How about working three days a week?

In most countries of the world, people work five days a week and rest two days at the weekend. It has been suggested that it might be more enjoyable to shorten the amount of working days. But will working only three days a week with longer working hours be better for employers and employees? In my opinion, shortening the amount of working hours per day is a much better option.

First of all, some industries such as business, construction, medical and education, would be hindered if they only operated three days a week. If employees are only working three days a week, projects would have to be postponed for four days and then the whole period of the project would have to be extended, raising costs. For example, although the doctors in hospital work hard and long hours, the patients cannot recover in just one day. What if the patients have new symptoms during the doctors day off? In this case, the doctor may either have to work in his time off to go back to their patient or risk not being an effective doctor.

Also, longer working hours per day brings increased stress levels to the employees. When adding extra working hours to the work day, the relaxation time would be cut short. As we all know, our body and mind need to relax after heavy concentration or we might become easily distracted at work. Working three days a week means we would have to add 6 hours to the regular 8 working hours. This intense work schedule could be very unhealthy our body. Employees would have more pressure at work and their efficiency would be largely reduced.

Most importantly, less working days and more rest may not actually be enjoyable for people who enjoy their job very much and want to work a regular work schedule and invest as much their time as possible into their career. A longer weekend may be a disadvantage to their goals. To make work more enjoyable, these people might want other changes such as a different office environment or a flexible work location.

In summary, even though longer working hours might sound attractive because it increases the amount of days for relaxing, the disadvantages of working more hours per day outweigh the benefits. If we consider people’s health and efficiency, working five days a week but with shorter hours per day or making other changes to the workplace to make it more enjoyable would be a better choice.