Tailhappy

A good friend and entrepreneur was hitting me with some hard facts yesterday after I grumbled about the Weekend going so quickly and not having enough time to do all that I needed. I will share what he said with you - he made some good points.

Firstly, why do we accept 5 work days as the norm? Why not 4 or 3? Well, according to him it is because we live up to our means and after we have bought the real essentials we move onto buying c**p. By this he means after our bills, food and clothes we move onto cameras, shoes, entertainment and consumer goods. If you were asked which is more important to you - a plasma TV or time with your young family, I am sure you would choose family time.

To sum up, he said that if you stop spending on consumer goods, credit cards, holidays abroad and even having TV you can lop off at least one working day a week and still be no worse off financially.

I cannot convey all he said, but you get the idea. Would you mind giving up some items to have more time with your family and going out? Anyone doing this method on here?

He left me thinking seriously about it for sure...

Ian

Wardy

To me, he's missing out one massive issue there - quality of life. Sounds like his view is living to work, rather than working to live.

Where's the fun or satisfaction if you just work enough to have the money required just to survive?

Steve

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cloverleaf

To be honest I would say that you seem to have missed the point! To some people, wuality of life is measured in how much you can spend on material goods. To others it's what they can do with their time. For instance, my father wokrd 12 hours a day 5 days a week, has all the money he wants to spend on computers, cameras, holidays and such like but feckin hates the job a nd all the stress & pressure that goes with it. He is now looking at reducing way back so that he is on a much lower salary and will have to cut back massively on what he spends but the difference is that he will actually have time to do the things he wants. Everybody is different though. some will really enjoy their work and do as much as they can, 7 days a week because they really enjoy what they do. To others, work is an evil necessity that they hate and don't want to do but need to to pay the bills and then enjoy themselves at the weekend when they can or make up for the stress by buying things whch they don't really need and which they wouldn't miss if they didn't have the job because buying them wouldn't have been an option in the first place. I can see exactly what tailhappy is saying as so many people i know just spend every penny they have on ****e and then wonder why i've got money sitting in the bank despite having expensive hobbies!

pdhealy

Sounds great to me, but you'd find taxes would be higher, as a result of the exchequer losing out on revenue.

I like the idea of it though.........

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Wardy

Erm, no I don't believe I have missed the point.

While I can see what you're saying, there would (in my opinion) need to be some happy medium between working all the hours available to make as much money as possible and at the other end of the scale, doing the bare amount of work/hours required to make basic ends meet.

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jlwah

Anyone can apply for flexible working if they want to change the pattern of their work, although employers don't have to agree to it. Large employers tend to be more flexible than smaller employers.

Or apply for home working - that's when you find out how to properly manage your time and get the 8 hours of office work done in 2 hours and then the rest of the day can then be spent at the shops, in the garden, at the pub, doing housework, diy, etc. (delete as applicable)

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I'd much rather do five days and have a decent amount of disposable income to spend the other two doing what I enjoy , than have three days off a week sat at home with bugger all cash.

A large percentage of the population does five or more days simply to pay the bills

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bryan

The number of days worked need not relate to the hours worked or the time for family. Some people work 14hr days, therefore in 4 days can do 56hrs work, and stil have 3 full days with the family.

In an old job we worked 10hr days Mon - Wed, then 9hrs on Thurs, and off Fri - Sun. it was great, and if there was overtime, it was done on Fri morning, so we still had a 2.5 day weekend, wish I still worked a shift like that now

Bryan

Kaiserb_uk

I used to hear stories about IT consultants who worked 3 months on, 3 months off because they were earning enough to be able to do that comfortably. That would suit me down to the ground, except I'd probably just spend 3 months in bed, drunk

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pixi

I now work three days a week instead of four and still do everything I want to do. It may catch up with me in time as it's only been since april this year but so far so good.

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rigsby

I work 4 days on and 4 days off, and have done for the last 18 months. After 22 years doing 6 days a week, ive found it absolutely wonderful. When im working weekends ive got the weekdays off. So with wifey at work and the kids at school ive got all day to do absolutely nothing

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H Bomb

Previously I worked at PC World (grrrrrrrrr) who couldnt organise a rota if they tried, sometimes you would end up working 8 days before having a day off and shifts all over the place! And as for asking for holidays... you got them as long as it "met the needs of the business"..... utter crap! I moved to a local IT firm and now do 8.30 - 4.30 Mon to Fri and am very happy with this. Means I can plan things, and only need 2 weeks notice for holidays. Sounds daft but the reduction in stress over working hours has been wonderful!

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ag.morley

Sat/Sun in with the working week, 35 hours a week over 12 weeks, some weeks I work 19 hours other weeks 50+ [ shifts ]........I work about 185 days a year. 3 days off one week 3, the next, grouped together = 6 days off. I could never go back to a 9-5 Mon to Fri..........

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Babs

My Dad does 2-on-2-off 12 hour shifts, days and nights. And he quite likes it

At the theatre I work evenings and weekends, which I don't really like lol

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matt@theforce

Upto 3 months ago I had always had jobs that involved me working core 9:00-17:30 hours monday to friday which meant realisticly I was leaving home a 6am to commute to work to start around 7:30ish and work through to 19:00-20:00 then have the 1 1/2hour commute home, we also had lots of out of hours work which meant the same hours on saturdays and sundays.
10years of that and I made the decision to try shift work despite being very nervous about it.
I now work x2 12hour days then x2 12hour nights then 4 days off for similar money to before. I now realistically work 4 days out of 8 and spend much more time with family and haven't had to compromise on quality of life although swapping days to night and back to days can be quite hard going.

I'm not sure I'll ever go back to 9:00-17:00 monday to friday again, I love having varied weeks and planning time off is still very easy.

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pixi

Me neither. When I did used to work mon-fri many moons ago, I remember thinking my life away in batches of five days just waiting for the weekend. My shifts are over the seven day period which means I can work one day and not the next which makes me feel I have my life back. I enjoy working mornings on a saturday or a sunday and it still does feel like the weekend. Everyone is more chilled and there is less chaos on the ward purely from there being less workers around.

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Emily-Elizabeth

Agreed!

I am on shifts, I work 6 days on 3 days off. For instance I am lates (2-10pm) and have been for the past 2 days, tomorrow I start nights (10pm-6am). Working shifts gives you all the flexibility of a part time job, and extra pay bonus for being on them. The annual leave kicks bum because you can take bank holidays whenever you like - also working 6 days on 3 off you can book 6 annual leave days and have 12 days off.

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Shifty

Well, I do between 13 and 15 hours 5 days a week, plus admin work on a Sat for my shop too.

If I were to work one day less to have more time at home, I would soon get bored, having no cash to enjoy my days off. Catch 22. You would need to earn enough money in 4 days, imo, to be able to fund your 3 days off. If thats a position you are in, well done. I doubt the majority of the UK workforce are in such a position.

The knock on effect of a 4 day week would be more staff needed to fill the deficit in "man" hours, costing companies more in pensions, whatever other benefits office folks get, NI contributions etc etc, so the cost of running the company goes up, prices of thier product goes up as a result, you - the employee, but also end consumer of other services and goods affected will find yourself having to go back to work an extra day to fund the extra cost of living caused by everyone wanting a 4 day week.

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Blade404

I also work 4 days on 4 days off and I'm on similar money to my last job without having to work any overtime. Just wish it was abit closer to home but as I travel out of rush hour the commute to Sheffield usually only takes an hour and 20.

Oh and to get 12 days off I only need to take 4 days holiday.

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kriswithak

five day weeks are a revolting concept, I only do that if I get overtime rate.

I like my regular three and four day working weeks...

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