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| By Bert Seghers |
So, apparently it happened in the seventies in the UK: a
three-day week to save electricity because there was a coal shortage due to
miners’ wanting to be paid a living wage. Only three days of work. Four days of
rest. Even more than I’m proposing.
Those annoying miners. The Tory party made sure it would never
happen again.
The
actions of the party led to the virtual destruction of the N.U.M., National Union
of Mine workers, thus curtailing the type of industrial action that led to the need
to save electricity by having a three-day week.
In Nigeria, in addition to the standard bank holidays we have,
the births and memorable life occasions of foreign messiahs, our successive
governments randomly declare dozens of additional public holidays (that’s what
we call them) each year: the return of the ailing President from six month’s
treatment abroad, the national football team narrowly defeating Ghana in a friendly
match, the President’s toothache abating.
And then there are the National days for mourning, declared
following national disasters: flooding - because the government failed to clear
the canals after the last flood, a fatal plane crash - because the pilot did
not remember where the potholes on the runaway were, Ghana defeating Nigeria in
a football tournament.
We are talking dozens of unplanned days off. Days not spent in
dreadful gridlock traffic trying to get to a job that pays less than the cost
of commuting to and from the job. Days when the government offices are
officially closed, unlike when they are open but nothing gets done anyway. Days
when business owners wish they hadn’t paid the month’s salary on time this
month. Weekdays that feel like weekends, have the carbon footprint and
environmental impact of weekends.
Surely, the economy loses out on these public holidays.
Businesses don’t make money. Government agencies don’t do Government stuff.
It’s waste, right? Well, I do not have any economic studies to cite but I’m
sure if the economic effect of these public holidays were so devastating, it
would take more than a Presidential tweet to enforce them. (OK, in Nigeria we
do not declare war or public holidays through Twitter, but you get the gist.)
This then is my point; the economy can afford a few days off.
Surely it won’t lead to the end of life as we know it. Maybe the end of
business as we know it. But life, and even commerce, will continue.
Which leads me to my wild suggestion: a four-day workweek to
reduce pollution, depletion of natural resources, worker stress, and general loss
of life to work.
The five-day week is the norm in most economies. In this
arrangement, businesses lose millions to sick days and other unplanned worker
absences. There are figures for this that I am not bothered to look up.
Reducing the workweek to four days will have a direct impact on these losses.
There will be, after all, one less day for workers to be absent from work
due to sickness and hangover. We are getting into the intriguing world of dodgy
economics here, (and I have a degree in economics that gives me the legitimacy
to deep dive into such murkiness), but sometimes crazy makes sense. Sometimes
crazy is not crazy, and crazy is the right answer.
My crazy theory is this: Lose one day from the five-day workweek
and the fall in unplanned worker absences will more than offset the economic
impact of reduced production. An argument can be made that production will not
reduce – businesses will just demand more output in fewer days. Well, let them
demand.
There
is a ceiling and they will hit it.
Now, let us look at the possible outcomes of a four-day
workweek:
1.
Reduced pollution – this
is the big gain here. Imagine swapping just one day of the current five-day
workweek, and the pollution caused by moving people to and from work, for the
reduced transportation and pollution experienced during weekends.
2.
Lowered stress levels for
workers, supervisors, managers, etc., etc., etc.
3.
Less noise pollution.
Kids get to see more of their parents.
4.
Leye gets an additional
day to do his writing.
5.
One less day for a
stressed-out worker to lose it and come to work with a firearm bought over the
counter at Wal-Mart. (In the US, can you really buy a gun from a grocery store?
Thank God I don’t live in America.)
Wait. Oh no. This cannot work. This is not crazy good; this is
crazy bad. This like getting to the end of a first draft for a new novel and
discovering a huge plot hole that makes the entire story worthless. There is a
plot hole here. A huge, huge one. Oh no. I thought I’d saved the world.
Have you not seen it? The hole in my theory? No? I’ll tell you.
There will be no reduction in pollution unless we have a four-day school week
as well.
Ok. Bin it. Bin it all. Bin everything. Till I come up with a
new way to save the world, it’s on with the five-day workweek for me.
Posts
Oh Leye, You were right to begin with. I was in organizational development during that strike and privy to the data on productivity during the shortened work week. With days worked cut by 2/5ths, productivity was 90% of that during the five-day week. With enormous savings in consumption of electricity. More proof of the old adage: work expands to fill the time allotted. Many New York corporations cut the work week to four days during the summer months, resulting in far fewer traffic jams and joy among the workers.
ReplyDeleteWe just need a good PR campaign to win over the masses and the owners of the means of production.
ReplyDeleteSounds good to me. And, indeed, a four day school week would be fine. Three days is probably enough if the learners are actually well taught and expected to do some serious work at home!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think we'd be better off if we implemented four days a year work schedules for our Congresses and Parliaments...that would likely increase their productivity.
ReplyDelete