When we finally get to a 4 day work week, will you be happy to see Friday go, or Monday?
When we finally get to a 4 day work week, will you be happy to see Friday go, or Monday?
I'm pulling for Monday. Friday's already mostly a write-off.
Super optimistic title there lol
I'm with Cowbee. I don't see this happening outside of a few mom and pop places that decide to do it on their own until "government" forces the change. Just look at the 3 letter jackasses freaking out about WFH.
Proper read...
People who think this is happening haven't learned who owns them. A lot of learning to do.
Id rather kill Wednesday.
I'd be so disappointed by this.
Every time I take a day off midweek, it feels like doubling the number of weeks in the week, rather than reducing the number of days.
When I worked 32 hours at my first job I took out the Wednesday. It's a great rhythm to get into, two days of work and a day or two in between.
That's effectively what I had as an undergrad and it was lovely. Wednesdays were (mostly) reserved for labs, so if you weren't taking chemistry or another class with a lab, you had Wednesdays to sleep in. I rather miss that.
I am self employed and actually do that whenever possible (which is a rare occurrence these days,but I managed to do it for six month once). It sounds counterintuitive to do so, but it's actually a fairly nice concept. You work for two days, which is not that long and offers you enough chance to really work "all in". Then you sleep in in Wednesday and do most of the weekly chores - all that shit you would normally do half of your Saturday. And then you do another two days, already approaching a full weekend - which is far less likely to be interrupted by these lousy chores you normally need to do. And if some things remain,you are not having four but two work days in your bones - which makes them easier and usually faster to put behind you.
The 4 day work week likely won't be established as the standard until Socialism is achieved and the bourgeoisie overthrown, but when that happens it will depend on the job and sector, likely working with different shifts to maintain 24/7 production but with lower workload. Probably a move to a 30 hour work-week, like what PSL suggests.
Don't be so cynical!
The 4 day work week could be established under capitalism so it's easier to have two fulltime jobs. 💀
I hate that you're right...
Nah we'll move to a three day work week but America will require you to work a minimum of 48 hours to qualify as full time.
But working multiple jobs is cheating on your employer
Neither. I'd remove Wednesdays.
Middle of the week off day lets you get all your errands done with little annoyance from or waiting behind the public, so you get everything knocked out and have your weekends 100% for you.
More importantly, on a 4 day workweek with Wed/Weekend off, you NEVER work more than two consecutive days. Ever. It's fantastic.
If everyone had Wednesday off you would need to contend with the public though.
Fuck that. Yeah it means you can stay out later Tuesday, but you can't do jack shit Wednesday knowing that Thursday is coming up. I'd rather have another Saturday than another Sunday if that makes sense.
Judging from the other comments it's not for everyone, but personally I love my Wednesdays off. For me it's mostly about dealing with accumulated fatigue due to a health condition though, and I definitely agree about the errands. When I have lots of medical appointments they're so easy to schedule lol
Fuck that I've done schedules like that before . . I'd much rather just take 3 days in a row. Able to rest so much more. Obviously personal preference though!
Alternating Mondays and Fridays. This gets you alternating two day weekends and 4 day weekends
This is a cool idea that I didn't consider.
That’s an interesting idea. So, effectively you have a 14 day period (AKA fortnight) with 8 work days and 6 days off. While this door is open, we might as well re-arrange the work days however we want. You could have 2 days of work followed by 2 days off until the end of the fortnight when you’ll just have 4 days off.
I used to work a compressed week and started taking Monday but eventually it moved to Friday. When I took Monday off I felt like I had to pay for it with the next four days, when I took Friday it was like I was being rewarded with an early weekend.
I love using Wednesdays to clear leave (I know, not the best day in terms of utility for holidays and stuff) as you essentially create a new Friday. Work is so much more bearable.
It's the smartest option.
SILENCE, PEASANT!
You will now work Saturday as well!
Is that you, Rowan, manager of TechTown?
