A company in Denton, Texas, replicates the results of a recent study overseas that shows reducing worker hours without cutting their pay increases retention, and even productivity. Is this some anti-capitalist nonsense, or capitulation to Progressive unionism? Or, is it a recognition that if you treat people well, they’ll work harder and stay with you?
Right Angle is a production of our Members. Scott Ott and Stephen Green are grateful to Zo Rachel for stepping up this week in place of Bill Whittle, who’s coming back soon.
35 replies on “Cut Worker Hours But Not Worker Pay: Recipe for Employee Retention and Productivity”
I recall reading an article in the 80’s stating that within 20 years we were going to have to find new things to do with our time because robots and automation were going to reduce the amount of work we had to do to achieve similar results. It predicted a future of a services economy.
I also recall thinking- then how are we going to be paid? Because despite the fact that productivity continues to rise, there is never a mechanism to continue to pay people for the hours they are now not needed. Instead, we just lay a few people off and gain the same benefit from a smaller group of people.
This sort of problem misses the concept that really all ANY job or work is about is finding something productive for people to do with their time. I ask the question- what value would ANY company be to our society if it only made a lot of money, and employed no people?
Oddly not playing here or on Rumble. Just tested another video on Rumble and it plays. Something’s off.
Not sure what’s happening on Rumble. I fiddled around with it, and then reloaded this page and now it plays for me. Numbers indicate that it was working, then it wasn’t. Weird.
Rumble is glitchy, and it seems more so in recent weeks. I know this comment is unhelpful, but you’re not alone experiencing these sort of First World woes. Perhaps they have their whatsitamathingic stuck in the floozer.
Oh, trust me, weird happens. I’ve been in IT a long time. I get it.
David, If Rumble would reverse the polarity of their framistat, their frenulator would start brimpling again. I’m sure of it.
I just noticed the audio versions of this week’s episodes are not showing up on stitcher. Could someone take a look at this?
This is a known issue and should be resolved in the coming days. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Thanks, Scott Ott.
EDIT- It’s working again.
My late father, a career US Army officer from the late 30’s to the late 50’s, initially put in six day weeks. By the early 50’s they had become five and a half day weeks. The half day was a stinker because he still had all the commuting cost for that day.
My own work career was mostly a forty hour week, but with rotating days off (a killer) and different shifts. Toward the end I was able to work four ten hour days for a time. I LOVED that! A whole extra day to recover and have a productive weekend. And yeah, take an occasional second, or third job to keep the family afloat.
I worked my small business 4 days per week for at least ten years. We even threw a kink into that. We worked Monday thru Thursday one week and Tuesday thru Friday the next. It worked great and we had very, very few problems with it. Two four day weekends per month was the cat’s.
Zo’s “law” that you must work for an employer on a paying job six days of the week is absurd. God never said that. He said you work six days and rest on the seventh, he didn’t say anything at all about having to work at a specific job six days a week.
I’m about to explain why this is so in depth. If you don’t like me doing that too bad, your option is to not click “read more” and that is your only option. Except of course whining, go ahead and do that if it floats your boat.
In ancient times when that instruction was given there were percentage-wise few actual employees as we think of them today. Farmers and vintners worked on their own property for themselves. The proceeds were enough to keep a family going but there are long stretches of time that it would be completely uneconomical to have a full time paid employee on hand. Carpenters and builders did most of the work themselves and took most of the pay for themselves. When more labor was needed people were hired as what today we’d call ‘day workers’ and paid by the day at the end of the day.
Wealthy landowners, nobles and officials might have large enough concerns to keep a workforce on hand every working day but God did not say Zo’s “law” applied only to employees of the wealthy.
Thus I’m not at all concerned about Zo’s “law” that you shall work 6 days and rest on the 7th. That needs to be taken in historical context, that was an instruction to the ancient Hebrews not an immutable Law of God.
Obviously if you do 6 days worth of work in 4 days you are producing the same as if you worked all six days. So that’s a wash, work-wise. If you do any other work during the three days you have off from your regular job it’s still work. Be that cleaning the garage, mowing the lawn, selling things on EBay or anything else that is ‘work’. The Bible and God do not say you have to work at your salaried or time compensated formal job for six days of the week.
