Work: Mo' Time, Mo' Problems
People who work lame office jobs would all be much happier and more productive human beings if the standard eight-hour work day (which in reality for most people is more like 12 hours, including those who work the "second shift" and all) were cut down to a four-hour work day -- four days a week.
I am still debating whether the optimal time would be 10-2 or 2-6. The benefit of the former is that you get it out of the way and it entails the lunch hour for sociable lunch meetings. I guess this all depends on what type of job you have, of course. I would prefer the 2-6. You can wake up late, each breakfast, work out, have lunch with friends, go to work, and then go out for dinner and then drinks and wake up with a hangover and repeat.
An eight-hour day is terribly long. We know from our own experiences and from the wisdom of Office Space that people invariably waste time and stare into space for the first hour or so. Then they take a coffee break. Then they stretch out the fifteen minutes' worth of work they have to get done over the next six or seven hours. What crap. There's no way I'm going to do anything after lunch except perhaps attend a meeting and stare at people. Plus, there are all these state and federal regulations on mandating breaks, and every sane person exploits and extends the designated allotments. Instead, make it a flat four hours with a ten-minute break. People will be in, work for a couple hours, take a break, and then work again for a couple of hours. I think it will work well for everyone.
Salaries should not be cut, since people will be getting the same amount of work done, if not more, and posing far less of a nuisance with their decrepit presence. Since people won't be working as much, there won't be as many on-the-job injuries. There won't be so much trash to pick up. There won't be as many HR complaints. There will be lower gas and electric bills.
And, people will have more time free from lame office jobs to volunteer for other stuff. Or, like, support the arts or something.
(Not that I have a problem staying eight hours at my job, since it contains much of what I'd volunteer my time for, anyway, so there's another option -- make your company something people actually care about, punks!)
I am still debating whether the optimal time would be 10-2 or 2-6. The benefit of the former is that you get it out of the way and it entails the lunch hour for sociable lunch meetings. I guess this all depends on what type of job you have, of course. I would prefer the 2-6. You can wake up late, each breakfast, work out, have lunch with friends, go to work, and then go out for dinner and then drinks and wake up with a hangover and repeat.
An eight-hour day is terribly long. We know from our own experiences and from the wisdom of Office Space that people invariably waste time and stare into space for the first hour or so. Then they take a coffee break. Then they stretch out the fifteen minutes' worth of work they have to get done over the next six or seven hours. What crap. There's no way I'm going to do anything after lunch except perhaps attend a meeting and stare at people. Plus, there are all these state and federal regulations on mandating breaks, and every sane person exploits and extends the designated allotments. Instead, make it a flat four hours with a ten-minute break. People will be in, work for a couple hours, take a break, and then work again for a couple of hours. I think it will work well for everyone.
Salaries should not be cut, since people will be getting the same amount of work done, if not more, and posing far less of a nuisance with their decrepit presence. Since people won't be working as much, there won't be as many on-the-job injuries. There won't be so much trash to pick up. There won't be as many HR complaints. There will be lower gas and electric bills.
And, people will have more time free from lame office jobs to volunteer for other stuff. Or, like, support the arts or something.
(Not that I have a problem staying eight hours at my job, since it contains much of what I'd volunteer my time for, anyway, so there's another option -- make your company something people actually care about, punks!)
posted by Leena @ 10:53 PM
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