I find even in the best jobs, there's a general level of stress that builds up at work over consecutive days. There's a great feeling being a bit stressed on Tuesday and thinking "ah it's ok I've got tomorrow off". It's like that "Friday Feeling" twice a week.
I preferred the large block of time off, I found that I enjoyed Friday-Sunday more knowing I had a bonus day on Monday to relax - I could really pack in stuff over the weekend without worrying about being exhausted back at work. And I found the Wednesday off just felt... wasted. Nobody else was free, nobody really wants to do things on Wednesday, and I wasn't tired enough to want a day of doing nothing.
Also, sometimes I need a few days momentum to get something over the line and two days is often not enough. Anyway, just my 2p, more to the point I would totally jump at the chance to have a 4 day week permanently.
Specifically, when I go to my GP, the staff are always busy, don't appear to get much of a break at all. I doubt a half day on a Wednesday makes up for extra hours put into their job just to get through the week.
The downside of the two day (Th and F) block when I wasn't around was that it was hard to contribute to projects that needed high levels of ad-hoc customer interaction. This actually meant I had to walk away from a couple of projects that were technically appealing, but I was at the point in my career (hence three-day week) where life-work balance was a higher priority, so this wasn't a hard decision.
Part of my decision on the timing was also influenced by discussion with women in the company who came back to a three day week after maternity leave. They pointed out the pros and cons of the various options and made it easier for me to pick the right option from the outset.
I’m sure my perspective will change after we are out of the needy kid stage, but even before my son was born, I liked working (I would spend Saturday mornings at work, obviously impossible now) and would carefully select jobs that I would like doing. In addition to, or besides, perhaps we could focus on creating and encouraging fulfilling jobs (to satisfy a wide variety of tastes) vs just cutting back days or hours worked?
With some experience now, I think that school provided more than I thought:
* socialisation
* authority outside of bfamily
* development of personality
* habit-forming for later school
.. aside from the fact that even if you're a good parent and have already exposed your kids to letters and numbers, you will likely not have ensure a complete coverage.
Example of importantance of school choice: my first son went to a regular public kindergarten and lost some of the autonomy he had built-up with us. Going to the bathroom was done together with an aide at school, so why not at home?
My youngest ended going to a Montessori kindergarten by accident. They focus a lot on autonomy and as a result he is very much 'his own boy', even at the age of 6.
And beyond kindergarten, even just in primary, the 'skills' part of school is difficult to do 'in-house' unless you spend a lot of time on it. There's a reason we applied Taylorism to education.
It goes much further. In 90% of human societies up to 60 years ago, it was normal for children to spend a lot of time interacting with neighbors and others outside of the home and schools environments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_takes_a_village
Furthermore, the extreme forms of helicopter parenting where children are not even allowed to walk to school by themselves is very US-centric and very modern.
Semi-related, I know I'm responsible for deciding to have kids, but the ongoing functioning of society relies on a continuous supply of people to keep it running. I sure hope some people are still working after I retire! It would be nice if the U.S. could support parents more than we currently do.
First, that's untrue:
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/covid-19/
Of course it's not even close to the death rate in adults, especially older ones, thankfully, but it isn't "no risk".
Second, the main reason for school closures was that the kids, even if there's very little risk for them, can transmit the disease to family and friends.
Nonetheless, some countries, like France, made the choice to keep the schools open to maintain some level of schooling for most kids. It wasn't without issues and massive criticism from teachers ( who were risking their lives to keep other people's kids occupied), parents ( because classes were closed when a kid got Covid to prevent further transmission, so you could suddenly have to deal with your kid), etc.
There's also a significant risk of Long Covid, although the details are still being debated.
Covid attacks the immune system and also hugely increases the risk of complications from micro-clotting. It's certainly not a disease to be casual about, in either kids or adults.
The grocery store clerks shouldn't have been risking themselves without hazard pay either.
Making someone too desperate to quit isn't duty, and calling people essential without treating them better is insulting.
You are forcing vulnerable people to stay at home.
As long as daycare / schooling remains 5 days a week, I think 4 days a week of work for parents is a fantastic idea.
Why not, why not? You don't need extra staff, you just need scheduling.
We could have different groups of people take off different third days. My preference would be to have Wednesdays off.
But I'd hope that for many parents, having a day with neither work nor childcare might be an opportunity, might be appreciated, might be a time, finally, where you can rediscover & do some you.
Daycare is great for the kid. The teachers can provide much more attention and direction on things that I simply can’t, and he really gets a leg up on social skills being with other kids, not just mom and dad. Spending long stretches at home with just mom and dad (and given COVID, without many play dates), he tends to become a bit wild…three day weekends or week offs aren’t just harder in a linear manner.
