The Four-Day Work Week
Many local New Jersey government offices began instituting 4-day work weeks in July. Same number of hours worked, but on four, 10-hour days.
I love it—less gas use, less pollution, even less traffic. Great for the Earth.
Employees love it—more time at home. Don’t have to feel funny asking for personal times for appointments, etc. Saves gas money. Great for their families.
At first they claimed it was a temporary move, but they love the happier employees and increased productivity (that’s right, longer work days and increased productivity!). Now it seems many may keep the schedule even though gas prices have headed back down.
Bravo, New Jersey municipalities. I hear some other states are catching on to it, too.
Could your company do something so simple with so many levels of good to it? What’s stopping you?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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13 September 2008, 8:28 am
I love the idea of this. It seems like a win win for everyone. Now do you think that Schools would catch on next? The real win is if families could have that time together.
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post…A Letter to the World
13 September 2008, 9:09 am
Wendi,
Oh, can you imagine? School go two hours longer, and give kids a day off. Then parents don’t have to find after-school care, and a world transformation begins. OOOOH.
Of course they’d have to restructure the days a bit so kids wouldn’t climb the walls… here’s an idea, let the kids do their homework in the extra two hours, so nights don’t have to be characterized by homework battles…
LOL. Am I revealing too much of my own story? I love your idea!
Regards,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 9:56 am
Think of how excited and happy we all get, whenever we know there’s a three-day weekend coming up.
Now imagine this, EVERY WEEK.
The THINGS you could do with that extra day off…(Travel, hobbies, sports, catch up on house projects, or just RELAX). Wow.
Sign me UP!!!!
Maybe with escalating gas prices, there will be a push to make this a common place occurrence.
I just hope and pray that it does catch on (but I won’t hold my breath waiting for the Widget Factory jump on the Bandwagon).
13 September 2008, 10:37 am
@Kelly
“Could your company do something so simple with so many levels of good to it…”
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Sorry, I just had to laugh.
Our office space is so tight, they’re cramming people three to a room in some places. Putting cubicles in the cafeteria and portable trailers. The empty grocery store is being converted to a “campus”.
Parking is a nightmare, you sometimes have to walk half a mile (if you’re LUCKY). They’re not building any new lots. And bus service has been reduced (compared to several years ago).
There’s a simple solution to all this. Join the 21st century, and allow more telecommuting. Saves space. Saves parking. Saves gas.
I’ve asked supervisors and managers. I’ve brought this up in meetings. I even submitted this to “Ask the Executive” on-line. (So have many other people).
Nothing happens. They can’t, or won’t, listen.
“Thank you for your concerns…this, along with other options, is being evaluated”.
Heck, they won’t even give us lap-tops.
Yet that doesn’t stop them from lecturing us on saving the planet, carpooling, sharing the parking, recycling and to use ceramic coffee cups when going through drive-thru.
(Banging my head against the desk right now…BAM! BAM! BAM!)
13 September 2008, 12:32 pm
Friar,
You are not banging your head against the desk. You’re not at work now.
Okay, so telecommuting… nice idea, but what about productivity? I mean, I know at work you already check blogs on your “breaks,” so there’s a bit of productivity loss there. But…
A lot of folks talk to me about telecommuting and their concern is, how do I get the same work out of folks—or to really be precise, more work, because if we lose the interactions, which are part of a vital company, we need to gain something.
I can see where the 4-d WW was probably not too hard a sell, because everyone’s still there and visible, just when they’re there is different. And like I said, what I’ve heard and read about it is that productivity is up. Grateful employees using work time for more work, that’s something the boss can get behind.
The Invisible Staff, that’s a harder sell. What do you think?
Regards,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 1:07 pm
Kelly,
Let’s imagine this shall we?
All sports happen during the four days and are actually considered part of the curricullum. Sundays and weekends are given back to the families. Since all *homework* is done in school, no more chasing Johnny down for his ten missing assignments and his gap in learning. Because Ms. Smith has all of her assignments turned in at once she can actually keep her grade book up to date and keep on top of how her classroom is actually doing instead of only knowing one day before the end of the grading period.She can also actually spend time with students who are having trouble because she will be able to better identify the issues instead of just thinking they are *too lazy to do their homework*
Families can spend their time, although shorter, at nigh eating dinner together in a more peaceful manner,posible eatting dinner together or playing games, doing activities instead of getting dangerously close to biting each others heads off over homework squabbles night after night right up until bedtime.
