I found this little nugget in the Time magazine, the article was about positive changes we make while trying to conserve fuel.
Four day work weeks- apparently Brevard community college in Florida went to a 4 day week last summer session and saved $268,000 in energy costs. The unexpected benefits were the ones I'm interested in- sick leave fell 50% and turnover among the 1,500 staff members dropped 44%.
The conclusion: People are happier and healthier when they have more time off. Didn't I just say that in my last post?
Since we shun vacation time in this country, maybe we should all get on a plan to save energy by making 4 day work weeks mandatory. Make a 4 day school week mandatory as well. Give everyone a 3 day weekend every week. I bet we would see a lot more far reaching positive changes if we did that.
How could it possibly hurt? I mean, we are all working our butts off now and look at the state of the economy. I don't think we could do much damage by working smarter rather than harder and saving a whole lotta energy while we did. Imagine the savings of every company in the US saving $268,000 in energy every quarter!
By the way, the article says some of the other benefits are: bike sales are up and that is good news for our fat butts, and some manufacturing that was over seas is shifting home and that's good for our skinny wallets. Less driving means less wear and tear on the roads, fewer traffic deaths and less pollution. More cop shops are putting officers on the feet beat rather than letting them cruise around from donut shop to donut shop in big old hopped up cop cars, that's good for neighborhoods.
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I would love to do a 4 day week!
I mean most of us are doing at least 8.5 hour days anyway. And I think a lot of people stay late to finish stuff that would get done anyway in a 10 hour day. Companies that deal with time change zones would be able to get more done as well. It might be better if schools were open 5 days though, so parents could have 1 day off without the rug rats around- now wouldn't that be a treat. It might even save a few marriages.
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