Some companies are letting employees work fours days a week for five-days pay as they experiment with new ways of working as pandemic fears wane.
Source: A 32-hour workweek with 40-hour pay? It’s happening at some companies
Some of the points I copied from the artivle while reading it: (which was so handliy grabbed using the new Windows Clipboard Histroy.
“As disruptions to standard workplace practices caused by the pandemic continue to ripple through the economy, some companies are adopting 32-hour workweeks at formerly 40-hour pay that effectively make every Friday a paid holiday.”
Seems like we’re talkiing about a redifiniton of the “work week”, not a new paid holdiay. funny how things can be framed differently. see also “quiet quitting” vs “doing your job as defined” vs “work to rule”.
“Fewer than 20% of U.S. workers come to the office on Fridays these days, said Mark Grinis, leader of EY’s real estate practice in the Americas. The weekly average is nearly 50%.”
20% occupancy on most Fridays? Need to find stats for Canada, although I suspect similar.
“Henry Ford popularized the eight-hour day in the 1920s, but 40-hour weeks didn’t become the norm until the Great Depression, when the government saw shorter workweeks as a way to spread jobs among more people. That standard has stood strong for over 80 years.”
TO-DO: before great depression, what laws existed to define the work week? And Canadian context.
could a 32-hour week could also spread jobs across more people? might be required as automation & etc. reduces the avaialble jobs? not everyone can be a robot wrangler.
“Americans’ relationships with their employment may be in flux, but the country’s long-standing work ethic finds virtue in plugging away as hard and as long as it takes to get the job done,”
TO-DO: find the meme with the oil rig? guy say “don’t talk to me unless you work 100 hrs/week.
Also, no one is saying you can’t work more; overtime is still allowed. the only change this meaqns is 32 hours
the complain that until evetryone does this there wil be frustrations with folks not being avail friday. this is a strawman. no one sez the weekend has to by f-s-s. companies could do creative things like o0n call fridays (mentioned in the article), or could habne overtlapping 4-day weeks (1/2 work m-t, other hald work t-f, so there’s staffing albiet reduced on m & f. but this is already a “thing”
in my opinion, if this is true, then the great shift to 32-hour work week is just a rebalancing of capital vs., labour.
TO-DO: need canadian context. and the math or analysis of how the 20% “raise” / extra labour cost rebalances labourt vs. capital
a common argument is “but how will we produce the same amount” – but if wages haven’t increased while productivity has, then capital is reaping the benefits of free productivity. good for them. but at what point does labour decide enough is enopuigh and eat the rich. problem is we’re too comfy to get the picthforks out…. for now.