I feel even worse for layering on more here, but I think, ultimately, one of the best things a parent can give their child is a sense of personhood. It's one of the slowest, least clear lessons, and the impact seems slow to naught, but having hobbies, doing things, having your own interests as a parent is setting a model of being interested in the world: of engaging yourself & demonstrating control & direction & volition. Parents- in living- to demonstrate what a self is.
That idea- of a world where we can visibly see others who are motivated, have intrinsic motivations desires and pursuits- beyond subsistence & survival- I think that's a keystone factor in the world, in what has made humanity enduring & interesting & capable. I worry after it, significantly. And I want, very much, for parents to have time & permission, for their self to continue to mature & engage, and to not just have to always be engaged, always be tending or working.
I have plenty of time & I spend a lot of it somewhat-inertly, so I can't expect too much from 1 day a week where there might be no work & not constant family. But I do have lots of pursuits, and they do help me shape myself, help me grow & see myself over time. I want very much everyone to have some option, some time to explore on this earth, engaging, not just being engaged.
There are people who have the opposite experience and people who feel ok with both.
This idea that parents should uniquely and equally be caretaker for their kids is absolutely against biological reality for a lot of people; I'm happy to be around my kids for a limited amount of time (and the less they're toddlers the more I can spend with them without going insane) but my main contribution is providing them food, shelter and protection.
My mandated paternity leaves, while being economically advantageous, were an absolute nightmare.
For me, I just bring a package of crackers, some water, then go out in the streets with my kids, visiting nearby playgrounds or lots with trees. They'll then start playing, perhaps needing a little help getting started, and my involvement is mostly coming up with a plan for where to go next, and watching out for signs of exhaustion. So most of the time, I'm actually not active.
I also enjoy having limited help with say cooking or cleaning, but yeah, that's exhausting, because you need to multitask and both do the job and monitor their state and the job they are doing.
In countries where men have mandatory paternity leaves that are significant this imbalance is greatly reduced.
You could actually spend time on thinking what you could do with your kids.
Why did you get kids in the first place?
But even if what you say is true I'd still say he doesn't want to be a parent. You don't pick and choose with parenthood.
A few individuals at my work when COVID hit it's first of many peaks/waves of March 2020, were forced to stop coming to the office.
They shutdown the office March 14, yet these people were still coming in March 31.
The reasons varried.
Children, family, environment, , lack of wfh infrastructure, personal challenges (one employee hit hard times and didn't have internet at home or mobile device, company hooked him up with mobile hot spot and mobile), and many more.
With my own personal home life challenges, working from home 3+ years now, I have sat in my home office "working" while I catchup on binge watching on days I am actually off (I work with clients in North America, i might work a stat holiday of one country, I might not, varies per holiday if they are on diff days -- I take of both Canada and USA thanksgivings).
I have a friend at work who sounds alot like your post. The only exception is he doesn't have a family/responsibilities really. Work is his hobby/life, shows up on his days off just to chit chat with friends at work(he does have friends outside of work). We joke he would sleep there if he could.
You need a hobby, something productive to do outside of work :) something I am struggling a little myself with
The only way they could employ more staff is by drastically increasing pay, but then daycare becomes even less accessible than it already is. It’s a huge mess that is probably unrelated to this proposal, but an excuse to go to 4 day a week schedules (because parents can fill in for 3) would probably be taken quickly.
Because of taxes and other expenses, you wind up with more than 4/5th of a paycheck anyway.
I'm very, very happy to have a little less money and way more time.
It's a force-multiplier for contentment. No other life change comes close. I'm grateful every week and like you I'm never going back.
Yea, this is key. I either work 4 and sometimes I work 5, the 5th one is free for the company. It's simply because I want to.
Getting up just that bit earlier and being at the keyboard by 08:00 is the key.
It really is amazing for work/life balance.
Another amazing thing is that you can spend time with your family doing fun activities but there are no queues. Everyone else is at work!
You will have to up your day-rate though.
The difference is remarkable. You go from spending three quarters of your days at work to just over half. The weekend is actually relaxing. You can do chores, relax, and really unwind before the work week starts again.
We use Mondays to work on our side projects. You can actually focus on that stuff rather than it feeling like an after-thought.
I don’t think I get any less done. Sometimes, but not always (or even often), I’ll work longer days. Sometimes I’ll get up really early and start at 07:00, but that’s mostly because I want to.
I’m never going back. Five days a week feels barbaric now. And if the younger kids (I’m 45) want to work harder and get ahead, well, let ‘em.