But that’s the impression Zo conveyed else he wouldn’t have made the point of working 6 days in the manner that he did.
There are feasts and holy days in the Bible that admonish people not to work on those days. Being as we know God cannot break his own laws clearly there are exceptions to working 6 days and resting on the seventh day without fail week-in, week-out year round. Which means that “six days shall you work and rest on the seventh” is not actually a Law from God to put in a 48 hour week at your job and I think Zo needs to look into that a bit more before making a declaration on it.
Also during some holy convocations and feast days the Hebrews were required to make their way to where the Tabernacle or Temple stood. I’m pretty sure Zo does not faithfully go to the Wailing Wall for each of those more than ten annual occasions. If he can afford that, BWC is paying him too much … 😉 Even though that was ALSO an instruction given to the Ancient Hebrews.
Even Jesus Himself clearly stated “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28)
He said that in response to Pharisees accusing Him of unlawful behavior on the Sabbath. Legalism is a trap that Jesus refused to fall into. “The Law” that six days you work at your paying job or else you’re breaking God’s Law is legalism.
And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?” (Luke 14:5)
Clearly the Sabbath and by inference the other six days of the week are not bound by some immutable, unbreakable, rigid Law of God because God in the form of Jesus didn’t see things that way. Neither should Zo if he’s going to profess to be a preacher.
This is one of the major problems with Zo trying to apply immutable Biblical principles to everything that comes up. There are places in the conversation that works and places it does not. It does not work for everything anyone ever talks about and I do not begrudge him applying Biblical doctrines when they are appropriate. Not everything is covered by some rigid Law or Principle and those things that are should not be taken lightly or misrepresented in an open conversation not of a theological nature.
“Thou shalt not take the Lord’s Name in vain” is a Law and does not mean uttering His title (which is ‘God’, a title like King or Minister that is not a name) in a curse, though you should not do that either. Because curses have consequences.
In the original Hebrew the “take” part of that Commandment means “to take up, to carry”. In other words to ACT, not just speak or write, to take up as God that which is not God. To attribute to God that which is not of God. To act claiming the authority of God without His permission or direction.
Attributing an instruction to ancient Hebrews as a Law justifying the pronouncement that you must work for a formal employer six days a week is taking the name of the Lord in vain.
Because God never said any such thing.
We all mess up. I’m sure I mess up a lot more than Zo does. I love the guy and he’s a serious plus to this enterprise. I’m always happy to see him on The Virtue Signal or when Bill has issues and he fills in on Right Angle. Or anytime else for that matter. I subscribe to his channel on YouTube, I’ve watched pretty much everything he’s been in including the one movie I’m aware of.
I’m not trying to shoot Zo Rachel down here. I’m trying to point out that God does not need Zo’s help to shoehorn God into every aspect of every conversation and often when Zo does that it is an occasion for error or misrepresentation.
It’s hard enough to get the Gospel out to people without someone trapped in a job they hate thinking God said they should work there six days out of the week. God never said that.
I am also in agreement that Zo applies biblical principles when, I feel, they do not belong in that particular conversation. In another episode with Bill he falsely stated that “Jesus had sinned, but was sympathetic to those that sinned.” That is a totally false statement. Nowhere in the Bible does it state that Jesus had sinned. It’s a very important fact in His life that He was totally without sin. I submitted a comment calling that out. Zo has made some very important observations that I have admired and agreed with, and he adds a “joyful” tone to many episodes. Again, I have to agree with the above responder that he introduces religious views that I feel are not appropriate to the discussion being presented. Your podcast is excellent, and my favorite!
Thanks for the reply, I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one noticing this stuff.
I missed the instance you cite but I’m a Christian, I make no excuses or apologies for that fact. If Zo said that Jesus sinned and it wasn’t just an accidental misspeak then Zo isn’t a Christian by the conventionally accepted concepts of The Faith. There is no sound mainstream theological doctrine that would agree with a statement like that. The whole of Christianity pivots around the Unblemished Lamb of God being sacrificed in our stead. If Yeshua Hamashiach* had sinned even once then that’s a deal killer of the same scope as if He hadn’t been raised from the dead.
