The system was designed a long time ago with 5 working days with just two days off to relax, recharge and spend time with ourselves and our families, even with this, there are still people who work almost the whole week with little or no time for themselves and their families. This made me remember when my aunt was working at Guaranty Trust Bank some years back. That experience made me change my mind about working in a bank because of too much work and no time except when you are on leave.
My aunt would work even on Sundays, leave home around 5 am to beat the traffic and still return home around 11 pm when her kids would have gone to bed. She had no time for her family, leaving the kids and her husband in the hands of a maid. When she couldn't bear it again, she resigned and found a less stressful job, one where she was able to spare time for her kids and husband until she relocated abroad.
Everyone wants more free time away from work and the stress in it, same with me. There have been times I would wish an extra day was given as an off day so we could recharge well, but no matter how this happens, we still wouldn't be satisfied because we still find ourselves working longer hours and days, not necessarily at the office but taking projects and assignments home to finish up before the deadline. These and more are what contribute to the insufficiency we end up having which stops us from enjoying quality time to ourselves and our families.
If the system is changed to just four working days with longer hours, there are benefits to it, also, drawbacks too because in everything that is being focused on here, it still would tell on us and also affect our work.
Some benefits we would derive are an improved work-life balance. In this way, employees would have more time to relax/rest, pursue their hobbies and most importantly enjoy time with their family and this will potentially reduce burnout. Another benefit is that employees would be more productive after they have had an extra day off to relax and recharge.
The most important of all is the reduction in stress of commuting daily. Imagine an employee who wakes up early to beat the traffic or involving in the cat race system, or one who spends lots of money on transport for 5 days and when a day is taken out of it, it reduces the stress and transport fare, enabling them to save or channel the money to something useful for them.
Just like me and as a teacher, I am always excited when there is a holiday because it means I would be saving money for something else. I spend nothing less than 500 naira daily to my PPA and I do it for 5 days except on days I take permission not to be in school for some reason.
So, let's talk about the drawbacks four (4) working days with longer hours would bring to an employee:
The first is the fatigue it would bring when the normal hours are being extended by adding more daily. This leads to the employees not focusing much on the work due to stress and fatigue and it would be harder to maintain productivity at work.
Another disadvantage would affect parents who may struggle with childcare except they have nannies who would do the job for them. What about those who cannot afford nannies? The school schedule may not align with the new work hours and this would definitely affect them and would deprive them of the attention they ought to give to their work as their mind would be with their children who are still in school during closing hours. In some cases where schools fixed meetings for parents at a time they are still at work, this will affect the children also.
With all being said here, I would still prefer to maintain the 5 working days with the normal hours because of the joy I feel when the weekend is coming and the excitement that comes along, knowing how fun the weekend would be and taking my time to recharge and getting ready for the following week. Gone are the days when the usual saying "Thank God it's Friday (TGIF)" is always sweeter and more fun with the plan to make it enjoyable with people going to clubs to dance away the stress and sorrow, family gatherings being hosted at weekends, solo time with oneself alone etc.
But now, does that still occur? Lol. The economy is not smiling and not everybody looks forward to the weekend with lots of amazing things to do while still creating time to spend with families again.
All images were generated from ideogram
Thanks for your time reading. Looking forward to your interaction.
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