Four Day Work Week… Is it Possible?
August 23, 2008 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
I was visiting Biz Chick Rules this afternoon and stumbled on this question of a 4 day Work Week. Is it possible in the business I work in today? Well, I work in full time ministry now. I am no longer in the corporate world, but I believe my answer would be the same. The answer in a word, “no”.
In my previous corporate career, the 4 Day Work Week is near impossible. Why? Because in order for corporations to allow their employees to work a 4 day Work Week, they will need to hire more people to accomplish the same amount of work they expect employees to accomplish in 5 – 7 days. Yes, you read correctly, 5-7 days is the actual Work Week for most people. So to clip it down to 4 days would also mean that organizations are willing to accept a lot less productivity than they get in the 5-7 day Work Week.
Here is some simple math. Most people work on average 9 hours per day, at least in theory. Of that, they probably invest 2 hours of unproductive time, taking their actual work hours to 7 (and that is being generous). Than you have to account for the hour lunch that employees take, even when they are only alloted 30 minutes. So that moves your productivity down to 6 hours, then you have to account for the meetings that take anywhere from 1-2 hours per week. Leaving you with about 4 hours to do what you are paid to do. Multiply 4 hours by 4 days, gives you 16 hours per week that you actually spend attempting to be productive.
My point – it cost more for corporations to create 4 day Work Weeks. It wouldn’t be cost effective. In my current position, ministry is full time. It is not something you can confine within a 8-9 hour Work Day. Working four days would mean that I am not available when people have a need. That is unacceptable. People is what ministry is all about. Taking time off may cost a person their life, or cause us to miss God when he has a purpose and a plan for my life and for the life of the person who may have a need that we can meet.
Just something to think about! I would love to hear from you!!