If Jesus wasn’t sinless then His sacrifice on the cross was meaningless. In that case He was just another man making claims about Himself. Which means He wasn’t God the Son of God and the Son of Man, he was just a religious nut like so many the world has seen. If that were the case, and it most certainly is not, then following Jesus is no more valid than following Mohammed. The idea that Jesus sinned demotes Jesus and denies his Godhood. This would be a clear Christian blasphemy.
Zo reminds me of people recently come to The Faith that are so heavenly minded they’re no earthly good. I want to hear the attitudes and logic of a Christian Believer applied in practical terms I can actually use in everyday life. I know the what, I’m always open to hearing the how. I don’t need a sermon every time Zo speaks, I already know everything he’s sermonizing on. It is the viewpoints and application of The Faith that are vital.
In a recent Virtue Signal Bill had to call Zo back from a Biblical rant several times. Bill did this politely but Zo ignored him doing that until Zo finally gave up on the sermonizing and actually got down to practicalities. Zo should have started with the practicalities because those are the real application of The Faith.
This stuff goes out on YouTube and Rumble where there are many, many non-believers who do not acknowledge the authority of the Bible. Which means as soon as you start spouting Bible verses their minds turn you off.
It’s counterproductive to try to ram the Bible down people’s throats. What works much better is to display the attitudes and reasoning of The Faith so that those people think along the lines of …
“I agree with these positions. Wait … What? The guy is a Christian? Maybe there’s something to this Bible stuff and I should pay more attention to it!”
If you want to preach The Word you have to open people’s hearts before you can open their minds. The Faith speaks to the heart not the head. It will speak to any heart as long as the head has not shut it down.
The more Zo tries to shoehorn in a sermon, the more he’s liable to make mistakes. It’s not easy to sermonize on the fly in a conversation. Real preachers and ministers spend a lot of time in prayer and contemplation on their sermons just to avoid that very problem. No preacher worthy of the title ‘just wings it”. The stakes are too high for that.
If Zo said what you say he did, and I’m not disagreeing with you but I didn’t catch that, then I have to seriously rethink Zo and his projection of his faith. Because if he said that, whatever Zo is preaching it is not The Faith.
The first time I pointed out this situation, on one of the very next videos Zo said “I am a preacher after all” and I cannot help but think he was talking to me having seen my comment. Maybe, maybe not but that was my impression. Being a “preacher” does not make a person infallible and it is an illogical appeal to authority that can’t be respected without evidence to back it up. Claims mean nothing, deeds mean everything.
* (Just for the benefit of anyone not familiar with that Name — That’s Jesus’ actual name in Hebrew. It translates as “Jesus the Messiah” or “Jesus the Anointed (King)”. Greek was the dominant international language of the day and His Name in greek is Ἰησοῦς Χριστός’, in our alphabet that’s Iēsous Christos. Iēsous is the Greek version of Yeshua. In Latin Iēsous becomes Jesus the same as Pablo in Spanish is Paul in English. In Jesus ‘milk tongue’ first language of Galilean Aramaic — The language Jesus and his family including his mother who named Him spoke — He was called Isho Mishiha. That’s the phonetic pronunciation of His name in Aramaic. I could go on about the etymology of Jesus Name, it’s a fascinating study but the important point is — He is God, the Son of God, if you address Him with whatever Name you call Him by, HE knows Who you are talking to. There’s some non-theological nonsense going around that if you don’t call Him by his Hebrew Name He won’t ‘hear’ you. That’s absurd. The idea that the Creator of the Universe can’t discern the intent of your heart is counter-Biblical blasphemy. )
Interesting, I didn’t take it as Zo saying you had to have a job for 6 days. I thought he was saying that the “Be fruitful and multiply” we two distinct commands. Be fruitful in the sense of be productive and work to support yourself and your family. That might entail fixing the gutters this Saturday so they don’t create a problem. But go to church on Sunday and be with my family on the 7th day.
