4 day work week. Yeah I know off topic.

My company works for a much larger corporation. A 4 on, 3 off, wouldn't works for us, but it would work for the corporation. Problem is, that corporation has a lot of 7 day a week workaholics (I know-they should get a life).

It's a great idea but for it to happen congress would have to pass some kind of legislation nullifying all the local and state regulations and union contracts which state that whenever an individual works for more than 8 hours in a day they are entitled to time and a half pay. Without this the corporations will never go for it.

robofan: You are wrong. Government does not even have to get into this. All that is needed is your support with your employer. I work within a union contract. If I work a 12 hour shift on my days off, I get 1 and 1/2h for the first 8 hours and then double time for the last four. But other non contract employees can and do negotiate similar plans.

I love that 3-3-etc.-6 plan listed by the OP. I find that "nothing gets done" on the days that I work, and I generally work 8 am to about 7 pm, and that's M to F. This is the classic "you aren't REQUIRED to be here but it's STRONGLY ENCOURAGED" thing by which most of middle America is exploited. If I felt I had options, I'd certainly resist it; but I don't, so I don't.

How come some people end up in "sweet deals" and others don't? Is there something consistent among those who have say in their lives? For me, the daily grind has been so much, in any job I've ever been in, that I don't even have time to bathe or eat food, I'm so busy radically sprinting from job requirement to job requirement. There have been times when I was frowned upon for using the toilet during work hours. How would I go about finding out about, and avoiding, this kind of unreasonable exploitation in the future?

Almost all nurses work 3 12 hour shifts now. Hospitals used to have 3 shifts of 8 hours and now onlyh have 2 12 hour shifts. It has been that way for years

Will this give me more time and money for clubbing?

I find nurses rather dumpy. I guess the weird hours have something to do with their lack of time to work out ...

lotsoffun, most hospitals have multiple shift plans and multiple full time options for their nursing staff. I have no idea where you get your information.

My neighbor works in health care and she works out all the time and looks pretty good. I believe the health care industry even promotes some other exercise programs for the general public in my area as well.

As far as my work becoming a 4 day work week, I don't think my employer would go for that. Besides gas prices aren't really a big concern to me yet. I don't do that much driving and my car is already somewhat fuel efficient.

I believe I rack up most of my miles traveling to strip clubs. I did stay home last weekend but that was only because I thought I might be sleepy from not sleeping too much. I didn't want to risk driving and sleeping at the same time. Now if my relatives stop visiting so much, maybe I'll have some free time to myself again this weekend.

Sort of off topic however maybe not, I just need to dream up a way to have self replicating gasoline, could put the oil companies out of business and really hurt some Middle Eastern countries. Maybe if all the christians who believe Jesus was able to have bread and fish multiply, just pray that the same thing starts happening to the gas in all automobiles, ...

Better yet, instead of divine intervention, just invent a time machine and borrow a fusion reactor from the future and add some beer and a banana and off we can go. If our government really does have anti-gravity equipment as rumored, that would really help reduce transportation needs if they released that information.

Sorry for the rant, I did only sleep 2 hours last night. I think the anti-allergy medication is keeping me wired.

Hi Book Guy,

FRIENDS!!! :) That (the right friends) is a huge deal assuming you don't want to follow the path of getting an in demand degree or toiling for many years to try and climb the ladder somewhere. There is also luck, but part of the luck is looking ahead. For example, President Bush was praising a the idea of a lower dollar way before it happened because it creates "jobs." It also creates opportunities for speculators who looked ahead. A lot of morons, imo they're morons, sincerely believe in debasing a currency to create an export market i.e. jobs. A good portion of Americans whimper about sending "jobs" overseas, but the problem isn't sending "jobs" overseas . . . the problem is what happens if foreign nations suddenly decide they want real money or a lot more of your "funny" money?

You know the "fake" energy crisis? Fake is probably way too harsh a word, but a good portion of the higher price is merely a reflection of a cheaper dollar. Who knows the dollar may collapse completely so that President Bush's dream of creating millions of new jobs is realized as America becomes a net exporter instead of an importer. And, if the dollar collapses completely then $10 per gallon gas may seem like the good old days.

I am convinced that 50 years from now people won't believve that we actually used to go to an office 5 days a week. Almost every "office worker" I know works from their home at least part of the time and the trend is growing rapidly. Except for the lowerst level people, hardly anyone goes to an office 5 days a week anymore. Which is maybe why therre's so much more traffic on the roads at times like 11 am or 2 pm. The 40 hour week is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. And good riddance.

And I'm not so sure this is off-topic, I'll bet it's already helping strip clubs and other leisure-time activities especially during the day shift. For example, I bet Shadowcat spends more time in clubs than he would if he worked a standard 5-day-40-hour shift.

