Have you ever felt like weekends are just too short, and workweeks go on forever? Well, I think a lot of us do! Some people are so fed up with the five-day workweek that they’re planning a general strike to make four-day workweeks the standard. Also included as goals of the strike are 12-day paid parental leave, $20 minimum wage and much more. Would you consider participating in this strike?
Is working four days a week good?
Four-day workweeks aren’t new; in fact, some companies are adopting shorter working weeks to avoid staff burnout. Companies across the globe have tried out four-day workweeks and usually see increases in productivity and improvement in the staff’s happiness. Unilever in New Zealand is giving employees the chance to cut their hours by 20% without hurting their pay. Even the crowdfunding giant Kickstarter is offering the shortened workweek as a new perk to reward employees who stuck around during the pandemic. Some traditionalists are resistant to this idea, but the workplace is going through many inevitable changes. Offices are becoming more casual, and more people are working remotely. Also, heightened stress levels and burnout are becoming real topics of discussion. Businesses will have to adapt or lose their employees.
Not all schedules are created equal.
While the four-day workweek sounds ideal for office workers, work schedules are not one-size-fits-all. For example, oil rig workers may be on location for four weeks and then off work for another four weeks. Meanwhile, a rideshare driver may only work weekends and a few nights a week. The goal of the strike seems to be to mandate rules like the four-day work week, but that just won’t work for everyone. But maybe the exposure from the strike will influence some employers to make this new schedule a perk.
