, if we can get say 25% of the businesses out there to do this, it would make a huge difference with our energy usage and our environment.


I do all of my work on a computer. I could easily do my job from home one day a week. There's no need for me to travel every day to the office, and the same goes for my co-workers. Most of us could stay home and work.

[redqueen]

10. Yep... with so many jobs computer-centric, it just makes sense.

:kick:

[canetoad]

9. Great idea and other benefits too

I only do a couple of days a week now and some home-time, but a while back I had the opportunity to organise my own work schedule, so I opted for Mon - Thurs, doing longer hours. This meant a three day weekend every single week.

What I liked most about this scheme was it kept up the job enjoyment level, the working week did not have the dreaded Wednesday - when you know there is still as much ahead as there is behind.

When you think of how a 2 day weekend is spent, at least one day goes on discharging duties, cleaning, maintenance, shopping, bill paying - all that personal stuff which is really work anyway. That leaves 1 day to get the job out of your head and I don't think it's enough.

I used to go back on Mondays feeling as though I'd really had a break. Now, sigh, every weekend is 5 days :)