The Surprisingly Solid Case For A Three Day Work Week - How Money Works

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The fight for fewer working days is a battle as old as worker relations. Just 100 years ago the five-day workweek was unthinkable for American laborers but in 1932 the states officially adopted the five-day work week to combat the unemployment crisis caused by the stock crash and subsequent great depression of 1929.

We are currently amid another shakeup to our way of life, one that is on par with the severity of the great depression. So perhaps it’s time again to re-assess how we work, maybe it’s time again to look at the surprisingly solid case for cutting down the days that the average American worker devotes to labor.

There is a surprisingly solid case for a working week of just THREE days for most jobs.

#HowMoneyWorks #TheGreatResignation #LaborCrisis
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Music by Epidemic Sound

Stock footage by Storyblocks

[KingUnKaged]

I will say, the best part of working from home has been that I never need to "look busy" anymore. If the work is done, and I ask around and no one has anything for me to help out with, there's no more awkwardly hiding that I'm on reddit. I can just read a book, go for a walk, do w/e until I'm ACTUALLY needed. The work week becomes exactly as long as it needs to be.

[Patangy]

I've been working a 3.5-day week for 12 years with the same company and never feel like I need a holiday. I have so much annual leave accrued I could take 6 months off straight. Even had time to start a side business on my days off. It really is life-changing and I hope it becomes the norm one day.

[MrYevie]

As a tech worker in a high profile FANG company, I would like to say that one point not taken into consideration for the tech worker example is that I spend a good chunk of my time concentrating, thinking and problem solving. There is only so much time in the day I can reasonably do that. Extending the day to 10 hours, though I would totally take it, would probably not make me more productive during those hours.

[VarsVerum]

I know it's difficult and logistically impossible given how businesses are interconnected with each other, but as some others have said already, the whole problem with a 40 hour work week is that you're only really getting stuff done for half of that time. The other half is spent waiting around for when it's time to be needed. When working from home you don't have to waste time waiting for the fish to bite. While you do that you can go ahead and do other stuff like do chores, or relax and watch youtube or play games, then when you get a ping from your boss you just have to move your ass to the computer and boom ready to go.

Most people don't dislike working for 40 hours if for the entire 8 hours per day they were kept busy. Most people I know say they'd be lucky to be busy for like 5 hours out of that 8.

[lymnjuice]

Longer hours for tech workers (programmers, engineers, etc) does not lead to more productivity -- so 3 day work weeks with longer stretches at a time decreases productivity generally. What would be better is just giving programmers the latitude to work 3-4 hours during prime day and then let them work whenever as needed. Very rarely are you getting more than 2-3 hours of actual work out of problem solving professions (unless in meetings, pullups, etc)

[mammajamma]

A 3-day work week would be absolutely ideal. For a short while last year, I was able to adjust my schedule so that I was working 3 day weeks. It was glorious. I was super productive, and super at ease, because my life wasn't centered around making a company a bunch of money. I could actually have a life.

[luxinvictus]

"need to live near metropolitan centres"
this, basically, is one of the single biggest problems in modern times. A few crammed metros filled with depressed, uprooted people, where the cost of living is simply too high due to demand and therefore a lot of poverty, along with the lack of development in rural areas since all the people go to the metros for jobs.

[alexanderlyon]

Sign me up! I think a 4-day week is already within reach. I'm inspired by a 3-day work week!

[ArikaStack]

3 12's have been a thing in machining for a while. The reason being: it makes alot more sense to have a worker spend more of their time all at once on a machine rather than abandon a setup and handoff even more frequently. Additionally, in higher end aspects of the job, there are machinists who will not work for places that don't offer 3 12's, and you want to keep those guys happy, because they're more valuable to a company than anyone else.

[ZanethMedia]

It’s also interesting that Ford also gave his employees high salaries so that “each worker could afford a car.”

[nuineyc]

Fed Ex offers a 4 day work week and it does attract employees. My employer moved to a 3.5 day workweeks from 5 day workweeks, and it substantially improved their staffing.

[CotySchwabe]

His point about having time to spend money hits home.

My fist job was a warehouse job that had me working 6 10-14 hour days IN A ROW, week after week.

Sure, I made plenty of money, but I was exhausted all the time, had no energy on my day off, and had no time to spend (or enjoy) the money I was making.

I like where I am now: even working 5 days a week now, I’ll take having weekends off over making more money.

[kartheyansivalingam]

It's depressing when we think about all the advancements humanity has made since the 1930s (when the 5 day work week was adopted) yet we still essentially live the same lives as the people back then.

[Dmiliunas]

I think 4 days on 4 days off might be an interesting option. Scrap Saturday, Sunday, make all jobs 4 on 4 off and have two teams working 4 on 4 off and your projects have no downtime while people have 4 days in a row to recharge.

[DrEnnemoser]

But seriously: In a few decades, we will look back and laugh at how much we used to work.

[roscojenkins]

I work healthcare.

The pandemic/shared custody of my kid/lack of affordable childcare actually made me fall into a 3 day work week.

I was lucky since my job is HIGHLY needed and companies will take what they can get and its 24/7 open. Also, they offer float pool (working at any facility under the corporate umbrella) pay which for me was $30/hour

[micera]

I have to disagree as a programmer. If I had to work 10 hours, youre not getting 10 solid hours of programming. I wouldnt mind 3 day work weeks, but wouldnt claim it was for productivity. However I think there is a strong case for 4 day work weeks

[olianims]

Moral of the story: worldwide crisises solve economic problems

[MzShonuff]

I worked a 5 (and, with an abusive boss, 7) day workweek most of my working life. Then I became a nurse in middle age and now only have to work 3 days a week and it is life-changing! This is the way work should be

[codacreator]

It’s annoying to me that Google reduced salaries for remote workers when in actuality, they’re transferring expenses. Google can downsize their space and save a bunch of money that way. With no more internet contracts, no more tech expenses (how many jobs requiring computer and internet access supply them???) but expectations of even greater time and day availability because the assumption is that you are essentially in the office 24/7.

Like the ROWE, we have to be very careful not to give away the farm for the golden egg.