588: 3-day Weekend

Would it make much difference to the world if a normal working week was only four days long? This being a bank holiday everyone is having a great time. Facebook is full of people posting about the great time they've had. Lie-ins, afternoon drinking, days out, some football cup thing, the snooker World Championship, Sunday roast on a Monday night, the beautiful knowledge that Friday will seem like it has arrived a day early. A weekend is a precious thing, and a bank holiday weekend is perfect sparkling beauty.

Despite the two days off a week, fought for by our ancestors, labour unions, tough and resilient working men and women, we are increasingly losing our weekends. Shops are opening on Sundays, and a retail job not requiring weekend work is a rarity. Private profit for big business takes precedence over individual liberty and familial free-time. Past employers, long ago, whenever that was, didn't believe employees needed any time off, except what god gave them. The kids were up the chimneys and down the time tunnels; the elderly forty-year olds were mining praline and extracting uranium or iron ore, from five AM until 11 PM. From painful birth to inevitable chocking, pus-filled death. That was life.

Now we have two days off a week. Most of us do. Why not make it three? Who wants to spend over half their waking hours doing whatever it is that makes the numbers in their bank account rise ever-so slightly once a month? Before they plummet back to next to zero. Let's get the fictional Brussels Euro-crats working on it. I can't imagine it would effect the economy or whatever. That's because I know nothing about the economy and so am totally unqualified to make any predictions regarding it. But, never mind.

A three day weekend would make every single person in the country happier. We would all be more relaxed, less stressed, funner, happier, exploding with giggling glee and child-like wonder. Running around the parks, rolling on the grass, laughing at nothing, climbing trees, jumping, leaping, frolicking. Imagine all the frolicking you could get done. Just imagine it. Ahhh and mmm. Compound that with all the hobbying you could do, and all the work you could put in towards achieving your life's goals: dream job, bucket list, DVD box sets, etcetera, etc, &c.

This is a big issue; too big to cover here. What about all the flexi-time? Or all the people who have to drag themselves into an office every morning, filling up the trams, buses and trains all at once, just to sit beside a computer and telephone? What is stopping these people working from home at times more convenient for them? Often, depending on the type of business, nothing except tradition and management's lack of vision, compassion and foresight. Etcetera, etc, &c.

Three day weekend! Woohoo!