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There’s no magic in a 4-day workweek
The Hill ^ | 01/12/2024 | JOSE MARIA BARRERO & STEVEN J. DAVIS

Posted on 01/12/2024 12:50:48 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27

The idea of a four-day workweek is catching attention. Young workers in particular see it as the wave of the future, while others worry it will undermine America prosperity.

Economists have pondered the viability of a four-day workweek since research by Janice Hedges in 1971. Recently, though, a magical idea has come to the fore: Let employees work one fewer day per week at the same hours per day and same pay, and they will accomplish just as much as in a standard five-day workweek.

All the fuss prompted us to ask several hundred American business executives and several thousand American workers some pertinent questions. What we uncovered is mundane, not magical. In the language of “Harry Potter,” there is support for a “muggle” version of the four-day workweek — but not for a magical one.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: 4day; magic; no; workweek
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I never had one so I can't comment
1 posted on 01/12/2024 12:50:48 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I worked 4 10 hour days.


2 posted on 01/12/2024 12:53:29 PM PST by riverrunner
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To: ChicagoConservative27

My favorite schedule was 4 ten hour days to still get a 40 hour check and a 3 day weekend every week...


3 posted on 01/12/2024 12:57:09 PM PST by AzNASCARfan
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To: riverrunner

Four tens are great. Then if they call you in on day five it’s all time-and-a-half.


4 posted on 01/12/2024 12:57:15 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

My so-called 40hr/week positions were always anything but. Fifty hours/week was the norm, with 55-60hrs/week thrown in.


5 posted on 01/12/2024 12:57:27 PM PST by TexasKamaAina (The time is out of joint. - Hamlet)
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To: ChicagoConservative27
...and they will accomplish just as much as in a standard five-day workweek...

And just how does that work (ha ha)??

Does the Productivity Fairy fly by and sprinkle magic dust all over them??

SNORT.

6 posted on 01/12/2024 1:00:58 PM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: Jeff Chandler

It’s time and a half if you were an hourly employee. But if you are salaried those extra days don’t increase your pay


7 posted on 01/12/2024 1:01:26 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Worked at a factory for a while that only worked Monday through Thursday, but it was 10 hours per day.

Article says same hours, same pay and it won’t hurt productivity. Not really getting that part. By my math that’s 8 fewer hours per week, per employee assuming they’re pulling a 40 hour work week. Plus eight times however many employees work there’s worth of man hours of productivity is lost.

Unless I’m missing something I just don’t get the “same hours, same pay, no lost productivity” part


8 posted on 01/12/2024 1:01:42 PM PST by This_Dude
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To: ChicagoConservative27

If the massive increases in the productivity of American workers in recent decades is not going to be compensated in anything like a commensurate manner, might as well get three day weekends.
Think of it as a golden parachute and stock compensations for blue collar guys.


9 posted on 01/12/2024 1:02:05 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up. And at the very moment young women )
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I would have been most productive working 6, six hour days.

Of course I always wanted 8+ weeks off per year.


10 posted on 01/12/2024 1:02:43 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Except if you are a customer and there is no coverage for the person who decided to work 4 day weeks. It’s a horrible idea and the thought of Gen Z and Millennials doing this will only make it worse.


11 posted on 01/12/2024 1:02:53 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz ( "Free Palestine" is the new "Heil Hitler!")
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To: riverrunner; Jeff Chandler

4 tens is kinda like working 2nd or 3rd shift......some people love it some hate it.


12 posted on 01/12/2024 1:04:29 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I see some folks here working 10 hour day 4 days per week happily


13 posted on 01/12/2024 1:04:44 PM PST by Chickensoup
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To: DesertRhino

“...the massive increases in the productivity of American workers in recent decades...”

Does the White Basement have data links for that?

Any productivity analysis on Jao BiXiden’s performance during his reign?


14 posted on 01/12/2024 1:05:31 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Dilbert San Diego wrote: “It’s time and a half if you were an hourly employee. But if you are salaried those extra days don’t increase your pay.”

I was offered four tens. Wound up working four tens and one eight. (no overtime) I returned to five eights.


15 posted on 01/12/2024 1:08:13 PM PST by DugwayDuke (Most pick the expert who says the things they agree with.)
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To: mewzilla

How? Probably in the exact same way the Laffer curve does for taxes and revenue. Everyone also “snorted” when Reagan cut taxes to raise revenue. Bush called it voodoo economics.

But same concept. Better morale, better work life balance, and people on 4 days actually work harder while there, knowing they don’t have 5 days to get this done.

Simpletons decide that they are missing out on that extra day of work so productivity is SURE to drop. But they forget to account for the fact that they are working with people, and not machines that can simply be run at that rate for more hours. By your logic a 6 day workweek would result in a 20% increase in productivity.

It doesn’t work that way.


16 posted on 01/12/2024 1:09:48 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up. )
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To: AzNASCARfan

Exactly

Less driving less preparing a lunch

More snack machines though lol 😆


17 posted on 01/12/2024 1:09:58 PM PST by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I didn’t know what a four-day work week looked like either It was six and sometimes seven days a week. The whiners want four days, then they’ll want three, then two then one, then paid for staying home.

This crap about working from home and then only four days is advanced by slackers and others who want to see this country sink into idle television watchers, addicted to soap operas.


18 posted on 01/12/2024 1:12:45 PM PST by ABStrauss (I miss Rush! )
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To: DugwayDuke

Eight Five’s might work for me if I had a short commute.


19 posted on 01/12/2024 1:13:01 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: Chickensoup

I’ve been working 4 10s for awhile as a tech in a local factory. One good point for the parents of young kids ... over time is on Friday so the weekends are still free for all their activities.


20 posted on 01/12/2024 1:14:08 PM PST by Cloverfarm (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ...)
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