As we all know the world is in an economical crisis, and today my dad had his working week reduced to 4 days, has anybody else been affected in this way
I work 4-day weeks at my current job but it's always been like that because they are long days. So I don't work less hours than someone doing a 5-day week, no.
Kinda funny you should say that, although you're not referring to car dealers. My dad, who runs his own business selling cars, has only sold about 5 cars in the past few months... compared to the usual 2 cars a week - minimum.
I think it's because he has too much expensive stuff hanging around. Most of them have the unusual extras, low mileage and all that, but I think cheap as chips is what anyone buying a car wants right now.
Four day weeks as a method to save money is a horrible idea. A shorter week does allow the company to save money. But then the employees have to work quicker since they have fewer days each week. Shortening the work week of most people would put a burden on the economy. People complain that the economy is slowing, and then they want to fix the problem by making it slower? I think that it is better to pay people less then to make them work less. Then you are getting more work for the same amount of money. People need to stop thinking that they need huge homes and large cars (primarily in the US I think). I think that the US economy is probably bringing down many other economies in other places around the world. People in America tend to think that "anything is possible" and that they can get a big house and expensive car just like the cool people on TV. I have no idea how this goes in other countries, but the US seems to think that they are better then everyone else. Of course, on the other hand, Europe is a little socialist in my opinion. I don't think that Europe is better then the US, or vice versa.
Assholes and bullies run about 99.9% of all companies (official statistic I just made up), so when you question the logic of these decisions you have to remember that the people in charge are the same people that would punch people in school, and tell them to stop hitting themselfs.
A shorter work week is only saving the company money if all the employees can produce what they normally produce in 5 days in the 4 day week... Otherwise the company isn't making any more product... If this is the case that the workers can create more in less time, than they just need better management (one way or another) in the first place....
That is an equally bad idea.The company will then be producing goods and/or services at the same rate, but people will have less money to spend on those goods and/or services, so sales would drop further, only compounding the problem. Haven't you learned anything about economics or even gone over the 'dirty thirties' in history class? Paying people less means they spend less, meaning the companies make less, which means they pay people less, which means they spend less, which means...
Actually, I'd have to believe that the heads of these companies are the ones who were "punching themselves" in highschool, and they are now bullying the bullies who have shite jobs and now work for them...Ah, the circle of life...
The flip side to shorter work weeks is working four 10 hour days to still make the 40 hour work week.
The workers spend less money in fuel to get to work, they get an extra full day off, and they get the same pay.
The company gets the same amount of production as the workers are still putting in 40 hours. But, the company also gets to shut down an extra day saving on utilities. Shutting down an extra 4 days per week when your utilities are in the $100-200,000 per month range can be significant.
This is of course based on a 5 day workforce. We have both 5 day and 7 day/2 shift (12 hour work days) workforces. When the company wanted to save on utilities, they put the 5 day folks on a four 10 hour week.
My week so far: Monday was a normal day. I started work at about 8:30am on Tuesday morning, worked through until about 6pm on Wednesday evening (with breaks for meals of course), slept until about 6:30am Thursday, started work again about 8am Thursday, I'm still working now (5am Friday) and will probably be working 'til about lunchtime.
I've got a few things I need to do over the weekend too.
I hope this economic slowdown reaches some of our customers soon.
Ah, so this doesn't mean workers get a 20% reduction in hours (and thus, pay), but just one extra day for the weekend. I took it to mean that every week workers lost 8 hours of pay. On that side of the coin, this change makes sense from an economic point of view. From a morale standpoint it's up for debate, though. Longer day, versus longer weekend. Tough call to make, I think.
Even still, Are all companies instating a 4-day working week taking this approach, or are some simply axing a day from the work week?
I work for a molding company producing among other things, automotive bumpers and interior parts. The automotive production is slowed down in that we are able to make production and shipments without busting tail. That department is still working a 24/7 12 hour shift work week.
Some of our other departments who were not working 24/7 has bumped and gone back between 5 day - 8 hour shift and 4 day - 10 hour shift through out the year. That has more to do with these people/department is a newer technology.
The US economy is failing right now in the sense that the rich are not getting richer, the mediocre such as me is stuck at the same level we've been stuck at for the past 5-6 years. The mediocre folks have been in a recession for years now. And our government wants us to bail out the rich folks. That's all the bailout is, the lower income tax payers bailing out the rich so that they can step all over us again.
Except that research has shown that people can only be productive for 8 hours per day. Days of 10 hours means that 2 hours are spent on coffee, chatting, private phone calls, and generally goofing off. So the boss can save cost on utilities, but he gets 20% less production for the same wages.
Yeah, I guess you're right. The only solution is to send people to prison for not paying off their debt. Then they would be given a job (such as making shirts or something), and they would be in prison until their debt was paid off. I'm not kidding, it sounds like a decent solution.
Either you're kidding or your brains went AWOL. The economical value of prison labor is negligible, and probably less than the cost of emprisonment. Plus, their families would have to live on welfare.
How about the Indian solution: Forcing them to sell their own kids as slaves (or, if none left, themselves).
I highly doubt that as I know I was being at least 95% productive during 14 - 18hr days for 2 months straight including working weekends. Crunch time trying to make a demo to get a project published. Most of the team worked at the brute force schedule and we all came out with an amazing piece of work at the end of time. Team size of about 6 or so... I can't say much about the majority, your statement may stand true; mainly for those with no work effort. Actually that is where the statement is coming from anyways. The only breaks most the team was taking was for sleeping or eating... And half the time we ate at our desks.
I'm talking real workers here, not office people who spend 80% of their day sitting around chit chatting. They can try to screw off chatting, drinking coffee, making private phone calls, and generally goofing off all they want. They are still standing in front of their machine and the machine is still spitting out anywhere from 5 to 20 parts every minute or two that needs trimmed, set on the racks, inserts inserted, and packaged. Spend any time trying to do the goofing off you list and they will be lost to the world underneath quite a mountain of large expanded foam parts in short order.
That brings me to the other part of my argument: if you don't take breaks on a long workday (or are not allowed to) then you will make more errors, which cost money and thus decrease effective productivity. I'm talking about long-term here: a short period of crunch time to make a deadline may be effective. But in the long run, excessive overtime will wear you out and harm productivity.
If you don't believe me, read Evan Robinson's article "Why Crunch Mode Doesn't Work". He backs it up with research from a century ago:
