So, recently I began taking advantage of my employer's FlexScheduling benefit which, essentially, legitimizes what was already an unspoken policy and gives almost all the employees here the right to work more flexible hours than a traditional Monday through Friday, 9:00AM-5:00PM schedule. So I now work four 10-hours days, Tuesday through Friday and every weekend is now a three day mini-vacation for me.
Let me sing the virtues of this system:
- I'm the type of worker who really needs a large workload to stay motivated and, by compressing my workload into four days, the amount of work available to me at any given time is much more satisfying and consistent.
- I'm also the type of worker who takes a little while to get warmed up in the morning. I can hit and sustain my peak productivity for longer periods on my four 10-hour days than I could on a five 8-hour day work week.
- Frankly, working ruins your day and, honestly here, working an extra two hours each day really doesn't make that much of a difference once you're there. My philosophy on this is that if my day is already wrecked because of having to be at work, I might as well just work ten hours instead of eight and only have to ruin four days a week instead of five.
- Needing to work ten hours each day at work coupled with trying to match my schedule to the TANK schedule has caused me, out of necessity, to almost completely forgo taking formal lunches where I would leave work to go find food. I pack now and have found that I tend to be much more satisfied with my lunches as well as spending less and eating considerably better.
- The flipside to having a longer weekend, of course, is having a shorter work week. Being able to say that after Tuesday, I only have three days left for the week to work is really a great, unexpected relief.
- And last, being NOT at work an extra day each week, keeps me much more satisfied and emotionally happy at work. I'm annoyed far less by the little things and people who, when seeing them five days a week, normally irritate me. Conversely, being at home with Julie and the kids more has put me onto a much more even keel. I'm no where near as frantic and prone to broad and sweeping dissatisfaction with my life.
So, all the points are obvious, really but at the same time, if the points really were that obvious, shouldn't more people be working four 10-hour days each week or at least have more flexible schedules than the hideous 9-5? I encourage everyone to try this. Speak to your employer about whether or not a truncated work week would be right for you and them.
2 comments:
I am pleased you are so thrilled with your shortened work week...I enjoy only working 28 hours a week and having Fridays off. However...the 10 hour days might just kill me...I struggle to get through my 3 eight hour days. I hate getting home late, to where I am just feeding Maddex dinner then putting him to bed. I like some time to hang out and relax with him first. I think our country needs to re-evaluate what is important...money making has turned into such a huge thing that nowadays it seems people need to be 2-income families which sucks because THEN somebody is is raising your kids. Values and morals are being lost in the shuffle. Doesn't France really value their vacations and family dinners and so forth? I think that's a good message...there ARE other things more important than work. I would love to just be a stay at home mom...cook, clean, watch the kids. But alas, I was born a few generations too late. I am stuck, and all I can do is complain about it now. Woe is me.
"Frankly, working ruins your day..."
Awesome, and true.
"I'm annoyed far less by the little things and people who, when seeing them five days a week, normally irritate me."
Ahem.
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