Teachers will be less stressed because they will have an extra day to re-charge and will be more rejuvinated when they get back on Monday morning to inspire and educate our little darlings. They will therefore be more creative and more patient making the educational environment more conducive to learning for everyone.
Educational costs will go down because we will have to spend one entire day less on feading meals, lights, energy, bussing, janitorial expences and maintence. It could be argued that tax dollors would not need to change because the time spent in school is equal to time spent now so relatively unaltered.
As you have already mentioned, afterschool day care would be minimized and would take care of what has become an unfair burden on working class and underprivledged families all over.
What is not to like?
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post…A Letter to the World
13 September 2008, 1:22 pm
@Kelly
You’re right..I was banging my head figuratively.
This is an excellent topic for discussion, though.
As for productivity, I read a recent article in the paper that said productivity actually INCREASED when people worked at home.
I’m sure people would probably take more “breaks” at home. But then again, when you subtract the useless meetings, 45-minute safety seminars on how to recycle using Blue-Boxes, noisy offices and micro-managing bosses, in the long run, working from home would probably get more work done.
Free-Lance writers do it. Contractors do it. Consultants do it. Sales Reps do it. If companies are willing to shell out $$$$ and trust these people to work alone, why not us?
I’m not necessarily talking about being completely invisible. But even working a few days from home, here or there, as required, should be allowed. Especially if you work in an unreasonable noisy environment.
Like when I have deadlines, and I just need a few quiet hours to concentrate to get this document out. But my office mate decides to hold an impromptu MEETING at a table, SIX FEET away from me.
When I complained about it, my boss’s solution was to wear ear-muffs. (NO, I’m NOT kidding).
I guess they’d rather see you in your office, being unproductive, than to trust you as a professional and let you work unsupervised.
13 September 2008, 1:24 pm
By the way…
Didn’t they say (back in the early 80′s) that computers were supposed to shorten our workweek, and give us a “paperless” office?
That’s gonna happen very SOON, right?
13 September 2008, 1:50 pm
Wendi,
I am DROOLING. I may send a link to our school superintendent here.
Friar,
Send a link to your higher-ups. Between the 4-d WW and the telecommuting, you could be the hero who saves the Widget Factory from financial doom in these dark and stormy times. Thank goodness your real name isn’t here, you anonymous hero, you.
Paperless has been right around the corner since my parents were computer engineers in the 60s. With paper punch cards. I ain’t holdin’ my breath.
Love this discussion, you Saturday-thinkers!
Later,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 2:06 pm
@Kelly
Hah!
I’m old enough to have used punch-cards !!! (Back when I took computer science in High School in 1981!)
13 September 2008, 6:28 pm
When I first heard of companies doing 10-hr days for four day weeks, my first thought was that I feel bad for parents of small kids. Adding in a commute, that has to be a really late night and, well, babies go to sleep early. I wonder if having an extra day off really makes up for it?
Amy Derby’s last blog post…Fiction Friday: Sex with Ghosts, and other stories
13 September 2008, 7:41 pm
Friar,
The first thing I did on a computer was Basic, in a high school class in 1984. I distinctly remember programming it to show a smiley face (sort of like when you and your Widget cohort were drawing Homer Simpson here to no avail). No punch cards, thank goodness, though I knew what they were from my parents.
Then we learned Fortran and Cobol, I think, the next year. More pfft.
My Dad brought home one on the very first Macs the same year, and naturally, I never looked back.
Amy,
I’ll tell you, having had a little one what seems like yesterday, my feeling is this: they’re missing you and crabby at the end of an 8-hour day. (Probably 9-hour, with commuting.) Two more, about the same. So to me, remembering back, I’d be a happy New Jerseyite getting another day to see them without the comings and goings.
Of course if you can be your own boss, all the better.
But be thoughtful with the employees when they come along!
Until later,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 7:45 pm
I definitely think it’s a great option, for those who want it. I can see a lot of people from my old office not being to happy if they were forced into a four-day week with longer days. Most of those folks had at least an hour train ride (which turns into two hours when factoring in the walk to the train and the drive home from that station). My own secretary back then had trouble getting her sitter to stay till 7pm (the time she got home normally). With trains running only once an hour, she wouldn’t have been home until 10pm (nor would I have) with that schedule. Whether an extra day off would have made up for it, I don’t know. For me, and many of those folks, it wouldn’t have. And I wasn’t rushing home to a kid.
