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Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

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Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#61

Post by adrienthebo »

wyager wrote: post #23
toomuchtodo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The free market would grind every last human into powder if it could. Labor regulations exist because you can’t trust humans to be various degrees of moral, decent, and empathetic. If labor regulations ratchet the work week down, you’d be free to offer 32 hour work weeks to employees, and pay them for overtime beyond that. Productivity has exploded over the last four decades (across various economies, developed and d…

> The free market would grind every last human into powder if it could. That's interesting, because it's not free market capitalists advocating for importing billions of people and cramming everyone into urban centers in the name of efficiency.

That's the thing with free market capitalism - nobody needs to advocate for policies like moving people to urban areas in the name of efficiency. Instead people living in rural areas are forced to migrate to cities to make a living wage, thereby causing the negative scenario you're describing. Free market capitalism allows those with capital to dominate social decisions.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#62

Post by pwinnski »

n8cpdx wrote: post #37

Why not a one day weekend? How is three days any less absurd and arbitrary than two? Frankly, given where we are at as a society in terms of labor and productivity relative to demand, it seems like now isn’t the time to be pumping the brakes. The basis of fully automated luxury communism has not yet been delivered and won’t be for a while; Europeans will likely freeze this winter and even in the US, if I call 911 I’m…

In the US, we had a 1-day weekend until 1926, and in 1939 the force of law was added to make anything over 40 hours of work "overtime."

Henry Ford thought his workers could be just as productive, if not more so, in 40 hours as 48, and would be happier at the second day off to boot, and he was correct.[0]

You call it arbitrary, and it was, except it's based on what has been collectively deemed obvious: one gets dramatically diminishing returns when requiring an employee to work more than eight hours in a day, or more than (now) five days a week.

It could be that we are also seeing diminishing returns from five days a week, and would be just as productive in four[1], but it will take CEOs acting on that theory to move the established norm.

0. https://www.truthorfiction.com/henry-ford-invented-the-5-day...

1. https://www.4dayweek.com

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#63

Post by sgjohnson »

Because in macroeconomics productivity is (almost) everything.

Yes, sure, we can debate all day over “how people are going to be more productive and hate their jobs less if there’s a 4 day working week”, but that’s only applicable to office drones.

If we’re going to get a 4 day working week, it’s going to be by (some) employers doing it as a perk/experiment.

No reasonable legislature anywhere is going to make it a reality any time soon.

Or you can always negotiate yourself 20% less hours for 20% less pay.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#64

Post by carabiner »

We live in a plutocracy. This can't exist without monopolizing the waking life of the working class, because free time gives rise to thought and rebellion. It's better to have workers output N units of work in 5 days rather than 4 days, simply because it does a better job of dominating and controlling our lives.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#65

Post by flawn »

sudden_dystopia wrote: post #38

They aren’t just going to give you a free day off. There would be a commensurate decrease in your pay. I don’t find the 5 days/week to be “irrational”, “irrational” to whom? It’s completely rational from an employers perspective that they have a job to fulfill and it requires employees to complete the job. If they have people working 4 days /week, they need coverage for the other days. It’s not rational for the custo…

A/B Weeks would be interesting but also kinda detaching one half of workers from the other half.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#67

Post by Apreche »

I do have a three day weekend. This weekend is actually a four day weekend because of Labor Day on Monday. I negotiated for it. See here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32544658

If enough other people do the same, eventually it will become expected, and more people will get it without having to fight. Either negotiate it yourself, or join a union to negotiate for it on your behalf. It's not just going to be handed to you on a silver platter just because there are good arguments for it.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#68

Post by humanrebar »

A lot of folks are paid by the hour or by the day and would not enjoy getting their hours cut to 32 per week or something. Especially because various laws and regulations create expectations around "full time" and "part time" employment based on the number of hours worked.

Even if the number of hours were cut back per employer, a lot of folks would need a supplemental part-time job to make ends meet.

I guess what I'm saying is that the average HN commenter probably doesn't wear steel-toed boots or a uniform to work.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#69

Post by x86x87 »

n8cpdx wrote: post #37

Why not a one day weekend? How is three days any less absurd and arbitrary than two? Frankly, given where we are at as a society in terms of labor and productivity relative to demand, it seems like now isn’t the time to be pumping the brakes. The basis of fully automated luxury communism has not yet been delivered and won’t be for a while; Europeans will likely freeze this winter and even in the US, if I call 911 I’m…

Why rest at all? I mean we are all machines and our goal in life is to work!

Re: Ask HN: Why don't we have 3 day weekends yet?

#70

Post by pwinnski »

slively wrote: post #53
pwinnski wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was the other way around. Works weeks were 48 hours or more until Henry Ford enacted a five-day 40-hour week in his factory in 1926[0]. Later, in 1939, laws were passed that officially established the new only-40-hour week as the norm, with 32 hours as the official mark of full- vs part-time, and anything over 40 being deemed "overtime." At least in the United States, that's the trend. 0. https://www.truthorfictio…

Attributing the 5 day work week to Henry Ford is not placing the credit correctly. He may have been the first big CEO, but it was the work of labor rights activists and unions. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2015/sep/09/viral-imag...

The trade unionists had been pushing for eight-hour days, not five-day weeks. The thing Ford did largely unprompted was switch from six days to five days. Even your own link seems to confuse the two, but is focused on the eight-hour day part of the original false image.
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