This comes from a Fast Company article, the basic premise of which is that the more Americans work, the more waste they produce and energy they consume, and after a point, the less productive they are.
"The way we work drives our habits of consumption and waste. The more we work, the more we drive, the more energy we burn, the more styrofoam to-go containers we use. At the end of the day, we're so tired, we devour more takeout and TV, often falling asleep in front of the latter. If we want to accelerate the recent trend of reducing waste, it may be time to consider the radical step of, well, relaxing more, consuming less, and living fuller lives."
If people take work seriously for four days a week, I believe productivity would be the same. People often take breaks during the day, surfing the net, etc., and if those extraneous activities were reduced, people would be productive faster. However, it would take some kind of deadline enforcement and rethinking to ensure productive 4-day work weeks. But it could turn into a more stressful work week than a well-paced 5-day work week.
I like this kind of irresponsible business speculation. I can just imagine what will happen to the business community when we all go green, stop using paper, more PDAs, and live on-line. I'm troubled, though, that the logic employed here is so careless.
I'm reminded of that old saying that says, "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence." The implication is that life is always better somewhere else. So it goes with the logic of this question. Perhaps another way of addressing the question would be to engage it at a different level of inquiry since the premise seems quite prejudicial concerning productivity, waste, etc. The logic would flow, then, that the more productive we are, the less wasteful we would be, we wouldn't be so tired and devour more takeout and TV, and would relax more, consume less, and live fuller lives.
Does anyone besides me laugh at this kind of careless logic?
I'd do it just for the day off, I'm not going to sit a home with the air and lights off to conserve energy. Instead I'll go out to lunch and then to cigar shop, using my car and traveling more than I would if it were a work day. The better solution would be to work from home and be held accountable for the work being produced.
Jay, I'ld say it got a chuckle or two out of me. ;-)
When people have more time to waste, they're not going to make the world a better place unless they consciously make an effort to do so. It cannot be guaranteed that people, on their day off, will not drive out to do more shopping, will not eat in plastic cups at fast food joints or carry more plastic shopping bags. Unless there is a worldwide movement to engage people to go totally green on their day off, much logic is indeed defied.
I had the opportunity of working at a government facility who offered this type of work schedule. I worked Monday - Thursday, 10 hour shifts. I must say, all the work was completed on time.
This is a sum-zero game unless you have everyone in those businesses turning off their PC's, desk lamps etc. and then keeping them off at home also.
Arguably there is more energy consumed by a group with each in their own home and cars, than when they are in communal space. Maybe a 6-day workweek might be more green?
The responsibility of Business is only making sure their operations are green, not trying to change the minds of an ever changing workforce. If they want to offer "green perks" such as loans for hybrids (MySpace?) then that is cool.
The four-day work week is a benefit to employee's social lives, and great if your business operates that way, but trying to turn it into a green cause is not going to impact much.
I think a 4 day work week or a 5 day work week, for that matter, misses the point. In our knowledge economy, it's not about days, but about productivity, innovation and service. Clearly everyone needs to strike a balance in their own work/life needs; however, in the knowledge economy, the business operates 365 days a year. And the knowledge economy will drive the solutions that make this world a greener place -- the 4 day work week won't be among them, I predict!
I run 'my' businesses on the basis of Traditional Lakota Teachings, and observation - by myself and the rest of 'us'.
It has been our observation that a 4-day work week makes us more productive, and at least for us ITI, the reason for this tends to be seasonal.
Not many of us are wild about winter, so during the cold months, the 4-day work week makes a lot of sense for us. We don't have to face as much time on the roads; global warming or no, we have snow and ice up here in the winter. The past 10 years have been pretty mild; but 1996-1997 was memorable. Check out the Grand Forks flood for an example.
We are lucky in that some of our products can be stockpiled, and the only obstacle we face with them is finding enough suitable space for storage.
The warm months are "powwow" and Sun Dance season, so the 4-day work week makes even more sense. We enjoy what we do; we are dedicated to what we do; and that always motivates people to work longer and put out more.
The 'carrots' are that if we are powwow people, we can spend more time with our loved ones, at those gatherings. If we are Sun Dance people, we have no worry about our jobs being there when we get back, unlike when we have to work for whites, since Sun Dance is our most sacred ceremony. In our company, Sun Dance leave is guaranteed. No one in their right mind would lie about going to the Sun Dance. We plan for the absences.
