As an employee, I can relate to the feeling of having an extra day as a leave. In this current scenario, only a few international companies give Saturday and Sunday as leave. The best thing about these two-day leave is that one can plan for a trip by Friday night and return to work by Monday morning. I initially thought the same that 2 days' leave would give me an ample amount of time to stay with myself and my family. But often, a planned trip in between these two days feels a lot rushed and by the morning of Monday, I am not so in the mood to go office.
A day work week will leave me with 3 days to enjoy myself and follow my passion. I want to showcase how it will be a pro and con to me.
Pros -
- Extra time to follow the passion which will reduce the cases of moonshining that we see in jobs.
- Can help in career building as it will allow me to take up higher studies.
- Stops alienation towards family and friends as all the dynamics can be handled easily.
- Boosts extra-curricular activities.
- Breaks monotonous mindset.
- Can also boost the economics of the proprietor who carries occupations related to amusement and entertainment.
- Improves the health and output.
- Helps a person to reflect on his targets and commitments other than job-related.
- Helps in socialization and generates awareness about surroundings.
Cons
- Can affect the economic output of the company and country.
- Can lead to more consumption of services and less savings.
- Can boost frivolous expenses.
- Will allow to take two or more jobs which can negatively benefit to the person's well-being.
- Socialization and strong social bonds are subjective and not guaranteed as they change person by person.
- Leaves in essential services jobs can have negative cascading effects eg. waste collectors, groceries vendors, customer support, etc.
From my understanding pros outweigh the cons, 3 leaves a week may not be uniform across sectors but for people in essential service, limited work time or multiple shifts can allow them to catch up with their family and well-being.
At times, people may feel bored out of holidays and continue to work in the existing models. Because of this, an experience gap will emerge which will affect the promotion of the daily goers vs 4 days workers.
It may also lead to frequent job/role changes and can create a strive competition in the higher role occupations. People will be moving away from their sector and with studies/career upgradation can jump into other sectors creating a shortage of particular jobs. At the same time, the continuous change in roles can make a person jack of all cards but he/she/they won't be an Ace.
It will also lead to the creation of a pool of laborers who may not be able to realize their true potential and would be stuck in a particular salary band for too long because of the presence of multiple options for employers.
Despite, its negative cascading effect, four days a week can be tried to understand the changes that can come up in society and the profession. It will also be interesting to note how it will affect the professional relationships among the various countries that are either developing or developed.
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