Second Richest Man In The World Wants Three-Day Work Week

workers

Most working people in this country are flat out exhausted as the end of their shifts come on Friday evening, perhaps even earlier in the week! Now the world’s second-richest man, Carlos Slim, said during a business conference that the way we work?needs a?“radical overhaul” which includes a three-day work week.

Carlos Slim is the CEO of the telecom company Telmex. He has been in the top 3 of the richest people in the world for years now. His thoughts on working would definitely be considered new and innovative in our country, which has had the standard 5 cay, 8 hours-per-day work week forever it seems. At his company, Slim has already started to implement some changes.


At Telmex, workers can retire at 50 and are able to sign up for a voluntary plan which allows them to work after age 50 but only four days a week. Slim notes that there would be some other effects of a three-day workweek that some may not like. There would be longer hours worked daily, (he suggests 11), and pushing back the retirement age to 70 or 75. He believes these changes would make the workforce more productive and would allow more leisure time for employees which would create happier and healthier adults. This could spell bad news for those working in physically demanding jobs however, as occupations like construction would be extremely hard on the elderly.

Some U.S. companies have already experimented with changes to the typical workweek. Treehouse, an online education company, provides workers with a four-day workweek while paying them as if they worked a five-day workweek. According to Think Progress, some studies show that workers who work less hours actually are more productive. They mention how Germans work about 1,400 hours yearly while Greeks work 2,000. The results? Germans are around 70% more productive.


I wonder what American workers think? It seems that we are overworked, always tired, and generally rank pretty low in overall happiness especially compared to our Scandinavian friends. Would you like working less days a week? What if that meant working more hours a day? There is never a perfect solution to any issue but sometimes implementing key changes could improve productivity and the livelihood of everyone.

 

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I was born on January 13, 1990. I was born and raised in Charlotte, NC. I moved up north and attended the University of CT from 2008 to 2012. I currently also work at a law firm in Uptown Charlotte and have been helping with this organization entitled the National Independent Voter Coalition. My interests include: Politics (obviously), Basketball (playing and watching) and watching almost any sport, movies, reading, the law, human rights, entertainment, mostly Angelina Jolie and Beyonce. I am fun, caring, passionate, intelligent, and unique!