World Education

I have something I coined that isn’t exactly the 4 hour work week, but something I call the 4 hour work day.  Like one of my last articles on “If I were CEO”, if I were in charge of a corporation, I would implement a 4 hour work day. 

Why a 4 hour work day?

Well, let’s get real.  Realistically, most people at work only truly work about 2 hours a day.  The rest of the day is spent talking to their cronies, talking on the phone, daydreaming, internet surfing, and long lunches.   I would have a serious talk with all of my employees and pitch this idea to them:  If they came in and busted their balls for 4 hours straight, only being able to talk if it is absolutely business related, and turned up the intensity 10 notches for 4 hours, they can have the rest of the day off.  Everyone can pick their own 4 hour shift during the day to work too.  Any personal conversations would have to be carried on outside of that 4 hour time slot.  This way, once someone hits the workplace, they get straight to work immediately.  No more taking their time to get coffee, no more socializing in someone else’s cubicle about nothing, and no more procrastination.  Bust your balls for 4 hours, do 4 hours of honest work, and you can go home. 

That’s the idea I would pitch to my company.  I’m sure there would be some details to iron out being that someone people are dependent on others to do their jobs.  Those schedules can be coordinated. 

The fact is, unless you have something wrong with you mentally, the human brain is completely incapable of working 8 hours straight with only a lousy 30 minute lunch break.   Unless there is an intense problem to solve at hand that has completely captured someone’s attention, normally peoples’ attention spans only go in small spurts throughout the day.  No one can sit in an office and focus on what they are doing day in and day out 8 hours a day nonstop.  Doesn’t happen.   But a person can go balls out for 4 hours.   

So that is one of the many ideas I would implement into a company to spark employee interest and make peoples’ lives just that much better.  If a corporation had their way, they would have you work 24/7 until you died.  And I’m not kidding.  They can careless about you.  They figure as long as they give you a paycheck, you are their slave and they can make your life as miserable as they want.  My personal belief is that there comes a point where you gotta put ethics and morals ahead of anything else.  Yea, a company might be able to make an extra buck by whipping their employees and treating them like slaves, but why do you want to do that to people?   Yea, I’d want the company I’m in charge of to be successful, but I want the people to enjoy working there as much as possible.  I would find a way to maximize creativity and output, but make peoples’ lives easier as well.  The stockholder can go to hell.  I’m all for the 4 hour word day.

Categories: Office Space