The web site is up every day and orders and inquiries are addressed when we are there; we plan for this operational mode; it works for us.
Perhaps the problems that arise in the majority culture are more from its core orientation than anything else. Our core orientation is the Traditional Teachings of our various Peoples, which are often quite different from those of the majority culture, which has only recently begun to "discover" them & claim them as its own. History repeats itself, it appears.
Nonetheless - 4-day work weeks mean much more green on many levels for us all at Indian Maid, they work for us, and this is not new for us.
So we should re-coin this as a "four-day commute week" or three-day commute week" rather than "four-day work week". The real carbon saver is decreasing the number of commutes, not the days or hours we work. I would assume that extra day off would cause to 52 long weekends, which would offset the carbon savings intended.
I have worked a 3 day work week for two different companies in the past. I loved it. You'd work 3 12.5 hour days and have 4 days off every week. In technology, where servers have to stay up and contacts can be around the globe, it was possible to be fully-staffed 24 hours a day, six days per week with only 4 shifts of people. Sundays rotated a skeleton crew.
I find a 4 day-week no less compelling. For the same reasons, you could have some people working 4 days, other folks working three, and keep your company staffed round the clock. Technology and robotics were supposed to help us work less and easier, not longer and harder.
I went down to a four day week last year and loved it. It was a three month trail that worked very well and will be going back to it shortly. As long as customers, employees, etc., know what to expect there is no reason that productivity should fall.
It all depends on the commute of the workforce. I drive an hour each way 5 days a week. Right now I'm just about breaking even with gas money, but this time next month I'll basically be paying my job for the privilege to work there with gas prices the way they are. We are a tourism mecca here in SW Florida, and many companies close up for the summer entirely, which seems like the best solution of all.
Comments | 14 Total
May 23, 2008 at 11:09am by Saabira Chaudhuri
This comes from a Fast Company article, the basic premise of which is that the more Americans work, the more waste they produce and energy they consume, and after a point, the less productive they are.
"The way we work drives our habits of consumption and waste. The more we work, the more we drive, the more energy we burn, the more styrofoam to-go containers we use. At the end of the day, we're so tired, we devour more takeout and TV, often falling asleep in front of the latter. If we want to accelerate the recent trend of reducing waste, it may be time to consider the radical step of, well, relaxing more, consuming less, and living fuller lives."
The full article can be found at:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/all-in-a-days-work.html
May 23, 2008 at 12:55pm by Rachel King
If people take work seriously for four days a week, I believe productivity would be the same. People often take breaks during the day, surfing the net, etc., and if those extraneous activities were reduced, people would be productive faster. However, it would take some kind of deadline enforcement and rethinking to ensure productive 4-day work weeks. But it could turn into a more stressful work week than a well-paced 5-day work week.
May 23, 2008 at 1:28pm by Jay Tatum
I like this kind of irresponsible business speculation. I can just imagine what will happen to the business community when we all go green, stop using paper, more PDAs, and live on-line. I'm troubled, though, that the logic employed here is so careless.
I'm reminded of that old saying that says, "The grass is greener on the other side of the fence." The implication is that life is always better somewhere else. So it goes with the logic of this question. Perhaps another way of addressing the question would be to engage it at a different level of inquiry since the premise seems quite prejudicial concerning productivity, waste, etc. The logic would flow, then, that the more productive we are, the less wasteful we would be, we wouldn't be so tired and devour more takeout and TV, and would relax more, consume less, and live fuller lives.
Does anyone besides me laugh at this kind of careless logic?
May 23, 2008 at 3:12pm by Chris Jones
I'd do it just for the day off, I'm not going to sit a home with the air and lights off to conserve energy. Instead I'll go out to lunch and then to cigar shop, using my car and traveling more than I would if it were a work day. The better solution would be to work from home and be held accountable for the work being produced.
May 24, 2008 at 5:27am by Jo Nelgadde
Jay, I'ld say it got a chuckle or two out of me. ;-)
When people have more time to waste, they're not going to make the world a better place unless they consciously make an effort to do so. It cannot be guaranteed that people, on their day off, will not drive out to do more shopping, will not eat in plastic cups at fast food joints or carry more plastic shopping bags. Unless there is a worldwide movement to engage people to go totally green on their day off, much logic is indeed defied.
May 24, 2008 at 5:55pm by rosalind david
I had the opportunity of working at a government facility who offered this type of work schedule. I worked Monday - Thursday, 10 hour shifts. I must say, all the work was completed on time.