Didn’t interpret what he was saying as have a job and work for someone else 6 days a week.
I watched the video over again, carefully, to determine if how you took it fit in context. I don’t’ think it does. The topic of the video is “work week” — Starting at 8:00 Zo talks about this topic and repeatedly mentions “work week” (4 times in so many words), talks about unions and “the Godless” who want to “lessen their work week” which “flies in face of the Commandment … blah blah blah”. He also says “That’s the Commandment, it’s a Law … You don’t work you don’t eat”.
Obviously cleaning the gutters on a Saturday afternoon has nothing to do with work that results in the procurement of food (or anything but clean gutters).
He says people are advocating for a “lesser work week” out of spite. I don’t think not cleaning your gutters could be considered spiteful … Unwise maybe, harming no one but yourself, but hardly spiteful.
There are several verses in the Old Testament regarding being fruitful. Context is always vital so I have included the context of the citation …
“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) Here God is speaking to Adam on the Sixth Day.
“Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” (Genesis 8:17) Clearly animals do not engage in production. Here God is speaking to Noah telling him to exit the Ark.
“Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9:1) Here God is talking to Noah about the Covenant of the Rainbow.
“And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein” (Genesis 9:7). Here God is speaking to Noah after the flood as he departs the Ark.
“And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants.” (Genesis 35:11) Here God is speaking to Jacob when he named him Israel.
“I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 36:11) Here God is speaking about the Land of Israel.
Etc.
In context where it’s mentioned in the Bible; “being fruitful” more often means procreation. Not production, reproduction. You could substitute the word “industrious” and it wouldn’t have the same meaning. “Industriousness” and “increasing in number” are not synonymous and would only vaguely apply if you’re talking about industriously procreating.
Which does kinda sound like fun but that’s not the point.
There are other passages that mention fruit and fruitfulness but that’s not the context here as regards this topic/video. Where the context indicates “fruitfulness” is procreative it must be interpreted as such.
If you take what Zo says in context he’s clearly talking about a job, not just staying busy and not slacking off on your off time.
I like Zo, I think his intentions are good. That doesn’t mean everything he says is infallably Biblical and not all situations have a corresponding Biblical admonishment, command or Law. He’s trying to be a witness, I get it. I think he tries so hard that sometimes he sticks his foot in his mouth. That’s easy to do if you try to shoehorn the Bible into every bit of every conversation.
The good news is he has excellent company in that. The Apostle Simon Peter did the same thing quite a bit. Jesus loved Peter anyway, which gives hope to us all. Because Peter could be a real PITA sometimes.
Anyone who has ever operated a business knows how hard it is to get and keep good employees. This method of cutting the work week may help with that problem significantly but it carries quite a lot of risk too.
Clock punchers and clock watchers are the bane of any business. To my thinking it’s fine and dandy to cut the work week as long as the employer has the ability to cull non-productive workers by firing them or further reducing their paid time.
The employer can also take advantage of the benefits good employees bring by offering them overtime (and commensurate overtime pay) to take up the slack, if any, created by the reduced work week. In my thinking any promotions or raises should be tied directly and always to the employee’s productivity. Volunteering for overtime is a way to measure an employee’s attitude toward mission oriented performance.
The main thing that concerns me about this reduced work week is that it’s a one-way ratchet. Once an employer has instituted such a policy it will be nigh on impossible to go back to a 40 hour week if it doesn’t work out to expectations.
Worked for the old UAL at SFO. 10 hour days 4 days, then 5 8 hour on a rotating basis every 2 weeks. All was well and good, but aviation being what aviation is, every time there was a delay anywhere along a route and you were asked to work a 4-over to finish the job so the aircraft could be on the gate on time. 14 hour shifts got to be more the norm during winter, but grateful we only had to work in wind and rain, not snow like our colleagues in NY and Chicago. All in all, would have been happier with either all 8 hours or all 10 hours, none of that switchie-switchie every few weeks.
Yeah, that “switchie-switchie” business sounds like an attempt to have their cake and eat it too.
