Quote Originally Posted by kutter View Post
A 32 hour work week is ridiculous, but anebriated is right, if employees want it then they should settle for a 20% cut in pay, that seems pretty fair to me. Now, if you want to do 4 10 hour days instead, that makes a whole lot of sense to me. Not sure if they are still doing it, but East Baton Rouge employees were on a 4 day work week where 50% took off Monday and 50% took of Friday and everyone was there for the middle of the week. The people I spoke to seemed to like it.

I know that in the military, on ships specifically we ran what we called trop hours, 0700 to 1300 with breakfast before the day started and lunch after it was over. It worked because you did not have all those little breaks cutting in to your day, 15 minute coffee break morphs into 30-45, 1 hour lunch into 1.5, afternoon break, same thing. You had 6 hours with no interruptions to get stuff done, not stop and start. But to be fair while underway you were at work 24-7 so it always seemed to balance out in my mind.
Actually it turns out four 8-hour-day work weeks (for knowledge workers) lead people to be more productive, not less. Well being and retention go up as well. The number of hours you work isn't the same thing as your productivity.

Though I must confess, I have a hard time seeing how that doesn't just turn into four 12-16 hour days. Still, I wish I had a chance to give it a try.