Good Idea, Chap: The Four- Day Working Week

As you wake up at 07:00 a.m. in the morning and force yourself out of bed, you slowly realise how much you hate Tuesdays.

And Mondays.

And Wednesdays.

In fact (it suddenly dawns on you), you hate every weekday BUT Friday.

The rationale behind the above is, naturally, quite simple: you love Fridays because they precede the weekend.

And just as you decide (rather bravely) to let your mind wander off for a bit, Sunday kisses you goodbye whilst Monday smacks you in the face and wipes off your freshly- acquired weekend grin, substituting it with a somewhat contorted frown.

The above begs a question:

Would it not have been uber awesome (for want of a more appropriate word) if we had a three- day weekend?

It would surely be quite beneficial for our general well- being. Here are but a few of the perks:

• We will, automatically, stop hating Thursdays as they will be the new Fridays
• We will have more time to rest up and will, thus, be more productive at work and in life
• We will have more time to spend on family, religion, hobbies, etc. which will, generally, make us a happier person

Well, you’ll be happy to know that, in January, the president of Gambia, Mr. Yahya Jammeh, passed a new law which introduced a four- day working week (as at 01/02/2013) for public servants, effectively making Fridays a part of the weekend (<< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21242782 >> ).

As you might imagine, the private sector will, too, be heavily affected by the above as it will not be able to deal with any governmental bodies on Fridays.

This might pose a risk to private business and their overall operation.

On the other hand, it might not, mainly because it will mean that both employers and employees will have to adopt a more focused and time- efficient approach to work which will, in time, greatly improve productivity and job satisfaction.

Implementing such a policy might prove quite a herculean task at first, partly because the president who enacted the law claims, to this day, that he can cure AIDS with a secret potion made of herbs, etc; a claim which has greatly contributed to the rest of the world not taking anything he does or says seriously.

Nevertheless, the above is not as innovative as you might think; in Utah, USA, the same policy was introduced in 2008 and had been in force for over three years when it was outlawed as it failed to meet its $ 3mln energy savings target (it only reached $ 1mln).

Controversial as it might be, such a policy can help us move away from our capitalistic mindset and towards a more relaxed and stress- free existence.

A four- day working week will give us a greater opportunity to appreciate the type of work we do as well as the people we work with. It will further enable us to become more focused on what we do and much more time- efficient in the way in which we are doing it.

A three- day weekend, on the other hand, will not only give us a chance to spend more time on family, friends and hobbies but also on ourselves. Namely, it will give us much more time to think about what we do, what we are good at and what we want to do.

To sum up, such an arrangement might eliminate a great deal of the stress that we are currently under; not because it will completely do away with it but because we will only have four days to stress us out and three days to relax and deal with the stress.

All of the above does, indeed, sound a bit farfetched, especially in today’s fast- paced world; a world, in which businesses and professionals are expected to be available 24/7.

Mr. Jammeh’s policy might well be a double- edged sword; nevertheless, all you have to do to wield it is put the grip in the middle.