I read this on the TIME magazine’s website today.. Utah has a wonderful report card to show for its awesome four day workweek system that it adopted about a year ago. Delightful, isn’t it, to think that there may be a time when we could all have four day workweeks, and take the time off Friday through Sunday to travel around the country, or at least explore the countryside where we live!
Wonderfully, the amazing concept (which has been around in Europe for far too long) is not only wonderful for the employees, who can spend more time with their families and friends and indulge in themselves, but also for the environment, which takes a severe beating every morning when the first employee walks into the office.
From 8.30 in the morning, when the earliest employee non-chalantly switches on all the lights in the office, in anticipation of another (mostly dull) day, till about 8 in the evening, when the janitors finally leave after cleaning every dust-worthy surface, the power meter keeps ticking furiously.
Reducing the workweek by a single day a week, Utah has reduced its energy consumption by 13 percent (of course, if you say it Oprah style, it sounds that much more). But it’s still astonishing, isn’t it? And the employees saved $6 million dollars in gas expenses.
Oh, and if you thought Utah was smart, un.. un.., if you thought Europe was smart, un.. un.., Henry Ford guys, that smart Alec I love to show the big shut eye, he was apparently the loudest supporter of the whole four day workweek idea. Not for humanitarian reasons, though, as I should’ve guessed. But his theory was simple..
Simple as simple that takes me back to the days of The Rise of the Novel. I read in this book a few years ago how factory workers were hard-pressed for leisure time during the Industrial Revolution. Not very long after the Industrial Revolution, Henry Ford decided to impose four day work weeks in his factories, a stinging slap in the face of all that the Industrial Revolution stood for. But he always maintained that if he gave his workers more time for leisure, they would splurge more, which would boost his business. How did I know all of that? Wikiiiiiiiiiiii
Awesome. I’m all for it.. Go Utah, Go Europe. (Psst, I’ll come to you if the goodamn four day workweek doesn’t come to me)
Read the story here —
The Four Day WorkWeek is Winning Fans
