Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut in output

Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by kokokokoko on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @04:14PM (#19202855)

In an employment "at will" state(Oregon is one), there really is no such thing as a set amount of days. You could get 15 days off and be fired for taking 4 days off in the year.

So even if you have a set number of days, your manager can still fire you for taking them. Your manager can fire you or not fire you for any reason. So you could take 30 days off and not get fired if your manager doesn't want to.

With "at will" employment there really aren't any concrete rules in play. Everything is just at the discretion of the employer. Regardless of the employee handbook, PTO or really anything. You could be fired for coming in too early. Coming in too late. Not working on the weekends. Working on the weekends. Probably even something as silly as gaining too much weight. Really anything unless it is within a few specific protected classes such as race or sex.

The only variable that exists is whether or not the terminated employee would qualify for unemployment benefits.

Edit: I should mention this is US specific as most US states have "at will" employment laws.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by rhizome on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @05:13PM (#19203397)

You could get 15 days off and be fired for taking 4 days off in the year

For doing something that is specified in the employment agreement? Pretty sure that would fall under fraud/misrepresentation.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by kokokokoko on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @05:16PM (#19203414)

Absolutely not. I would encourage you to look into "at will" employment law in the US. The employee may have a case for receiving unemployment benefits in that situation, but it is completely within the legal rights of the employer to do that in the US if the state has employment "at will".

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by rhizome on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @08:57PM (#19213896)

I would encourage you to look into "at will" employment law in the US

What makes you think I haven't, are you saying that there is no fraud exception? You don't go into any detail to support your "absolute" confidence.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by sgc on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @11:23PM (#19205491)

It would be stupid though. They are better just firing for no reason.

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Re:Four-day week trial: study finds lower stress but no cut ... by CalRobert on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @02:49AM (#19206349)

Sure, but my point was that guidelines to expected pto help to make it clear what would be generally ok or not. Also unlimited pto means no cash out if indeed you are fired.

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