Four Day Work Week
From The Globe & Mail:
The Nova Scotia government is looking at switching to a four-day work week in a bid to conserve energy.
Energy Minister Richard Hurlburt said Thursday the idea came up during a brainstorming session at Conserve Nova Scotia, a government agency that encourages people to use energy more efficiently.
Of all the reasons to consider a four day work week, I think energy savings is probably the weakest — especially in a more rural province like Nova Scotia, where people will likely spend their extra day off driving around.
But I do think the four-day work week is a great idea for a lot of industries. Working four 10-hour days as opposed to five eight-hour days means more ‘core time’ and less time winding up and winding down. Plus, three days gives people the chance to actually get away on the weekend and come back feeling refreshed.
I know it’s something 37signals has done to great success. I’d be interested to hear about other examples.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Asides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
JB August 26th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
My employer would laugh if a 4 day work week was suggested. I already head into work on Saturdays for a half day, but then I’m compensated by a higher pay, so to me it’s a trade-off.
Of course government makes the suggestion, they hardly do any work on Fridays anyway.