To me it seems (I'm not very serious, it just seems) the only real reason against 4-day workweeks everywhere are alcoholics. I knew too many people who woold spend whatever free time they get drinking booze, this way harming the society. We probably need a study on how numerous these are, also compared to those who would use extra spare time for any sort of good (including pure resting, education, friends/family etc).
Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
271–280 of 367 posts
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#272To me it seems (I'm not very serious, it just seems) the only real reason against 4-day workweeks everywhere are alcoholics. I knew too many people who woold spend whatever free time they get drinking booze, this way harming the society. We probably need a study on how numerous these are, also compared to those who would use extra spare time for any sort of good (including pure resting, education, friends/family etc)…
Ridiculous, should we avoid vacations altogether as someone might end up drinking too much? Is that the way we decide how to set our society?
Alcoholism is a different problem from workaholism.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
One year a company did mandatory 'half-day Fridays' during the summer where the company closed after a half day on Friday. But in order to do that we had to work 9 hour days Monday - Thursday. That extra hour those four days felt torturous, so it meant four days of feeling awful just so I could leave a few hours early on a day in which most people (and myself) already weren't working too hard anyway. I hated it. This…
I had a job that offered your choice of 4x10 or 5x8. Many people took the 4x10 but then discovered they couldn't handle 10 hour days every day. Like you said, the last 1-2 hours were so unproductive they might as well have been not working. So some people didn't even try to work those last 2 hours. They'd sit at their desks and watch things or play games, pretending to work when anyone came in. Kind of ruined it for…
So you traded 1 whole day for 2h a day to do whatever you wanted but at the office?
Sounds like you spread Friday across the other days. Still a good deal to me, I'd take some online courses or something I wanted to do anyway in my free time.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the contrary, from a moral standpoint you owe your children everything. You forced them into existence without their consent. Though I agree that doesn't have to mean conforming to societal expectations of ivy league schools and so forth. Food, love and a roof over your head goes a long way.
I cannot put my finger on why I dislike this comment so deeply but I am a parent and I suspect you are not. To be specific I dislike your framing and use of the word "forced". I do agree though that parents should deeply love and support their kids which is what it sounds like you are trying to say. And in turn, your kids should do the same despite "generational differences".
> I cannot put my finger on why I dislike this comment so deeply but I am a parent and I suspect you are not.
I am also a parent.
> I do agree though that parents should deeply love and support their kids which is what it sounds like you are trying to say.
Loving your kids is not a moral obligation, though most do (for the record, I love mine very much). Supporting your kids is a moral obligation, whether you love them or not, incurred by creating them.
> And in turn, your kids should do the same despite "generational differences".
I disagree. Our kids will never be morally obligated towards us in any way. We can only hope to have loved and supported them enough for them to love and support us back of their own volition.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem isn't that companies are "afraid of not growing", or governments are "afraid to cut spending", it's that they've already signed off on paying back loans over the span of decades and were expecting to be able to pay off those loans with the value created by a growing population. It's less about fear and more about economic realities.
Western governments hardly operate on a shoestring budget, rather they've spent generations spending profligately with the assumption that massive sustained economic growth would bail them out without having to make any hard tradeoffs. That strategy has worked out ok so far but it has always been a fragile one and we might be entering an era where it fails to work in many places. The transition to much lower deficit…
Well, mainly the majority of wealth is being focused in the hands of a minority of private individuals and corporations which rather hamstrings the budget.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure about rest of the world, but here in Switzerland mothers often take Wednesdays off - first years of school its not on Wednesdays, and then it starts with just mornings. Wife has it and she repeatedly claimed that she will never go back to 5 days workweek. Most employers, be it private or state ones have 0 issues with this setup. 20% less, maybe 15% net income less ain't that huge of a deal - if it is, someth…
> 20% less, maybe 15% net income less ain't that huge of a deal - if it is, something ain't right in your finances anyway or else, something maybe horribly broken in your country . I'm happy for you, that you can easily dismiss 15% net income. Try that in Hungary, where generally two full time jobs together are nearly insufficient just to stay afloat. > One needs to be happy or at least content with its own life to m…
Doesn't help that the average attitude of people here of mental health is that it doesn't exist.
My family used to believe, adn they still do, that the only reason you'd go to psychiatrist is because you're "weird" and that only crazies who belong in mental hospital go there...
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#277That sounds....huge. I know many working couples where one would probably take that in a heartbeat. You lose some money, but gain more family time and sanity. Having Friday to finish chores and being able to enjoy the weekend unstressed is huge, not to mention clocking out early each day to be able to pick up your kid and not have to get back to work or whatever.
> You lose some money, but gain more family time and sanity. Having Friday to finish chores and being able to enjoy the weekend unstressed is huge
during my last job search i was thinking exactly the same. id' hapily give up the usual 10-15% pay rise i look for when hopping from one job to another, maybe even consider giving up a 5-15% in order to get a 4-days work week.
I'm not rich by any means, but right now in my life "more money" don't appeal to me that much but more free time certainly does.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#278Im not really understand that preasure for this. Imo its much more sane
to reduce working day from 8 hours to 6 hours.. You then use 12 hrs day shifts
and use 2x6 or either 4x6 only for critical stuff like medical, some specialized industries, etc.. Mon-Fri and weekend free sound just about good fit.
Remember that you can always take a day off as well.
Is scary that big cities never sleeps. People moan about depression, about lack of good sleep, wellbeing. Well, you created shitty environment for yourself...
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Raising small children is an extreme challenge that requires all your resources Indeed, and in the past, this would've been offset by everyone around the parents - the old, the young, the other families and the childless aunts and uncles - all chiming in to share the burden. Social security & retiremenet is basically an attempt to give a substitute for that, for the village , but things are getting more and more pa…
Someone close to me told me they chose to have two kids because they didn't want the burden and responsibility of caring for their parents to fall solely onto one child.
It still might, eventually. One kid will live too far away, the other will have family with small children, etc. and the burden will end up falling on the one who's closest and/or doesn't have kids of their own.
Re: Tokyo is set to introduce a four-day workweek for government employees
#280so public services will be even less accessible to the rest of the people?