May 25, 2008 at 1:03am by Paul Andrew
This is a sum-zero game unless you have everyone in those businesses turning off their PC's, desk lamps etc. and then keeping them off at home also.
Arguably there is more energy consumed by a group with each in their own home and cars, than when they are in communal space. Maybe a 6-day workweek might be more green?
The responsibility of Business is only making sure their operations are green, not trying to change the minds of an ever changing workforce. If they want to offer "green perks" such as loans for hybrids (MySpace?) then that is cool.
The four-day work week is a benefit to employee's social lives, and great if your business operates that way, but trying to turn it into a green cause is not going to impact much.
May 25, 2008 at 3:32pm by Chuck Bolton
I think a 4 day work week or a 5 day work week, for that matter, misses the point. In our knowledge economy, it's not about days, but about productivity, innovation and service. Clearly everyone needs to strike a balance in their own work/life needs; however, in the knowledge economy, the business operates 365 days a year. And the knowledge economy will drive the solutions that make this world a greener place -- the 4 day work week won't be among them, I predict!
May 25, 2008 at 5:01pm by Carel Two-Eagle
I run 'my' businesses on the basis of Traditional Lakota Teachings, and observation - by myself and the rest of 'us'.
It has been our observation that a 4-day work week makes us more productive, and at least for us ITI, the reason for this tends to be seasonal.
Not many of us are wild about winter, so during the cold months, the 4-day work week makes a lot of sense for us. We don't have to face as much time on the roads; global warming or no, we have snow and ice up here in the winter. The past 10 years have been pretty mild; but 1996-1997 was memorable. Check out the Grand Forks flood for an example.
We are lucky in that some of our products can be stockpiled, and the only obstacle we face with them is finding enough suitable space for storage.
The warm months are "powwow" and Sun Dance season, so the 4-day work week makes even more sense. We enjoy what we do; we are dedicated to what we do; and that always motivates people to work longer and put out more.
The 'carrots' are that if we are powwow people, we can spend more time with our loved ones, at those gatherings. If we are Sun Dance people, we have no worry about our jobs being there when we get back, unlike when we have to work for whites, since Sun Dance is our most sacred ceremony. In our company, Sun Dance leave is guaranteed. No one in their right mind would lie about going to the Sun Dance. We plan for the absences.
The web site is up every day and orders and inquiries are addressed when we are there; we plan for this operational mode; it works for us.
Perhaps the problems that arise in the majority culture are more from its core orientation than anything else. Our core orientation is the Traditional Teachings of our various Peoples, which are often quite different from those of the majority culture, which has only recently begun to "discover" them & claim them as its own. History repeats itself, it appears.
Nonetheless - 4-day work weeks mean much more green on many levels for us all at Indian Maid, they work for us, and this is not new for us.
May 27, 2008 at 8:45am by Cem ARGUN
So we should re-coin this as a "four-day commute week" or three-day commute week" rather than "four-day work week". The real carbon saver is decreasing the number of commutes, not the days or hours we work. I would assume that extra day off would cause to 52 long weekends, which would offset the carbon savings intended.
May 28, 2008 at 12:35pm by Chris Garay
I have worked a 3 day work week for two different companies in the past. I loved it. You'd work 3 12.5 hour days and have 4 days off every week. In technology, where servers have to stay up and contacts can be around the globe, it was possible to be fully-staffed 24 hours a day, six days per week with only 4 shifts of people. Sundays rotated a skeleton crew.
I find a 4 day-week no less compelling. For the same reasons, you could have some people working 4 days, other folks working three, and keep your company staffed round the clock. Technology and robotics were supposed to help us work less and easier, not longer and harder.
May 29, 2008 at 12:37pm by
I went down to a four day week last year and loved it. It was a three month trail that worked very well and will be going back to it shortly. As long as customers, employees, etc., know what to expect there is no reason that productivity should fall.
May 29, 2008 at 12:52pm by Michael De'Shazer
Why not make it 3.
May 29, 2008 at 2:53pm by Nicole Valentino
It all depends on the commute of the workforce. I drive an hour each way 5 days a week. Right now I'm just about breaking even with gas money, but this time next month I'll basically be paying my job for the privilege to work there with gas prices the way they are. We are a tourism mecca here in SW Florida, and many companies close up for the summer entirely, which seems like the best solution of all.