Amy Derby’s last blog post…Fiction Friday: Sex with Ghosts, and other stories
13 September 2008, 7:57 pm
Amy,
Yeah, being a car person, I don’t have that kind of commute. That’s already an icky day—plus in your old life, stated hours were never the actual hours, I’d guess. My lawyer’s para ought to have her own cot, for goodness’ sake. I don’t know how she does it.
Off-topic:
SO are you in at Rita’s? C’mon, you’d be a great detective/whatever! I’m gonna be a dead guy and a therapist. How’s that for crazy? (Does anyone know what I did with my three spare minutes per day? I think I’m going to need them…)
Later,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 8:04 pm
Yeah, we did sometimes sleep in the office. Seriously..
I laughed when I read you volunteered to be a dead dude.
I would totally do it, but I feel pretty zombie-like right now and not very creative. It would feel like work. Unless she needs a character that sounds like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoon on a Thorazine drip, I’m thinking I’d be pretty useless. But it does look like a lot of fun. I was tempted… But I think it’ll be just as much fun to watch. 
13 September 2008, 9:10 pm
@Kelly
Brett and I were talking about this. With a four day workweek, you could enforce that people will have to be there Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. Option to take off either Friday or Monday.
And DON’T schedule any meetings on Mondays or Fridays, for that reason.
It would probably be a good thing…people would schedule meetings more carefully, and not waste as much time. And regardless, you’d have one full day a week to do your work (meeting-free, with no distractions).
PS. COBOL…Fortran. Hahahah! (I used PASCAL myself!)
13 September 2008, 10:59 pm
Friar,
OMG I forgot Pascal.
Well, technically, I’ve forgotten all of them, but I mean I forgot it existed. Did I do Pascal or did my Dad show me it? I can’t remember. I think we did about a month or two on each in the second year of computers. Not enough to know anything, just enough to sound ed-y-cate-ed.
I could probably do something in Basic with a day of bushing up. It was so unbelievable, sitting in front of a computer that first year—the amazing feeling of “firsties,” you know—that Basic is stuck with me, sort of. But I wouldn’t want to!
Those computers were ugly as sin and dumber than an abacus but we all felt like we were Adam in Michelangelo’s painting, waiting for the finger of God. Maybe like the first day my parents saw t.v., except with computers—we were gonna do something with them!
And we do.
Amy,
(I love that teacher. Heroine of voiceless annoying people everywhere!)
Boo-hoo. You would shake things up, just what every murderous village needs.
It’s shaping up to be quite an interesting project, but I feel a lot of late nights coming on. I hope we all write fast once it gets underway, so I can bust it out and get back to normal… I wonder if I’ve ever been to normal? I’ll know when I get back….
Later,
Kelly
13 September 2008, 11:04 pm
There’s this awesome story called Autobiography by Carol Emshwiller, and in it’s there’s a great line that goes, “Once a doctor said I’d be 80 percent normal after my back operation. It’s hard to know what 80 percent normal feels like, but I guess that’s what I am.” She then goes on to say that as a mother she’s served longer than expected, that her daughter wants a goat, that if there’s a sunset over Brooklyn she’ll take beauty where she can find it, and that her mother wants her to write something nice she can show her friends. I friggen love that story.
Amy Derby’s last blog post…Hey Look! It’s Saturday! (and I got a present)
13 September 2008, 11:36 pm
Amy,
Had to look her up instantly: http://www.sfwa.org/members/emshwiller/ShortStories.html
Holy moly, she’s written a lot! I’m going to the library tomorrow with the little person, I’m going to see what they’ve got by her.
My back operations did not make me feel 80% normal.
“Doctor, will I be able to play the piano after the operation?”
“Sure thing.”
“That’s great, because I can’t play a note now.”
Ba-dum-dum.
Later…
13 September 2008, 11:38 pm
The book I have with her story in it is called Wild Women. It’s an anthology of short stories. Most of them are very good.