I’ve been on hundreds of flights across the US and globally … For the record, and I mean no disrespect to you personally, I’ve never flown United into San Francisco International. I’d remember if I had. Because I hate UAL and avoid it if at all possible. Every single time I have flown that airline they’ve lost my baggage. I don’t know if they have it in for me personally or this is just the norm for that carrier. Or if it’s just a weird anomaly. Sometimes in the past I’ve had no choice in airlines, the ticket was bought and handed to me without my input. When I have a choice I will never fly with that carrier because I just know my baggage is not going to catch up to me until a day or more later, if ever.
This has happened often enough and consistently enough that it’s not just a slip-up. I realize there are other people that have not experienced this and I realize other airlines lose baggage too. This is not that, if it were I would be reasonable. Other carriers have lost my baggage too but it’s a very rare thing. I’m fully willing to accept the possibility that this is a statistical anomaly but it’s a weird situation anomalous or not. Seriously, every time I fly United they lose my stuff. Sometimes they get it to me and sometimes it never gets found. If they do get it to me it’s usually a day or more after I return home or it’s delivered to my home while I’m still away. If I didn’t need what’s in that luggage I would not have packed and brought it. It does me no good to get it late because I have to go right out and buy everything I didn’t carry on the plane.
I’ve learned to make damn sure that if I’m booked on a United flight I have a minimum of what I’m going to need in my carry-on because that’s all I’m going to have after we land. After I once again stand at that damn luggage carousel hoping this time I got lucky, waiting for luggage that’s not going to show up.
For all I know, for other people, United Airlines might be the best in the world. For me it’s always a problem and it would be foolish of me to keep bumping my head on the same problem hoping it somehow works out. I won’t fly United unless I’m forced to and if I have any input at all I simply refuse to consider United as a carrier.
Obviously this ticks me off a lot and I will use every opportunity that arises to bitch about it. Sorry for the rant, it’s never done any good when talking to United Customer Service and I know you can’t do anything about this either. That said, I’m going to bitch at/about UAL every chance I get for the rest of my life.
This is how a big company loses customers and goes broke. We’re talking about employees and business in this video’s comments. Employees that do not perform diligently and faithfully kill a business.
ACTS, prior to UAL I worked as a field tech on government contract. Europe, SA, Asia. Flew a LOT, and it was pretty much always “Pick up your ticket at such and such counter.” I’ve heard some horror stories, and consider myself very fortunate, especially in OCONUS assignments, to have flown EU countries local airlines. The best the US had to offer (30 years ago now. Boy!! do I feel old or what?) was Delta. Attractive FAs, good food, on time, and pax were treated as people rather than cattle. God bless and keep you and your’s my friend. Happy Easter. HE IS RISEN!
🙂 He is risen indeed!
Delta was good, I used to fly Continental quite a bit and they were always reliable. Going to AU and various Pacific Rim destinations I always liked QANTAS. I don’t care about FA’s much, tried to avoid interacting with them when possible. After the first few years of flying all over the place I got so flying was just something I had to endure, all the fun was gone. I started out trying to get a window seat so I could look out and see the sights and ended up trying to always get an aisle seat so I could get to the restroom with a minimum of hassle.
Going to AU was the worst, 16 hours from LAX to BNE, then whatever to wherever after getting to Brisbane, will really mess up your day. Actually, check that, as you were. Getting from AU back to CONUS was the worst. I could re-adjust pretty quick after getting to AU, usually feeling fine after a couple days. Flying east is always worse than flying west and it would take a couple weeks to get my body clock re-synced after landing in the US again.
Jet lag is a real thing but I never had much trouble going to Europe or the ME. I’d usually fly to RKV, LHR or less often ORY and on from there. So I got a little break before hitting another timezone.
I noticed that the local airlines were much more pleasant than the American ones too. I wonder if that’s because they treat their employees better? Or maybe because EU passengers are better behaved? Or maybe both?
Never flew more than across the US. No real jet lag for me.
The first couple times I flew, just like you, I got the window seat for the view. Flying through a cloud at sunset with a magenta, orange and red void out the window was incredible. Only once.
Now, just like you; give me an aisle seat. I want out easily.
