4 ms·

The work week went from 6 days to 5 and economy growth didn’t stall (when people were waaay less productive) My bet is literally nothing will change if we go t

The work week went from 6 days to 5 and economy growth didn’t stall (when people were waaay less productive) My bet is literally nothing will change if we go to 4-day work week. Can’t say about others but my productivity goes way up with an extra weekend. I am way more rested and eager to do some work in Monday.

nickff 3y ago
Reducing the number of days worked per week per individual increases (relative) overhead costs, including administrative costs, benefits (most notably including healthcare), and capital costs (because everything is being used less, but still devaluing). These are all real changes with real impacts. Also of note, the increase in these costs from going down to 4 days will be substantially larger than the prior one (due to the smaller dividend).
- ipaddr 3y ago
  Capital costs spent do not go up. An opportunity for saving exist. One extra day means less electrical costs. Admin costs remain static. These costs do not change unless you are hiring someone for that one day. The costs are not going up substantially or at all for most 9/5 businesses
  - nickff 3y ago
    Capital expense is ~= depreciation, which is inversely proportional to the amount of work performed with a given capital asset.
    - ipaddr 3y ago
      Why would depreciation increase with less usage? Wouldn't the opposite occur? Chairs last longer. Copier would last longer.
Gustomaximus 3y ago
I suspect we'd see a bunch of change. A difference of when we moved 6 to 5 days is in those times most business were closed on the weekends + generally people were more tied to one company for longer term. Plus 2 days off is very different than 3 in terms of alternate work opportunity. From that a likely issue is a steep increase in people having second jobs so they work a 4 day job and a second 2/3 day job. I suspect the 4 day week will work well for people with good salaries and market power, but encourage working class to 'work the weekend' in alternate jobs resulting in lower downtime. For this I'd actually like a 4 day week but with it either more restricted business opening on Sunday type thing or significant wage multiples over 3 day weekends to encourage time off vs the 24/7 economy.
- ghaff 3y ago
  I suspect a lot of the people yearning for 4 day work weeks wouldn't actually want to return to the days when most stores and other institutions were closed on Sundays.
  - Sakos 3y ago
    As somebody who lives in Germany where everything is closed on Sundays, uh, it really isn't that bad. It's fine, actually. I'll take 4 day work weeks happily.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      As someone who went to school in a state where almost nothing was open on Sunday at the time it was pretty annoying given that I was usually pretty busy (or what passed for it at the time) the other 6 days. These days I wouldn't really care because I have a lot of flexibility.

nickff 3y ago

Reducing the number of days worked per week per individual increases (relative) overhead costs, including administrative costs, benefits (most notably including healthcare), and capital costs (because everything is being used less, but still devaluing). These are all real changes with real impacts. Also of note, the increase in these costs from going down to 4 days will be substantially larger than the prior one (due to the smaller dividend).

ipaddr 3y ago
Capital costs spent do not go up. An opportunity for saving exist. One extra day means less electrical costs. Admin costs remain static. These costs do not change unless you are hiring someone for that one day. The costs are not going up substantially or at all for most 9/5 businesses
- nickff 3y ago
  Capital expense is ~= depreciation, which is inversely proportional to the amount of work performed with a given capital asset.
  - ipaddr 3y ago
    Why would depreciation increase with less usage? Wouldn't the opposite occur? Chairs last longer. Copier would last longer.

Gustomaximus 3y ago

I suspect we'd see a bunch of change. A difference of when we moved 6 to 5 days is in those times most business were closed on the weekends + generally people were more tied to one company for longer term. Plus 2 days off is very different than 3 in terms of alternate work opportunity. From that a likely issue is a steep increase in people having second jobs so they work a 4 day job and a second 2/3 day job. I suspect the 4 day week will work well for people with good salaries and market power, but encourage working class to 'work the weekend' in alternate jobs resulting in lower downtime. For this I'd actually like a 4 day week but with it either more restricted business opening on Sunday type thing or significant wage multiples over 3 day weekends to encourage time off vs the 24/7 economy.

ghaff 3y ago
I suspect a lot of the people yearning for 4 day work weeks wouldn't actually want to return to the days when most stores and other institutions were closed on Sundays.
- Sakos 3y ago
  As somebody who lives in Germany where everything is closed on Sundays, uh, it really isn't that bad. It's fine, actually. I'll take 4 day work weeks happily.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    As someone who went to school in a state where almost nothing was open on Sunday at the time it was pretty annoying given that I was usually pretty busy (or what passed for it at the time) the other 6 days. These days I wouldn't really care because I have a lot of flexibility.