Work Less, Enjoy More Life
Picture this, you wake up to your alarm on a friday morning, get dressed, and as you’re about to pour yourself a cup of coffee, you remember that your office has now switched to four day work weeks. Now wouldn’t that be something. Everyone who is currently working has only known that of a five day work week, but never questioned why that is. I believe that with a little bit of knowledge on the subject and with the way that our world has progressed throughout the years, we should make the leap to a four day work week.
Now everyone would love to just cut their work one day short without any repercussions to their pay or hours, but that doesn’t seem realistic, right? To really know the answer to this question, we have to look into the history of why the work week is set the way it is. Prior to the work week mandate in 1927, there wasn’t a set work schedule throughout different industries, and some people would even work “fourteen- to sixteen-hour days, six days per week.” as stated in Four-Day Work Week: Old Lessons, New Questions. However, in 1927, many companies and influential CEOs including Henry Ford proposed their own regulations in regard to work time to the Labor Union. After a short trial period, Henry Fords five, eight hour day work week was integrated. This way of work has remained largely unchanged for nearly 100 years.
It wasn’t until nearly 50 years later that people here and there bring up the topic of further decreasing the work week, as we can see in “A Look at The Four Day Work Week” written in 1971. In this paper, it brings to light some of the companies that offer a position with a four day work week. Yet in these positions, you are expected to work 10 hour days, essentially canceling out the shortened week. Due to this, there was a lack of people willing to trade the day off for longer time in the office, and less than 75 thousand workers in the U.S. worked only four days a week. At the time, an 8 hour day was still seen as something that was fought for and rewarded to workers, and to throw that out the window and return to longer days seems counterproductive.
Now, 50 more years later, a “boom” in technology has exponentially sped up most of if not all work done in not only the U.S. but the entire world. With the introduction of the internet, cell services and advancements in machinery, you would imagine the amount of work someone can do today within a week would be equivalent to the work someone in the same position 100 years ago would quite possibly take a month or more to get done. And yet, we still have the same schedule. With these advancements, with the right amount of enticement, most people would even be able to complete a week’s worth of workload in 4 days. What could this enticement be, possibly the same pay and hours, just as long as the completion quality and quantity does not decrease, they would only have to work four days a week.
In a study done in January to December of 2022, 3000 workers of 61 companies participated in a trial of a four day work week. The conditions they proposed were the same as previously stated, complete the same workload in the 4 days of working 8 hours instead of 5 days, and have the quality of work be consistent as it was before. The article called this the “ 100-80-100 model: workers get 100% of the pay for working 80% of the time in exchange for delivering 100% of their usual output.”
On the company side of the experiment, upon completion, 92 percent of the companies stated that they would continue with the four day work weeks. They went on to say that one of these companies was receiving 88 percent more applications for work, and their productivity even increased 22 percent, even though the time at work was shortened. As expected on the employees side, most if not all were overjoyed by the extra day on the weekend. Roughly 90 percent of the employees said they would like to continue with the 4 day work week, while 15 percent of these employees went on further to say that they wouldn’t even take any amount of money to go back to a five day work week.
In more recent news, there have been strikes and employee walkouts demanding 32 hour work weeks while keeping benefits such as wages and healthcare. One example of this is the 13,000 members of the United Auto Workers at three assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. When negotiations with the Detroit automakers didn’t come to a conclusion for a new labor contract, these workers began protesting and going on strike. To the outside and ignorant viewers, it would appear that the workers’ demands are outrageous. When in reality, they are only demanding what should rightfully be adapted with the way the world has steadily progressed.
In conclusion, the outdated work week of 100 years ago has failed to keep up with the changes of the world. Why should our employees work almost 100 percent more proficient than that of an individual 100 years ago, and yet work the same amount of hours and days. Hearing it started like this, it seems outrageous just thinking about how when the bill for 5 day work weeks was passed, people would work five days a week at ford for roughly double what was seen as a base salary. In comparison, the people in the same position today are making minimum wage and working the same hours. Yet, the amount of production in the company and stock value of ford has grown exponentially. Not only this example, but it is the same for almost every company out there. And because of this, it should be mandated that work weeks be shortened to 32 hours while keeping every benefit otherwise offered for a full time employee.
Refrences
Hedges, Janice Neipert. “A Look at the 4-Day Workweek.” Monthly Labor Review, vol. 94, no. 10, 1971, pp. 33–37, http://www.jstor.org Accessed 16 Oct. 2023.
Liu, Jennifer. “Workers Report a 4-Day Workweek Improves Health, Finances and Relationships: It “Simply Makes You Happy.”” CNBC, 24 Feb. 2023, http://www.cnbc.com
Peirce , Philip S, et al. “The 4-Day Work Week – ProQuest.” Www.proquest.com, 1 Feb. 1974, http://www.proquest.com Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
I’d like feedback on how i can improve the transitions from paragraph to paragraph and possible improvement of the flow of the first draft. I’d also like to know if the final paragraph should be somewhat scrapped or rephrased so it can fit better when combined with the later assignments. Thank you.
Thank you for being SOOOOO specific in your request, K3vinJames. I’ve just seen it for the first time, and I’m bumping you to the top of the Feedback Please queue.