It's also my experience that once people spend more off-hours time working (eg. checking emalis during the evening) they also spend less time working during normal working hours. Maybe clubs should install wireless internet service so we could pretend we're working while we're having fun.

FONDL,

Work had me in clubs much more often then now. A few of us hit clubs at least once or twice a week after work. If I was on-call and had to go out, you can almost bet I'd hit a club or two. Traveling, ALWAYS checked TUSCL for the local clubs, and for the most part, the reviews were right on.

Now, I rarely visit clubs.

Clubber, my experience is similar to yours. But I'm not sure it would be today if I were still working. When I did most of my business travel, once 5 pm or so came around the work day was over and I was free to go clubbing. But for most of the working people I know now that's no longer the case - come 5 pm and they return to their motel to beging another 3-4 hours of work on their laptops. There are no free evenings anymore when traveling on business, thanks to computers.

Parodyman....I live in Las Vegas. That is how they do it here....BTW, I work in a hospital, so that is where I get my information. It's not necessary to be so condescending. Perhaps in your neck of the woods things are a bit different with three shifts, and therefore I apologize for my being so provincial.

FONDL,

I do not doubt that what you say is true about computer work after hours, but in my case, other than checking a few emails, I would do nothing on a computer after work. Everything was pretty much interactive during the day, therefore, right after 5 PM was reserved for a few beers, eating, showering, and the clubs.

Checking out new clubs was always a benefit of travel. I do miss that, at times. And finding that one gem on a trip was always a high!

The thing that kills me about the current "work culture" is that, generally, the system MUCH prefers a warm butt in a chair over productive or effective work. Getting there, being in the place, available for signing "get well soon" cards and sharing brownies in the break room. Since (generally speaking) most of the industries that I've been in, are essentially "self sustaining at a low level" regardless of the competence of leadership, the leaders tend to be mere political appointments based on time served rather than on ability or business acumen. So you end up with someone who's been there a long time, telling everyone else to just wait the same way they did, and whatever you do, don't do anything different. This will keep the business running along at a snail's pace, just above minimum-for-survival level. And a rank-and-file employee's responsibilities become, learning to be patient, learning to congratulate others for non-accomplishments, learning to stifle one's own ambition, learning to wait for promotion rather than earn it, learning to fill your time with busy-work, learning to fill out the forms which report on what reporting you're going to report on what report you've done, that sort of thing.

TO put it generally: most businesses that I've experienced tend toward this business model: the least possible effort for the minimum do-able success. Rather than scintillating success, just bare minimum si sought. Rather than effort-to-reward as a standard assumption, there's something different.

Generally it's "be a happy member of a happy environment" and "be a well-oiled cog in a quietly droning machine." The whole "I have enthusiasm for my work" mantra. Frankly, I personally don't. I have enthusiasm for my PAYCHECK. American work-culture has long since abandoned competitiveness or ability; much of the rest of our society is moving in that direction, too. So, in Detroit, they don't make the best cars, they make the best car financing plans, and the financial managers who run them are generlaly people who can "fit in" to a bland, middle-american corporate environment in which creativity, ability, verve, vigor, liveliness, common sense, are all traded out in favor of cheery-beery-boo performance of Julie-the-Cruise-Director-style "enthusiasm."

This nation is, after all, the land of enthusiastic religious experience. No surprise we've transferred that to our work culture as well.

I have no real problem with workplaces requiring that a given employee be somehow "happy to be there." But what's wrong with the happiness being engendered by the TRADE OFF of good work for good pay? no no, America doesn't do THAT any more. Instead, we do, "Oh I love it here so much I'd do it FOR NO PAY" as the assumed minimum requirement.

At least, that's what happens in academia, teaching, publishing, journalism, middle-management of real estate brokering and marketing, public relations, publicity, copy editing ... all the fields I've ever been in. Perhaps the problems come from the fact that I've chosen to be in a "service industry" because my natural gifts come from the world of the humanities and writing. Or perhaps the problem pervades much of big-structure corporate environments as a whole and I need to be at different employers though not necessarily different industries.

My solution? I'm going to law school. At least THAT will have some competitive edge to it.

BG,

I always looked at it this simple way. If the powers that be do not have you directly under their thumb, then you must be fucking off, in their opinion.

Yeah that's pretty much it. But also, if I'm directly under their thumb? They fire me, because they can and it gives them an ego rush. And, if I'm (in their opinion) fucking off? They fire me, because I deserve it.

So, why bother with fine distinctions? Get into a different industry!

BG,

I did! I left IT and joined RI.