Transformative Essay: Six-Hour Work Day

The four-day school week has gained quite a bit of traction in the United States as of lately. In fact, The Education Commission has estimated that hundreds of districts in 17 states have made the transition. Also, there are state officials present within Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon and all have reported increases in the four-day schedule. It is a movement that grows by the month and is the way forward in education. Colby Public Schools absolutely should transition from a five-day school week to a four-day school week due to the benefits of this system. Colby Public Schools most certainly should switch to a four-day school week as it will lead to a saving of money, better in-depth interaction,

Before introducing the workplace issues related to the development of four-day workweek, a clear definition of this schedule is needed. According to Department of Labor (n.d.), “A workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The workweek does not have to coincide with the calendar week, but instead it may begin on any day of the week and at any hour of the day.” It might be the “four-day, 32-hour workweek – more leisure, less work” (Wernette 1), or the “three-day, 40 hour, compressed work week” that Vega

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

     One of the more interesting aspects that Peiss mentions about the change in the demographics of the labor force directly relates to the way leisure time is spent. Peiss mentions many statistics that show how the working woman was quickly refusing household work and moving to the factory or office position. More specifically, a study of 370 working mothers showed 70 percent of them to be employed in domestic and personal service while the vast majority of their daughters worked in stores, offices, and factories (Cheap Amusements, 39). The significance of this change lies in the resulting change in attitude about leisure time. Now, a clearer distinction between time spent at work and

Over the last two decades, American workers have been clocking more and more hours on the job, and they now work more hours than workers in any other industrialized country. Annual work hours are 4% higher than they were in 1980, amounting to an extra 1 hour and 30 minutes at work per week, on average (ILO 1999). Workers are also clocking more overtime hours. Almost one-third of the workforce regularly works more than the standard 40-hour week; one-fifth work more than 50 hours. The growth in overtime work, while helping to drive the healthy growth in output in the U.S., has unhealthy social costs. It is taking its toll not only on workers, but on their families, communities, and, ultimately in many cases, patients, customers, and

Work and family are two human institutions that are widely related and essential for our culture as a society in which the first social experience is earn at home. Plus work, more than a need for progress, is a trait of humanity and it constant pursuit to overcome its own achievements. When the factors that humanity has created change these institutions, humanity is changing society and in long term changing itself. Many writers like Tyagi and Walls had agreed against and pro of this change that affect beyond the general understanding. Examples of the issues addressed by these authors were the need to find a balance between work and family plus the end of the stay at home mom era. These issues as well as

This spillover was observed by Hamper of his Grandfather. “Straight home from work, dinner, the evening news and immediately into bed at 7:00 p.m. He arose each weekday at 3:30 a.m., fixed himself some black coffee, turned on the kitchen radio, smoked a handful of Lucky Strikes and waited to leave for work at a quarter to five. This regimen never varied one iota in the forty years he worked for GM” (Hamper pg.6). It is fairly clear that the monotony of the assembly line has a way of setting personal routines for it’s workers that eventually work their way out of the factory and into the home.

In the early years of my grandparents’ growing families, both my grandmothers stayed home as homemakers to take care of their children while my grandfathers worked on the farm. I noticed that later, both my grandmothers began to work outside of the home to contribute to the financial needs of the family. The change in their work can be attributed to the both the social and economic changes that took place (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2013). Since then, the women in my family have worked full-time, including myself. The men in the family have done work in business since both my grandfathers did so. My father and my brothers have definitely followed their example in that

It was a common understanding prior to this time period, that a family was only successful if each member fulfilled their independent and significant role. Men were expected to work outside of the home, their support for their family came from their labor and toil. Women were expected to work inside of the home, and their support for their family came from doing things such as housework, raising children, and fulfilling their wifely duties. Women’s work was often considered less valuable than a man’s, but it would not be until now, that women and men’s work and their skills both become trivial. The traditional customs that have been followed and practiced for so long have abruptly come to a halt since capitalism has been incorporated into American

The United States is commonly known as “No-Vacation Nation” (Thompson, 2012) because Americans typically prioritize work over studies and family. (1)Although people in America take fewer vacations than any nation in the world, socioeconomics may be a reason for why employees focus more on work than research and relationships in the American culture. "There is simply no evidence that working people to death gives you a competitive advantage" (Pawlowski, 2011). (2)As a citizen of the United States and one who has often fallen prey to these ideals, the trend to overwork has been an affliction to overcome. Family and scholarly efforts have been sacrificed, but over the past year or two, I have made a conscious effort to alter my “live to work”

Family relations started to weaken during the second revolution in America and New England because with new employment opportunities for women, men and children in New England and America, families had the ability to become free or separate from each other, move away, or have an employment in which their gender or age might not have otherwise allowed today. “In short, the Industrial Revolution in early America created a standard of hard work, individuality, and in some cases, an equal amount of importance dedicated to career and family.”

Gender roles is a very controversial topic in today’s society, especially when it comes to working. 100 years ago, in Europe, women were working long hours in factories. Women also worked as nurses, cleaned wealthy people 's homes, and were craftswomen. Meanwhile, 100 years ago in the United States women were expected to stay home and take care of the family/home, while the men went out and worked an average of ten hours a day for six days a week, compared to the traditional five day weeks and 8 hour days.

A new technology comes up and it integral the families and individuals life, wondering what can a technology reflect or interfere in our daily bases. Social media has many conflict that makes individuals be attached too. Families not having to visit each other face to face, because it’s an easier way to connect by socialism, such as network. Socialism in this aspect decreases the daily outdoors activity and having a good time with the family. A relationship with the family should bond. But individual families are becoming lazier. They try to find a way to make it much easier on them by texting, calling, Facebooking, last but not least tweeting. Communicating

The belief that work is morally good is the definition of work ethic provided by The American Heritage Dictionary. Work can mean different things to different people. Usually, when we first think of a word and its meaning, we look at its definition. When defining what is morally good, one must remain open to past societal meanings of what was considered moral. Work ethic has developed and changed through different cultures over centuries. Historians and philosophers have developed great insights and theories pertaining specifically to the meaning of work ethic and its meaningfulness in today's modern employment, while some have praised it and some have cursed it. Which leads us to the question, do workers today have a calling or

Work can cause many issues with oneself and society. There can be a inner struggle in someone if they don’t like their job. Society can cause the discussion of jobs to become a controversial topic. In the poems “Lady In The Pink Mustang” by Louise Erdrich, “The Restaurant Business” by James Tate, and “So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs From Americans” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, the authors use divisions and conflicts to make readers see a bigger picture.