I can’t fly anymore and I don’t miss it one bit. Problems with knees, back and heart make it nearly impossible for me to get around a concourse. My Daughter-in-Law invited me to come out to Seattle (the other side of the continent from where I am) to go fishing on their new boat, and teach them some small craft seamanship while I was there. I’d love to do that but I can’t make the trip via commercial airline and a train is too expensive though I’d love to travel that way.
My Dad used to own a half interest in a Cessna 182 Skylane. THAT’S flying. Sitting in an airborne bus with a bunch of strangers is just travelling. Looking at a thunderhead lying smack dab in the middle of your course and deciding to go over, under or around and if you have fuel to do any of those things is real flying. If you don’t have fuel for that, it’s time to find a place to put wheels on the ground.
When I was still in high school one summer Dad needed to take some clients to a remote area served only by a small local grass strip. So he rented a Bellanca Super Viking and being as none of them could fly he took me along as his copilot. One of them got a little pissy as he was paying for the trip and didn’t see why “the kid” got to “sit up front”. Dad told him “If anything happens to me that kid is your only hope of survival. If he’s sitting in a front seat.”
That was a real adventure. We dodged bad weather, navigated IFR in zero visibility, came out of that to sunshine and glory over the land and had a great time.
The passengers not so much. I could tell by the relieved looks on their faces when we were RTB. Didn’t have time to glance back at how they were taking it during the rough spots. I think that Dad and I both giggling and having a great time bouncing around the sky offended them somehow.
They didn’t know they should be glad they weren’t on a boat with us in bad weather. Boats have to go through that, not under or around it.
Sitting in a flying bus is just a hassle and a bore.
Great Story. Thanks.
Lol, you’re welcome.
Tell me that was not a fabrication! As I was reading I was turning somewhat green from turbulence!
Nope, not a fabrication.
My Dad learned to fly from a neighbor when he was a kid. The neighbor was a “Barnstormer” and always needed an extra hand or two for maintenance. In compensation for turning wrenches he taught Dad to fly. That was back in the days before formal pilot’s licenses. My Dad had been flying for a very long time by the time the above event(s) occurred when I was in high school. He was a very good pilot.
The partner with the Skylane kept it in a shed on his own grass strip and they would use it to keep up their licenses, fly to various business occasions, for cattle buying trips, stuff like that. It was a nice plane.
One time when the Skylane was tied down outside the shed it got blown over in a windstorm and crumpled a wing. As it turned out, that was a good thing as the shed was nearly destroyed and the damage would have been much worse had the plane been inside.
They had to ship it by rail to the Cessna factory in Wichita to have it fixed. Anytime major airframe work is done on something like that it has to be taken for a “check ride” to certify the work. Or at least such is my understanding through the haze of decades in time passed.
So when it was done being repaired off to Wichita we went.
Dad and his friend and I found ourselves several thousand feet in the air performing various maneuvers, they in the pilot and copilot seats, me in the back seat. Dad’s buddy said “That’s it, except for one more maneuver” while he turned around and grinned at me as he firewalled the throttle.
That was my initial introduction to the hammerhead stall.
To date, that was the most pucker-factor I had experienced. By then I was used to taking off from the strip in a stiff crosswind with the airplane seeming to fly sideways, the stall warning chattering like a demented squirrel on final approach for the last couple hundred feet of altitude and all the other fun stuff that goes with flight in small aircraft.
Bill flies out of a regular airport, Santa Monica I think. Being based on a single grass strip runway is another realm entirely. You don’t have a choice of runways to accommodate the wind, among other things.
Guess whose job it was to maintain and mow that strip?
As an employer … once you’ve gone down that path, I suspect that there would be no going back without serious negative consequences.
What Steve is referring to is the 9/80 schedule. Work 9 hours every M-Th, 8 hours on alternate Fridays so you can get every other Friday off. That was tried at the place I used to work. It worked out well in manufacturing, but for those outside of manufacturing, it just meant you worked more hours as we rarely, if ever, got the other Friday off. For us it was a fail.
I also worked at a place that worked 4, 10 hour days. I found that I spent most of that extra day sleeping. But that’s just me.
