That Four-Day Work Week Proposal

If you asked me three years ago what I think of a 4-day workweek proposal, I'd probably just shrug. I won't care. I have been in the labor force since 2006, but only two years ago--July 2011--did I take a desk job. In college I never saw myself as someone who'd be working 9 to 5. My resume lists: flight attendant, call center agent, operations manager. All of these require every single minute that you are on the job.

Photo credit: Lifehacker.com.au

I remember myself musing a few months back about this four-day workweek. Following several one-day non-working holidays, I found myself less stressed, more enthusiastic and productive at work. I thought to myself, everyone should get an additional day off. Mine would be Wednesdays. My preferred week schedule would be: (S) Rest - (M) Work - (T) Work- (W) Rest - (Th) Work - (F) Work - (Sa) Rest. But Fridays off would also be as awesome.

I mean, even CNN had an article about why four-day workweeks are great.

For the past two years, I've noticed how much time is wasted in the office for the following reasons:

     1. You don't need 9 hours to complete your daily task
     2. Your work quality suffers if you work nonstop, and end up redoing it later on
     3. Your mind probably can't stand it anyway

Now, some of you might react about #1. This is particularly true to me, and I am honest about it. I may be bragging about it but some jobs just require resourcefulness and efficiency. (Note that I said some.) Like they say, work smart, not hard. Unfortunately, in some traditional Filipino companies, the elder bosses see people as "hardworking" if they devote longer hours in the office. As most younger people may agree with me, it's not how long you work, it's how much you deliver.

On #2 and #3, these are more prominent especially if I'm involved in something that warrants creativity. At one point, I was tasked to do creative writing for some travel packages. There were times that my mind just won't cooperate, and no matter how long I stare at my monitor, nothing popped up.

This brings me to...fake work. My colleagues and I use this term a lot, referring to tasks assigned to us, but don't actually contribute to anything. If everyone just concentrated on the goals and eliminate fake work, then we should be ready to go home by 3pm.

In another context, there are those who fake it. These people pretend to be working just so the clock ticks by and they get to complete the mandated work hours. Most often than not, the faking happens because of the stress, sleeplessness, or that nonstop working for several hours. Or sometimes, just because you have the next day to do it anyway--after all, you have five days a week for 'work.'

I am sometimes guilty of this: I found myself taking longer coffee breaks and sometimes just walking around and out of my office cubicle. At one time, I survived a week just faking it; in comparison to another week when I took two days off and worked only three days--that resulted to about two weeks' worth of workload.

Now, I know the four-day work week was proposed mainly for vehicular reasons, but here are my own list of benefits: (1) Work-Life balance. (How can it be called a balance when the ratio is 5:2? LOL) Gives you time to just relax, or spend more time with your kids. Like that Facebook exec. (2) Employees have time to do their errands. Banks and a lot of establishments close at 5:00, which is why several employees just slip away for an afternoon or so to do their errands, or go to their child's school. (3) Less fake work, as people will have just enough time to work, and enough time to rest. (4) Minds are refreshed, better ideas come up.

I hope there's a chance for companies to try this out. After all, it's not based on nothing, as some European countries are on this scheme. Like another article discusses: 

"The average German worker puts in 394 hours less than an American 

each year -- the equivalent of nearly ten fewer weeks. The country is far smaller than 

the United States in area, population and resources, yet still manages to compete 

as the fourth largest economy and third largest exporter in the world."

Given how shallow-minded our lawmakers are sometimes (if not most), this will most likely just be slammed shut and dismissed before they even Google anything. 

-- Written after I worked from home because I didn't want to fake it in the office