> I hypothesize that productivity can be maximized with a 7-day workweek but a shorter workday to keep the # of hours constant, eliminating the loss of producti

> I hypothesize that productivity can be maximized with a 7-day workweek but a shorter workday to keep the # of hours constant, eliminating the loss of productivity between weekends. I take it you don't have children, elderly or disabled family, other responsibilities outside work, or even hobbies? Having a day free to go shopping, take a hike, do laundry, and even just not have to worry about stresses from work is critical. Having two of them sequentially provides even more benefit because for one of them you don't have to plan to get up the next day and go back to work. The answer is obviously not 7 day work weeks, and obviously not 0 day work weeks, but is 5 on 2 off optimal, or is there room for improvement? I have family who switched from 5 8 hour days (plus substantial overtime and on-call) to 3 12 hour days, and the difference in their health, mood, and energy levels is enormous. They get more done better at work than they did before, their job satisfaction is way up, and even their personal finances are night and day compared to before, even though they're making the same exact yearly dollar amount. > 7-day workweek but a shorter workday to keep the # of hours constant Why is 40 hours a sacred value? Why is it important that employees perform exactly 40 hours of labor per 168 hour period? > eliminating the loss of productivity between weekends. As a software developer with pretty free reign to do whatever helps the business the most, I would bet a paycheck that weekends create more productivity than they "lose". Over the weekend I've come up with ideas that saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. If I didn't have time to myself to relax and gather my thoughts, if every day was sitting there churning out code, I can't imagine I'd have even considered those things. Thinking about it I bet I could even go over my past work and compare average productivity to weeks where I was just on-call over the weekend. I imagine there'd be a measurable drop after on-call weekends, even if I never was actually called.