'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek is closer than you think

Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by firefoxd on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:07AM (#40531690)

Last Sunday, I was walking down the street with my kids when a man bumped into me trying to cross the street. He turned around to apologize and we had a discussion at the red light. He was working a 12 hour shift and was now on his break which he had to rush to get to the store. He said memorial weekend was extremely busy. "After that we will go back to regular busy."

When we talk about 4 day workweek, it's for some specific jobs. Not for that guy. Culturally, at least in the US, we would be happier if some people worked 7 days, 24 hours a day.

Ex: wouldn't it be better if the bank was open after work? Wouldn't it be better if USPS would show up on Sunday? Isn't it annoying that Chick-fil-A is closed on sunday?

Personally , I would love to work 4 days a week, but if the people that package and ship the product I help develop worked only 4 days, we would have angry customers. They will switch to our competitor who will brag about faster delivery.

4 day workweek is a cultural problem. We will have to give up on our instant gratification mentally to make it a reality.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by flax on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:10AM (#40531704)

You don't have to have individuals working 24/7 to have things open 24/7.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by firesteelrain on Friday May 31, 2024 @04:09AM (#40532542)

Meaning more employees and then more overhead.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by soco on Friday May 31, 2024 @05:56AM (#40533133)

Oh no, the overhead! </s>

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by firesteelrain on Friday May 31, 2024 @08:21AM (#40534155)

Which means less promotions and less raises because now it’s spread amongst more people. Businesses exist to make money

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by bravetraveler on Friday May 31, 2024 @06:11AM (#40533213)

Why does it cost me money to make money, damn it?!

Lean into the absurdity already.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by hinkley on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:40AM (#40531847)

It’s probably easier to do 24/7 with a 4 day week, since it’s closer to half a week per employee.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by esalman on Friday May 31, 2024 @02:41AM (#40532114)

I think there's a trade off between keeping business open for longer hours with more staff working on smaller shifts vs keeping business open 9-5 with one shift of workers to worry about. Managing more workers is costly, plus you pay more expenses in utilities etc when business is running longer than 9-5.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by card_zero on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:38AM (#40531844)

Yeah, that guy could be two guys, working four day weeks. I guess they'd overlap on Thursdays, but that's a detail.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by HDThoreaun on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:41AM (#40531856)

We're pretty much at full employment. Labor force could get a few percentages bigger but I dont see where all these new people will come from

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by card_zero on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:47AM (#40531884)

How is that happening - is a lot of that already gig jobs, part time, and so on?

Edit: it's an increase in full-time workers, with less increase in part-time workers.

https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2017/08/a-glass-half-full-or...

I don't know if this covers everyone. Anyway you may be right, employers just want all the work from all the people, at the moment.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by machomaster on Friday May 31, 2024 @12:22PM (#40537036)

From BS jobs to more meaningful and useful (for society and other people) jobs.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by sumedh on Friday May 31, 2024 @07:48AM (#40533872)

> that guy could be two guys

Why would a capitalist business owner spend more money?

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by melkor73 on Friday May 31, 2024 @10:24AM (#40535598)

Because there's a law that says he has to.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by dexwiz on Friday May 31, 2024 @01:25AM (#40531786)

4 day work weeks will be for the elite. While those in service jobs will probably end up with two 30 hour a week jobs. The definition for full time won’t change, but skilled workers will get full time benefits at 32 hours, everyone else will continue to get screwed.

It’s kind of like unlimited PTO. It sounds good on paper but some people will receive outsized benefits compared to others.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by t-writescode on Friday May 31, 2024 @03:29AM (#40532353)

It doesn't __have__ to be this way. We have had record profits across most of the industries were workers are the most abused. We could legislate their lives better and treated with more respect.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by dexwiz on Friday May 31, 2024 @10:21AM (#40535551)

I agree with you, but I imagine I’m a bit more pessimistic. I don’t like anything about the above scenario, but it’s what I believe would be the likely outcome of 4 day work weeks.

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Re:'It's better for humans in general': The 4-day workweek i... by TeMPOraL on Friday May 31, 2024 @02:38AM (#40532102)

> Ex: wouldn't it be better if the bank was open after work? Wouldn't it be better if USPS would show up on Sunday? Isn't it annoying that Chick-fil-A is closed on sunday?

Of course. But that has nothing to do with 4-day work week. There are classes of jobs that should be desynced from each other - like e.g. stores and banks and barbershops, etc. should be open outside of core office hours, etc. We just can't figure out how to force society into running on shifts.

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