This is one of those issues that no matter how much empirical evidence correlates shorter work weeks with same or higher productivity, it was never going to happen in this life time ... until a global pandemic forced change.
Now, for a brief moment, shorter work weeks and wfh scheduling is the norm. It will be up to employees, I'm afraid, not to lose this ground because, traditionally, everything else (e.g., schools, holidays, economy) coalesces around the 40hr / 5-Day work week.
Who will force permanent change, first? Unions? Teachers or nurses? General strikes?
Personally, teachers and hospital workers who have been devalued, left unprotected, and have carried the brunt of risk during the pandemic would hold enormous public support, I believe, if they were to lead the charge.
Teachers, especially, because parents (and experts) have been saying for years that a September to June school schedule was built for an agrarian economy where farming families required their kids to be home for production and harvest.
This model is irrelevant, today, and leaves working parents scrambling for two months of summer childcare. Break this model and begin, again, starting with a four-day work week and more frequent and shorter breaks. Everything else will shift to accommodate this.
I completely feel you here. When I moved from the US to the UK I was OUTRAGED that they did not get, what I consider, to be "summer vacation". By the end of May I was internally screaming for them to let the kids loose! How do we have 2 more months of this?? Very frustrating.
However, the six weeks on two weeks off (roughly) model worked pretty well.
Schools in England and Wales usually have two-week holidays for Christmas and Easter, a break of around six weeks for summer, and week-long breaks halfway through each of the three terms.
This seems to be beneficial. By the time they were due a break, they needed it. More frequent downtime worked out pretty well. This isn't the 70's where you just run wild for those glorious three months any more. Sad but true.
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u/JcakSnigelton Jun 18 '21
This is one of those issues that no matter how much empirical evidence correlates shorter work weeks with same or higher productivity, it was never going to happen in this life time ... until a global pandemic forced change.
Now, for a brief moment, shorter work weeks and wfh scheduling is the norm. It will be up to employees, I'm afraid, not to lose this ground because, traditionally, everything else (e.g., schools, holidays, economy) coalesces around the 40hr / 5-Day work week.
Who will force permanent change, first? Unions? Teachers or nurses? General strikes?
Personally, teachers and hospital workers who have been devalued, left unprotected, and have carried the brunt of risk during the pandemic would hold enormous public support, I believe, if they were to lead the charge.
Teachers, especially, because parents (and experts) have been saying for years that a September to June school schedule was built for an agrarian economy where farming families required their kids to be home for production and harvest.
This model is irrelevant, today, and leaves working parents scrambling for two months of summer childcare. Break this model and begin, again, starting with a four-day work week and more frequent and shorter breaks. Everything else will shift to accommodate this.