Where are they?

[rocki]

My apologies. I stand corrected. However, the question still remains.


 

I think the answer is pretty much put out there in bignecks response: "Your answer to all of your complaints is reforming the workplace."
Many employers are placing higher demands on people's time, which leads to less time to do anything else, while also only paying them enough to "barely survive" (and you can almost completely forget about saving enough to buy a home or putting anything away towards retirement). At the same time, people want a better "work-life balance" so they can actually see their family members and occasionally have the ability to take a break.

I know that I am extremely fortunate in that my job allows me to work from 8-4:30 M-F, with weekends off, decent vacation time, and pays enough that I don't have to take a second job. I just wish that what I have was the "norm" rather than the "exception".

 

At the risk of going way off track here, what workplace reformation is suggested?

[ST_Lawson]

At the risk of going way off track here, what workplace reformation is suggested?

 

I don't really want to get too political here, but if you want my own personal opinion, I'd like to see a few things like:

• Required paid vacation time
• Required paid sick time
• Paid leave for new parents
• Minimum Wage increase

For a full-time 40 hours/week job, something like 28 paid vacation days per year, 12 sick days per year, and 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents. Set the federal minimum wage of $14 and tie it to something like annual inflation.

There's a lot of other ideas that would also help but aren't directly related to workplace reforms...disconnecting health care/insurance from your job (so people don't have to stick around at a horrible job just so they can have health insurance), easing requirements on parking minimums and housing regulations to allow for more housing to be built (which would reduce home prices), etc.

Implementing these regulations would help to ease the physical, mental, and financial toll that many jobs put on people, and would allow them to do more things like taking time off of work to referee some baseball games in the summer, pick up an additional part-time job as a bus driver or crossing guard, or just generally be more engaged in their communities.

[bignecks]

Personally, I'm in favor of shortening the work week/day. Just taking to 7 hour days could be a big difference for helping people feel more alive and have more time to do the things talked about in the initial post. 

[ST_Lawson]

Personally, I'm in favor of shortening the work week/day. Just taking to 7 hour days could be a big difference for helping people feel more alive and have more time to do the things talked about in the initial post. 

 

Also a good idea too. Depending on the job, 7 hour work days, or 4 workday weeks might be possibilities.

[rocki]

Alrighty, then.

[sealhall74]

4 day work week a great idea as long as that day off is put to good use.  Take your turn driving the school bus, performing teacher aid duties, lunch room monitoring, etc. in schools would be one great way.  Other way would be to take your turn performing day care for young kids in your home. Day care costs are killing parents today.

[rocki]

4 day work week a great idea as long as that day off is put to good use.  Take your turn driving the school bus, performing teacher aid duties, lunch room monitoring, etc. in schools would be one great way.  Other way would be to take your turn performing day care for young kids in your home. Day care costs are killing parents today.

 

Yeah, that'll happen.

[Tere North]

Personally, I'm in favor of shortening the work week/day. Just taking to 7 hour days could be a big difference for helping people feel more alive and have more time to do the things talked about in the initial post. 


 

Also a good idea too. Depending on the job, 7 hour work days, or 4 workday weeks might be possibilities.

 

Western already has a 7.5 hr workday, while most other jobs work 8hrs/day.

So now 7hrs/day. I and presume you want the same pay, right.

Does than same apply for 4days/wk.

So 7 hrs/d for 4 days/wk would be 28hrs vs 37.5hrs/wk, for the same weekly pay???
 

[ST_Lawson]

Personally, I'm in favor of shortening the work week/day. Just taking to 7 hour days could be a big difference for helping people feel more alive and have more time to do the things talked about in the initial post. 





 

Also a good idea too. Depending on the job, 7 hour work days, or 4 workday weeks might be possibilities.


 

Western already has a 7.5 hr workday, while most other jobs work 8hrs/day.

So now 7hrs/day. I and presume you want the same pay, right.

Does than same apply for 4days/wk.

So 7 hrs/d for 4 days/wk would be 28hrs vs 37.5hrs/wk, for the same weekly pay???


 

I think the idea is that it would be 4 days of "regular hours" (whether that's 7.5 or 8 or whatever) for the same annual salary.

The experiment uses a 100-80-100 model: workers get 100% of the pay for working 80% of the time in exchange for delivering 100% of their usual output.

A trial done in the UK last year across 61 companies showed a significant decrease in both levels of stress and sick days taken, with actually a slight increase in overall productivity:

According to surveys of participants, 71 percent of respondents reported lower levels of burnout, and 39 percent reported being less stressed than when they began the test. Companies experienced 65 percent fewer sick and personal days. And the number of resignations dropped by more than half, compared with an earlier six-month period. Despite employees logging fewer work hours, companies’ revenues barely changed during the test period. In fact, they actually increased slightly, by 1.4 percent on average.

There have also been pilot programs by companies in the US, Japan, and New Zealand testing the idea as well, also with equivalent (or slightly increased) productivity. The idea is that many jobs involve a not-insignificant amount of time in essentially pointless meetings or attempting to just "look busy" while not actually doing anything. Cutting out that extra time and allowing the employees to do something else outside of work can have significant benefits. Obviously it won't work for every business in every industry, but there's a large number of them, especially traditional "office jobs" where it could be an attractive option.

Like I said earlier, I love my situation working at the university, but I'm pretty sure I could get the same amount of work done that I do now in 80% of the actual time spent in my office.

Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ductivity/
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/four-day-workweek
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/24/worlds- ... efits.html
https://www.inc.com/brit-morse/four-day ... ition.html
 
 

[vatusay]

Inflation already has a death grip on the lower/middle class. 

less production for more pay would not help.