5 Days weekend: a creative thinking (house, buy, cell phones, street)

[snitins]

Today in the uptown I saw lot many people dancing, singing and giving idea for 5 days weekend instead of 2. It seems totally impractical and impossible idea but I think if supported I can surely buy this idea. Work 2 days with full productivity and have fun for rest of the days. I do not want to think that I have been working my whole life, when i become 60.

[BrianH]

Absolutely unworkable. There is no way on earth to fit 5 days of work into 2. Plus can you imagine only getting paid for 8 days a week ? Id loose the house!

[snitins]

I have heard from a lot of people that we americans are really workaholic. People in EU spend most of the time enjoying and they work when they want. I am proud that we live in hardowrking and professional world but sometimes want to get paid without working too

[Cosmic]

First of all you can not start talking about weekends.

Most peeps never seem to realize a so called weekend off is really like 64 hours off for most. It is the hours on Friday night, plus the hours on Monday morning tacked on to the off period.

I worked shift work and our days off were always measured in just hours exactly. One day off was only 24 hours exactly. One place we rotated one way and our days off were 2, 3 & 4 after 7 days work periods, making a total of 30 day working period. We got no holidays off. Typical work period was at least 80 hours on the job.

Another place we rotated the other way and it was 1, 3, 5 days off after 7 days of work periods. Typical work day could be 12 hours minimum with a few 8 hour days sprinkled in for about an eighty hour work period in the seven days if things were going well. When your actual 120 hours off came once a month you could be a basket case. But peeps loved to play hard, damn the sleep, we need to recreate, will sleep in the tent camping. Can do the job on your body / mind over a longer time frame.

So first to make any system work you have to figure out the hours in a work year. Normal is 2080. Drop out the 80 for vacation. 2000 hours required. If you want a longer stretch off, some go to 10 hour work days, 4 days a week, 88 hours off in a row. That can work and is about the limit for many businesses / employers. Anything over a 12 hour day is probably very unsafe, you are talking something like 20 hours in a row, say one day off, 20 hours more. Still only will give you 4 days off, 112 hours. Probably kill you in the end. Fall asleep driving home. Lots of liability in the civilian World.

If you want something like a real 120 hours off a week it starts to become long work days. You have to work something like 12 hours with a few 14 hours days thrown in. Few civilians will do it. Lots of limp wrists about. It really becomes tougher the older you get. Plus you start to get into safety issues due to being tired all the time.

Few businesses can justify the extra peeps it takes to cover all the days of the week they then need to be open. Lots of considerations. Most today will go with lots of part time folks so they don't have to pay benefits. Lots of time off, lil pay.

When I worked for a power company, again it was shift work. They needed 5 shifts to cover a normal month. 3 shifts working, 8 hours days, 1 shift on days off, the fifth shift covered vacation, holidays and extra demands by operations. Never were enough peeps and you wound up working overtime, so actually had less days off than more. Never seemed to actually have much time off in a row with that system, compared to the normal Joe on the street.

The really bad thing about those extended hour type arrangements, the managements will change the work rules, especially with pay for overtime and you get screwed more ways than one.

If you really want lots of days off, retire or get on welfare.

Other than that be happy being a working slug and maybe you can pay the bills.

[BrianH]

Originally Posted by snitins

I have heard from a lot of people that we americans are really workaholic. People in EU spend most of the time enjoying and they work when they want. I am proud that we live in hardowrking and professional world but sometimes want to get paid without working too

That is a myth alof of Americans thinkis true. I worked in Ireland and England and I actually worked more hours there than I do here. And to put another myth to rest, no, europeans do not get to take 3 hour siestas for lunch.

[HIF]

Originally Posted by BrianH

That is a myth alof of Americans thinkis true. I worked in Ireland and England and I actually worked more hours there than I do here. And to put another myth to rest, no, europeans do not get to take 3 hour siestas for lunch.

Then what about the two month vacations?

[tet tea]

Originally Posted by BrianH

That is a myth alof of Americans thinkis true. I worked in Ireland and England and I actually worked more hours there than I do here. And to put another myth to rest, no, europeans do not get to take 3 hour siestas for lunch.

No two months vacations for me either. I think a lot of Europeans just know how to relax and shut work off and their cell phones. At least where I'm at they do.

5 day weekends sound good, but I think I would get myself into a lot of trouble if I had them. I like keeping busy. Working only 2 days a week would drive me nuts!