Living the 3 day weekend
A few weeks ago I spotted a very interesting article on famous 37 Signals’ SvN blog. It tells a story about some experimental and highly successful workplace changes guys at 37 Signals made. Among others there’s one idea this post is all about: 4 day work weeks (free Fridays!).
Last week I’ve got a chance to check how it works as I took the Friday off. And it works great! On Monday I came to work relaxed, better motivated, and with mind full of new ideas and things to be done. I even had better attitude towards things I don’t particularly like doing, like fixing bugs in IE6 (aka kicking Microsoft in the ass), or filling in some reports. I must say (again!) that guys at 37 Signals have really cool ideas!!
By the way isn’t that silly that we work for 5 days and have only 2 days off? To me it’s breaking the symmetry in favor to work. Do you think we are meant to work such hard? Shouldn’t we take a more balanced approach such as 4/3? I’d really like it and I’m pretty sure so would you.
cha 9:19 pm on March 21, 2008 Permalink |
When I was younger, I could easily work 5.5 days a week, and frequently did. Now I am older (and wiser?) The last thing you will find on my gravestone is “She wished she worked more.” I would *love* a 4/3 schedule, because my job has become so stressful that I need a full day just to decompress.
Jakub Pawlowicz 10:42 am on March 22, 2008 Permalink |
I couldn’t agree more. As you said with time we are getting wiser, and so realize that there are far more important things than work.
Unfortunately our *silly* world is based on needs we were told to have, not we really have, and that’s why many of us work too hard. But realizing that fact is as I believe the first step to living a better life.