Before I begin, one more bit of business. MAKE ALL YOUR CHANGES ON YOUR “DEFINITION REWRITE” POST.
Your goal should be to MAXIMIZE the difference between your Definition argument and your Definition Rewrite argument, so that when they show up side by side in your Portfolio, the IMPROVEMENTS will be obvious.
My other advice is to be sure your REVISIONS are IMPROVEMENTS. 🙂
I’ll answer the second part of your question first.
Answer: Probably, but that’s irrelevant to the success of your Definition argument. Make THIS POST the best it can be. Later, when you combine your short arguments, you may want to scrap or revise this conclusion, but that’s a process for a later time.
Now, to your first question:
Picture this, you wake up to your alarm on a friday morning, get dressed, and as you’re about to pour yourself a cup of coffee, you remember that your office has now switched to four day work weeks. Now wouldn’t that be something. Everyone who is currently working has only known that of a five day work week, but never questioned why that is. I believe that with a little bit of knowledge on the subject and with the way that our world has progressed throughout the years, we should make the leap to a four day work week.
SINCE 1927, WHEN many influential CEOs LIKE Henry Ford proposed their own WORK TIME regulations TO THEIR Labor UnionS, we’ve TAKEN THE five-day, eight-hours-a-day work week as IF THE ECONOMY DEPENDED ON IT.
NOT UNTIL 1971 did ECONOMISTS here and there RECOMMEND further decreasing the work week, as we can see in “A Look at The Four Day Work Week.” THIS PAPER brings to light some of the companies that offer a position with a four-day workweek OF 10-HOUR DAYS, WHICH RETAIN THE STANDARD OF THE 40-HOUR WEEK. It was not popular. FEWER THAN 75 thousand workers in the U.S. ADOPTED IT, OPTING TO STICK WITH THE SHORTER WORKDAY THEY HAD FOUGHT TO ACHIEVE.
Now, 50 more years later, a “boom” in technology has exponentially sped up most of if not all work done in not only the U.S. but the entire world. With the introduction of the internet, cell services and advancements in machinery, you would imagine the amount of work someone can do today within a week would be equivalent to the work someone in the same position 100 years ago would quite possibly take a month or more to get done. And yet, we still have the same schedule.
With these advancements, with the right amount of enticement, most people would even be able to complete a week’s worth of workload in 4 days. What could this enticement be, possibly the same pay and hours, just as long as the completion quality and quantity does not decrease, they would only have to work four days a week.
In a study done in January to December of 2022, 3000 workers of 61 companies participated in a trial of a four-day workweek. The conditions they proposed were the same as previously stated, complete the same workload in the 4 days of working 8 hours instead of 5 days, and have the quality of work be consistent as it was before. The article called this the “100-80-100 model: workers get 100% of the pay for working 80% of the time in exchange for delivering 100% of their usual output.”
On the company side of the experiment, upon completion, 92 percent of the companies stated that they would continue with the four-day workweeks. They went on to say that one of these companies was receiving 88 percent more applications for work, and their productivity even increased 22 percent, even though the time at work was shortened.
As expected on the employees’ side, most if not all were overjoyed by the extra day on the weekend. Roughly 90 percent of the employees said they would like to continue with the 4-day workweek, while 15 percent of these employees [15% of the 90%?] went on further to say that “they wouldn’t even take any amount of money to go back to a five-day workweek.” [Let’s rephrase that section in quotes to “no amount of extra pay would make them go back to a five-day workweek.”]
In more recent news, there have been strikes and employee walkouts demanding 32-hour workweeks [while keeping benefits such as wages and healthcare.] [with no loss of benefits or wages.] One example of this is the 13,000 members of the United Auto Workers at three assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. When negotiations with the Detroit automakers didn’t come to a conclusion for a new labor contract, these workers began protesting and going on strike. To the [outside and ignorant viewers,] [NEVER risk insulting your readers. You effectively call anyone with doubts “ignorant.”] it would appear that the workers’ demands are outrageous, when, in reality, they are only demanding what should rightfully be adopted with the way the world has steadily progressed.
In conclusion, the outdated work week of 100 years ago has failed to keep up with the changes of the world. Why should our employees work almost 100 percent more proficient[ly] than an individual of 100 years ago, and yet work the same amount of hours and days[?]
Hearing it started like this, it seems outrageous just thinking about how when the bill for 5-day workweeks was passed, people would work five days a week at Ford for roughly double what was seen as a base salary.
In comparison, the people in the same position today are making minimum wage and working the same hours.
Yet, the amount of production in the company and stock value of Ford has grown exponentially. Not only this example, but it is the same for almost every company out there. And because of this, it should be mandated that work weeks be shortened to 32 hours while keeping every benefit otherwise offered for a full time employee.
I’m not rejecting the argument that workers might be underpaid or that they work longer hours than needed. There’s a lot about the labor economy that is just out of whack, K3vinJames. But I don’t think you’ve clearly demonstrated that a productivity increase means the workers are more efficient or more valuable. And THAT is the transition that will mean most to your overall effectiveness.
I hope that’s more helpful than discouraging. I like the track you’re on.