Case for a "four day working week"

Inscribed by Hariharan

Until a few decades back the word “job" or profession were associated mostly with a government job, which generally is stress-less and pressure-less. In today’s situation, majority of the population is employed with multinational companies or public and private sector firms, which work under strict deadlines and targets unlike a government establishment. This has related in work related pressure and suffocations in individuals.

The only respite that an individual gets from work related stress is the two-days-weekend. During the two-days-weekend, he is able to refresh and replenish his system. It is this weekend that helps him prepare to face the five weekdays ahead of him.

In the last few years, people are getting into increased work pressure which is at an all-time-high. They work on impossible deadlines. They have to tackle unbearable workloads. There are too many things that needed to be done at once. Today the most detrimental issue faced by the common public is the danger and health problems related to work pressure. Research has proven that most heart attacks occur on a Monday morning. The reason for this is because the two-days-weekend fails to prepare us for the 5 ‘impossible’ weekdays ahead. On a Monday morning, thinking of the five days ahead of us gives such a scare that it can cause a heart attack.

The only way India can cope up with this impossible pressure is by following a four-day-working-week Model. As a part of this model, I propose that apart from the existing two-days-weekend there should be a mid-week holiday on Wednesday.

Apart from easing the work related pressures on an individual, this would also ease pressure on the poor two-days-weekend, which is struggling to refresh an individual for the five ‘gruesome’ weekdays. With this model, all that a two-days-weekend has to do is to refresh an individual for the two days ahead. The Wednesday along with the individual would take care of the next two days, before one arrives at the next weekend.

I can guarantee that this alone would bring about a significant decrease in the Monday morning heart attacks for stressed out employees, let alone the Friday night heart attack for our poor two-days-weekend.

My sincere request to companies in India is that they implement the four-day-working-week Model, if not for the health and safety concern of their employees, at least taking pity on the poor ‘overworked’ two-days-weekend.