Amy Derby’s last blog post…Hey Look! It’s Saturday! (and I got a present)
14 September 2008, 8:10 pm
Kelly,
Way back when I was in Corporate, the 4-40 work week was an option for some employess, and they loved it. Here in Michigan some counties have also adopted the 4-40 work week and it is a huge hit. Many companies are also now on board with the distributed work force, and I expect that trend to grow (hold tight Friar!). I love Wendi’s idea about school, a passion I have been preaching for years. Korean schools have longer hours and there are American alternative schools who successfully employ this method. It is so much saner to have the kids in school ALL day, do homework there and come home to actual time with the family rather than 4 hours of homework!
Karen Swim’s last blog post…What I Learned About Life from My Friends
14 September 2008, 8:11 pm
Crud, I hate it when I catch my typo when it’s too late to edit! That would be employees.
Karen Swim’s last blog post…What I Learned About Life from My Friends
14 September 2008, 8:39 pm
Kelly,
After giving birth to my second child, I went on to a “flexible schedule:” I worked 30 hours in 3 days at the office, and 10 hours at home. It was THE BEST TIME I could ever have. Before that, I always had felt that I needed to be in the “other place,” no matter where I was. This schedule made me MORE productive at work – I ended up giving them a 40 hour workweek by working more EFFICIENTLY in the office, and they ended up giving me 10 hours of work at home that I could do when the children were asleep – if they gave it to me at all. They got more, I drove less, saving all of that commuter time, and most importantly, I had more time with my children. Best job EVER!
Rita
14 September 2008, 9:34 pm
Amy,
Went to library. Their computer system was down, and we couldn’t look up the book, but I am on it, because you’ve got me curious. Later this week, me and Wild Women. Sounds good.
Karen,
My daughter is in an accelerated program with homework that is unbelievable. She loves it and wouldn’t trade it, but she’s always been in it, so I think, she wouldn’t trade it because she doesn’t know anything else. A little family time at night for the little lady and me… what a fantasy. Maybe I’ll move to Korea.
Rita,
Boy, do I know what you mean about always thinking about being in the other place. I’m happy whereever I am, but still thinking, would my time be better used by being with the kid/ being back at work right now? Such a dilemma.
Wow oh wow. You all have really got me thinking about telecommuting and productivity. This is a great discussion. Friar, you should work where Rita did. Sounds like they’ve got it figured out there.
Until later,
Kelly
15 September 2008, 9:08 am
@Kelly
My sister earns a comfortable six-figure-plus salary as a technical sales engineer.
She has to travel a lot.
But at least half her job involves sitting at the computer at home, talking on a headset, with the dog lying at her feet. It’s been like this for years.
It CAN be done.
Friar’s last blog post…Beatle Songs that Suck
15 September 2008, 10:58 am
At the discretion of our supervisor we can work compressed work weeks. In other words, extended hours and short Fridays, or every other Friday off. Unfortunately, granting this is totally at the whim of the supervisor. Mine believes that managers should be on site 5 days per week. So, what did his managers do all Summer? Left early each Friday on vacation leave. And we were resentful. SIGH.
Urban Panther’s last blog post…Grease monkey or hair goddess?
15 September 2008, 11:47 pm
Friar,
I smell a nepotism opportunity!
Panther,
Tax managers? I mean, you’re not putting out fires or something, right? So if it’s offered in your corner of Widgetville, because somewhere higher up they decided you could get your work done on a compressed schedule, what on Earth is wrong with your supervisor? Most folks don’t have the option, but you have the option dangled in front of your nose and can’t make use of it.
Yeah, I blame the supervisor, but you know, it was a dumb decision to make that a division by division policy. Either you offer it, or not. Otherwise it’s just asking for little dictators to use it as a bludgeon.
The tales of the Widget Factories never fail to astonish me.
Later,
Kelly
17 September 2008, 7:31 am
My husband tried this one summer and didn’t like it. He found that the four days were unbearably long and he couldn’t keep up his concentration (he works at a desk all day). I think ten hour days could work nicely for some jobs, but not all.
Karen Putz’s last blog post…Wordless Wednesday–Beautiful Columbine
17 September 2008, 7:59 am
Karen,
I appreciate hearing another side to it. I work a lot of 10-hour days myself, but I don’t sit in one place all day. I can definitely see where that could get tedious.
Welcome, and thanks for your comment!
Regards,
Kelly