- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
- cross-posted to:
- usa@midwest.social
Experiments with a shorter workweek have shown that shown that working fewer hours improves worker well-being and productivity. But we can’t expect employers to implement this transformative change of their own volition.
No. I’m senior management, I work a 4-day week. So does my boss, and my boss’s boss. Not always the same 4 days, but we’re all doing it. And things still get managed, how about that?
Like, say, restaurants, which have always had extreme shift flexibility? Try doing that.
I worked in one of those industries. There is no business I know of where billable hours are exactly the same as staff hours. In this model, there’s no reason the price of a billable hour would necessarily change.
First of all, I have no reason to believe that you work in the exact kind of environment you’re using to support your argument.
I can just as easily claim that I work in an industry that absolutely proves a four-day workweek will not function. The difference is that I am actually offering reasons why it would not work in many sectors, while you have largely refused to address those concerns directly.
I’ve also freely admitted that a four-day workweek is possible in some industries. My position has never been that it is impossible everywhere. My position is that it is not practical for most industries.
A four-day workweek is not the solution to the broader problems workers are facing. The real issues are stagnant wages, rising costs of living, and the fact that the federal minimum wage is still only $7.25 per hour. Even the $15 per hour standard many companies have adopted is no longer enough to live comfortably in much of America. We have privatized healthcare, skyrocketing housing costs, and politicians who are allowed to trade stocks while in office, which is insane to me.
The amount of time people work is often less important than how much they are paid for that time. If wages increased substantially and people could actually afford a decent standard of living, far fewer people would be complaining about working five, six, or even seven days a week.
There is also a widespread misconception among managers that productivity means employees must be productive every second they are on the clock. In reality, what matters is the amount of work completed, not whether every minute of every day is being maximized.
A four-day workweek may be a viable option in certain industries, but it is not a universal solution. And the fact that you personally have not encountered problems related to billable hours, staffing, scheduling, or labor coverage is not evidence that those problems do not exist.