
Monday, June 17, 2002
The time for the four-day work week is now upon us
If Americans stopped to think about the structure of the work week, there would be a revolt on a scale not seen since Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lost their heads.
At some point, it was decided that we should spend five of the seven days of the week working, and only two of them relaxing. For every day we are free, we have to put in 2.5 days at work. I'm no John Nash, but there are clearly some corrupt governing dynamics here.
I know we take our structure from the biblical notion that God worked six days and set aside one to rest, but that was before cable TV, the NFL, Xbox and DVDs made demands on our time.
Why are we working the same hours set by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938? Why aren't we working 32 hours, four days a week?
Imagine what you could do with an extra 52 days off each year. With a four-day workweek:
.
More jobs might be created, by businesses that must be open certain hours.
Companies closed an extra day each week would save on janitorial services, energy bills and increasing security costs.
As stress falls, so might disability claims.
There would be less absentee time, as employees could schedule doctor and personal appointments on their extra day off.
Morale would improve, which always benefits productivity.
Less commuter cars would reduce emissions and road rage.
You could do more mental and physical self-improvement, more family contributions, and more volunteer work in your community.
I could stay up later on Sunday flipping between TV stations.
A 1994 Wall Street Journal article by Gilbert Fuchsberg compiled the perceived disadvantages of a four-day work week, but repeating them here doesn't help my cause, so you'll have to look them up on your own, which you could do in a better mood if you only had to work four days a week.
Henry Ford knew when to put the breaks on. Ford, who was no softie, said a shorter work week was a smart business decision. In 1926, he took his factories from six-day weeks to five-day weeks, and said, "The harder we crowd business for time, the more efficient it becomes. It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either `lost time' or a class privilege."
There are a few groups working nationally to advance the four-day workweek. Much of their philosophy strays into libertarian, socialist, communist or National Public Radio territory, but I'm only going to quote them on points that help make my case, so don't worry about it.
32 Hours (http://www.web.net/32hours) makes its case: "The 40-hour work week was designed for men with stay-at-home wives. Today, many women and men are struggling to hold down full-time jobs and manage their personal, family, and community responsibilities. This `time crunch' has negative effects on our mental and physical health and on those who depend on us. Shorter work hours would give us more time -- for ourselves, our families and our communities."
FourHourDay.org ponders, "The computer and other minor miracles have opened glorious opportunities for a reduction of our drudgery, yet nothing of the kind has happened. Modern life remains a headlong rush into long commutes, two-income families, late nights at work, and exhausting recreation. How could this be? What is it about our collective personality that drives us over this cliff?"
The Shorter Work-Time Newsletter (http://www.swt.org) and Timesizing.com also offer cogent arguments in favor of a four-day week.
Ford knew more evolution was required. "The five-day week is not the ultimate, and neither is the eight-hour day," he said. "Probably the next move will be in the direction of shortening the day or the week."
As King Louis XVI would say, life is cut short. Why not make more of what little time we have? Write me and we'll talk about it. I'll be here Monday through Thursday
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Saturday, June 08, 2002
helloTallah
The rarity that anyone actualy is given the link to this site is so unlikly that its actually worth mentioning. Tell me what you think in the forum so that I can actually pretend that anyone ever goes there ;).....
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Saturday, June 01, 2002
So as it turns out all I get to do these days is avoid my roommates... Oh listen there trying to get in the door now... God there reading over my shoulder.
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Sunday, May 19, 2002
Don't read!!! eyes will bleed!:
So I'm Looking around and I find this site called "Angry news" and there's only one logical thing I can say to someone doing what I'm doing only before I ever got a chance to. That's that if you list to my apples in the store by the lost ways of the last days, this happens to the worst cars at the malls of our loves!!! you must not hate pealing your music trough the front heads. Now I just think I want to motion to the kittens that its all in the way you say it forwards so no reading the other parts in a sink or a Drano lobsterman mood of the middle of our souls... Worked up in the last place with the public display of my factions in a tuba pant sales for the sake and service capacities. delivering a friendly and familiar atmosphere for family dinning!!!
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Friday, May 17, 2002
Blogger:
Blogger? Yes Blogger now I've gone and done it. I can never touch this page again without extensive alterations. That's good news and bad. At least now I won't ever have to mess with the coding again, that's the good news and the bad all in one. You see now that everything's set threes no longer a reason to try to perfect these pages. Yet here is the plus side, Yes there's a plus side. I can now update this page from anywhere on the planet. Without thinking about it and no I haven't just contradicted myself....;)
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