Part of me thinks Wednesday. I wouldn't be surprised to see flex schedules more common in a 4 day work week world
Wednesday. Why work for 4 days straight when you could take a break in the middle
IMO I'd take the 3 day break every time. Being able to take the kids to their grandparents for a 3 day weekend, or stay another day on a weekend trip sounds too convenient to pass up.
I also vote Monday. Seems to be easier to get back to work after a Monday holiday vs a Friday holiday.
realistically, if we move to a four-day world week it won't be the same four days for everyone
this, I rather it not be the same 4 days for everyone so people actually can get things done instead of half the services close the same time you leave work
Crazy thought, but what if it differed by industry? Something like blue collar jobs get Monday off, white collar gets Friday off. That way office workers can for example more easily stay home to get their cable serviced and plumbers can more easily meet with a mortgage agent. Obviously because of overlap it's not perfect (office workers can't meet with mortgage agent, plumbers can't get their cable serviced), but there's a huge issue currently with people working 9-5 M-F being unable to access services that are also only available 9-5 M-F, so this would at least distribute things a little more. (This kind of thing already exists for some industries like restaurants, where W-Su workweeks are common)
I'm on board with the complementarity objective, but dividing society by collar color is a means for distributing things less. Time barriers reinforce worker segmentation by industry. Different rituals and religious traditions evolve on either side, and Romeo and Juliet are lost in their respective crowds. Convinced their problem is too much work, Four Day Workweek Jesus arrives to champion a revolution towards a three day week, and Four Day Workweek Satan points out that arranging and organizing other people's lives (for free!) has always been in support of the same capitalists that the bleeding heart Christians seem so upset about.
I'm imagining a white color and blue color worker couple each having an entire day to themselves in a week. Sounds like heaven, and the ideal relationship. I'm 100% onboard.
i will probably die of old age by the time we get a 4 day work week (im early 20s)
This entirely depends on the company and/or the type of work you do. My manager is considering implementing it after I proposed it for our team. That was only a few days ago so we'll see where it goes.
Wednesday. I've been doing that for years. It's nice because it feels relaxing and still part of the work week, so still productive.
I can usually swap it for a Monday or Friday with a week or so's notice, if I want to take a long weekend some time.
Also I get more public holidays than if I took Monday off.
Yeah, that’s what I want. 3 days off in a row is nice, but not having to work 3 days in a row sounds amazing
I have worked this schedule at a job I disliked. Never more than about 32 hours from time off felt amazing.
UK majority of the bank holidays are on a Monday, so Fridays would be nice as otherwise you'd lose them and what would become long weekends now.
UK we are seeing a very slow shift to 4 day weeks for more privileged jobs, I work with two people who both have Fridays off as it's an actual thing you can apply for at my employer.
While the Tories stopped councils from offering 4 day weeks to employees, it's got to be coming back, further spreading its availability.
Hope this is around when I get a job
Friday only because Garfield would probably have to change to "I hate Tuesdays".
I save up my vacation every year and take as many Wednesdays off as possible. I prefer the break in the middle of the week. It has done wonders for my mental health and my ability to get shit done while everyone else is busy.
Hear hear! Monday/Friday off is overrated. Get rid of hump day!
Wednesday
If those 4 days also mean 12 hour days, than im not too sure if I'd want thay
I worked a couple 12 hour shifts before, and they left me even more miserably than work usually did
That's not usually what is meant by proponents of the 4 day work week. Instead, they're usually referring to four 8-hour days.
i see, well, because of where i live, id take monday than
Where I work we do a mix... Some 4 days, 10 hrs each, some 5days 8 hrs each.
Production is typically 4/10 and most other people are 5/8. This allows the other groups a day where production isn't running and other things can happen, like maintaining equipment and running tests without interfering with production schedules. While not requiring support to come in on a Saturday or Sunday.
It works out pretty well for us, except when production does ot on Fridays for weeks in a row and the other stuff can't get done...