Businesses can do what they want and folks can choose if they want to work there or not. Just don’t make it a rule for business.
Here’s hoping that some government bureaucrat(s) or legislator(s) doesn’t get it into to his feeble brain that ALL businesses must do the same. It is possible that government intrusion into the work place has eveolved into the opposite of good for both employee and employer. Voluntary participation in any activity always breeds good will; whereas, the mandatory participation generates resentment.
After two years of unemployment, buffered by some temp work and a bon fire of my savings, I am back to full time work at a very strong employer. Let me tell you, Binky, I was staring homelessness straight in the eyes last month when God answered my prayers. I am now working full time, can’t say where, and looking forward to all the overtime I can eat. The day I got that job, almost four weeks ago now, I dropped to my knees and prayed with tears in my eyes! The old expression, “You don’t know what you have ’til it’s gone”, was never more true. This manufactured covid crisis beat the stupid out of me. Going to work for me now is pure joy. I highly recommend it.
A college professor found am old bottle while cleaning up his office. He polished it (because you should polish old bottles), and of course, a Genie appeared. For being freed, the professor was offered three wishes. His first was he wanted his own tropical island, and POOF, he was on a beautiful island. Next he wished to be surrounded by beautiful adoring women, and POOF, he had a bevy of beauties fanning him and dropping grapes into his mouth. His third wish was that he would never have to work again, and POOF, he was back in his office.
My whole experience of how much can be done in a day became radically altered when I did Landmark Education. At the time I was a young surgeon making rounds at the three hospitals before starting surgeries around 7AM. After this, office hours, business and hospital conferences, evening rounds, and home.
For some reason, I was having relationship issues, and a friend recommended Landmark, a “self-help” type means to “live the life you love”. It was hard for me to initially get on board, but then I really learned from it and eventually became a resource in the “self-expression and leadership forum”. This was a 3 1/2 month experience where you picked a project that inspired you and brought it into fruition. Everybody encounters “stops” in projects, and my job was to talk it out, help the enrollees discover what caused the stop, and assist them in thinking about what could get them to their next step.
I would get “coaching calls”, sometimes even when I was in surgery. Coaching in front of an OR crew was instructive to me and the listeners as well. I coached and attended classes after work. Believe it or not, my relationship improved, mainly because of the tenet in Landmark that you listen to your respective other, reflect back what they said, and not justify or defend “your side” of the argument. After all, if you “win” the argument, you lose your spouse in the long run because they do not feel “heard”.
Anyway, I’m a bit like Scott in that if you tell me to work 4 days, I’ll find a second career the other three. The CoVid-19 lock down seemed to make that career a television critic, a revolting and lost life. Getting back into community has been more fun. I just got back from visiting one of my sons. He asked me “why can’t you just relax?” when I insisted on helping paint his cabinetry, repair his front yard decorative light, and plan his landscaping. I told him that what I find enjoyable is shared work and accomplishment.
Great comment, and as a retired surgeon I can say the same.
“Relaxing” can mean doing something you like but not necessarily ‘working’ as such. It can go too far both ways.
You can just vegetate in your time off, if that’s what you consider relaxing. To me that wastes time better spent but I can see where that’s the ticket for some people.
You can also be too busy in your off work time. When I lived in CA my little sister and her husband would plan the whole weekend out ahead of time and then expect me to accompany them on their ‘fun’ times. They’d go to Disneyland, Knotts, Universal Studios, the pier on Redondo Beach or the beach itself, a car show, a boat show, a computer swap meet etc. It was constant running and driving all day Saturday and Sunday.
They thought they were being considerate by including me and that was their intent. They were running me ragged.
I finally said enough of that. I wanted to go to my office and clean that up, get things ready for the week to come, and putter around fixing and building stuff related to my office or home.
When I went to bed on Sunday night I ‘relaxed’ because I knew everything was properly maintained, cleaned and ready for the coming week.
To me that was much more relaxing than going places and doing things.
I’d still go with my sister and her husband sometimes, but only when I was “caught up” on the things I wanted to get done.