I'm fighting for a 3-Day work week 20hrs and no more. It can be done.
Oh? Tell me more
My bet is, it'll be Saturday that goes, finally achieving a 6-day work week.
Someone’s got a bad case of the Tuesdays.
You get your ass kicked for saying something like that.
It makes no difference. With Mondays off, Tuesday becomes the new Monday. Fridays off means Thursday starts feeling like Friday.
There's a lot of optimism in this thread, so if I may imagine Sophie kicking the dust instead of choosing..
Assuming such a thing did happen it'd only happen for a subset of the population, which would then be divided such that one group gets Monday and the other gets Friday while service workers get two more nights of labor.
I had both for a while. And somehow Monday's still felt a bit like Monday. So I would go with Friday.
I have a 4 day work week and love it.
I'm lucky to have been able to experiment a bit with this as my work is flexible and I'm in a pretty good bargaining position. I also do a fair bit of unpaid work out of hours.
Having either Friday or Monday I've found to be little different. Having alternating Fridays and Mondays is pretty awesome, 4 days on, 2 off, 4 on, 4 off.
There's a lot to be said for a mid week day off too. I'm looking at moving to a new employer and hoping to go negotiate a 3 day week, maybe Mon-Tues-Thur for example which will be heaven if I can pull it off.
Friday because it's already mostly a write off.
Unless you do something special depending on the day (like going to church on Sundays), aren't the two options the same? They are both 4 up 3 down periods.
Exactly! When I first read this post, I thought it was sarcasm. Firstly, the assumption that a 4 day work week is innevitable. And second, if we were gifted such a massive win, the loss of the dreaded "Monday" would not matter because it is just an arbitrary name. There will still be an end to the weekend and start to the week.
I'd willingly want to move down to 4-day weeks in some year even with the reduced salary. I'm privileged enough to afford it, and the time regained is absolutely worth the loss in salary and future pension. I'd like alternating Mondays and Fridays, so every 2 weeks you get a 4-day weekend.
I have a 4-day work week (32h - fridays off). The 3-day weekend is a game changer.
Not totally relevant because I work 4-on-4-off, but I tell anyone who will listen to me say that the best, most wonderfullest, pry it from my cold fingers part is that I no longer care if it’s Monday. Ever. This is wonderful, even if my shifts fall on one. Because it’s Monday and it’s no longer special and has no power over me. I don’t think I’d have the same passion talking about Fridays.
For football fans, the answer is Monday.
As a teacher, how would this work for schools?
Different days off and more teachers than we have currently. The same people who view 5 day work weeks as an imposition as workers should be doing 6 or even 7 day weeks for the same pay as 5, view state schools as subsidised babysitting for their workers kids so schools would need to stay as 5 days rather than drop to 4
Fuck Monday right off I'm invested in Tuesday hate
Friday is already a holiday here , I want Thursday to join holidays....
I sincerely do not know as I'm currently unemployed to try and imagine a 4-day work week. I mean, it would be a good thing, more time to dedicate for things you like the most (such as a hobby and/or family and/or pets and/or entertainment and/or spirituality/beliefs/religion and/or education/courses). But it'd only work if there's any job. With the ongoing situation with AI replacement, profit-eagerness culture of businesses, I don't really have optimistic views on the future of employment, with or without 4-day work week.
I already have a four day week and it‘s really great to not work on Fridays.
Monday.
So I work annualised hours, based on a 35hr work week. So summer hour are Mon thru Fri 41hrs total, winter is Mon thru Thurs 31hrs total. I actually like the setup, as a mason I'd actually not mind doing longer hours than we are in the summer and even shorter in the winter, as the weather is too shit in the winter to actually get anything done anyway.
If we all have the same schedule, Friday, if it varies, Monday. I can get stuff done and everyone is tired and grumpy so I don't have to talk a bunch. People are too... Talkative on Fridays.
Once you all agree on a day, let me know and I'll take the other one. No queues anywhere!