Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States without any reduction in pay. The bill, over a four-year period, would lowe…
My current job does this: I work 7-430 M-Th, and then 7-12 on Friday. It’s pretty cool, and the extra hour those 4 days feels negligible, with an early start to the weekend. Unlike Fisher-Price, though, mine is year round.
However, I’ve worked jobs that advertise as “full-time, 32-35 hrs/week,” and as the system is currently set up, it’s sucks big time. Like, I worked as a chef 32-hours a week and (shockingly) got benefits like health insurance and stuff. But when I went to buy a house, the mortgage company told me I either needed another 8 hours per week from my current job, or to find another that would give me at least 40 hours/wk. While the company considered me full-time, the mortgage company did not.
Worked another job for a school cafeteria as a cook, same thing, 30-35 hours per week, but the only benefits they offered were health insurance (which was expensive), and the ability to follow the school calendar. So, we’d get all the half-days and vacation days like the kids did, which was cool, but we didn’t get paid for it. So if 2 days per week were an early dismissal, I’d lose about 5+ hours of pay. Any break that was 3-days or more, we had to file for unemployment, which is an absolute joke and headache in my state. The only time I tried before I quit that job, the forms required me to give:
My entire employment history for the last 5 years, including exact start and end dates,
The hours I worked per week at each job,
Direct supervisor’s name and contact information, and
Reason for leaving each and every job, plus several other things I was literally flipping through my phone trying to find email/photos/etc of,
Random questions like why was I seeking unemployment, why was I filling out the form, why why why
Took me over 3 hours to put it all in, just for the system to acknowledge my bank existed, and then refuse to accept the routing number, trying to force me to get one of those temp debit cards mailed to me (that I think they charge fees on). I was so frustrated towards the end of it all I started putting “Why do I FUCKING need to tell you about a job from 6 years ago when I’m requesting unemployment for THIS FUCKING MONTH” in the comment sections.
Basically, until the laws/regulations regarding worker’s rights are standardized and written in a way where workers can actually benefit from shorter work weeks, or actually enjoy the incentives that shorter days and such provide, then these corporations will continue to find these loopholes to fuck us over. It’s why I’m trying to go into business for myself in the next few years: set my hours, choose my workload, and not deal with this corporate bullshit anymore.
Sorry, that turned into a rant, and I do want shorter work weeks, but unless the law is written extremely well, companies will just continue these bullshit antics.
My current job does this: I work 7-430 M-Th, and then 7-12 on Friday. It’s pretty cool, and the extra hour those 4 days feels negligible, with an early start to the weekend. Unlike Fisher-Price, though, mine is year round.
However, I’ve worked jobs that advertise as “full-time, 32-35 hrs/week,” and as the system is currently set up, it’s sucks big time. Like, I worked as a chef 32-hours a week and (shockingly) got benefits like health insurance and stuff. But when I went to buy a house, the mortgage company told me I either needed another 8 hours per week from my current job, or to find another that would give me at least 40 hours/wk. While the company considered me full-time, the mortgage company did not.
Worked another job for a school cafeteria as a cook, same thing, 30-35 hours per week, but the only benefits they offered were health insurance (which was expensive), and the ability to follow the school calendar. So, we’d get all the half-days and vacation days like the kids did, which was cool, but we didn’t get paid for it. So if 2 days per week were an early dismissal, I’d lose about 5+ hours of pay. Any break that was 3-days or more, we had to file for unemployment, which is an absolute joke and headache in my state. The only time I tried before I quit that job, the forms required me to give:
Took me over 3 hours to put it all in, just for the system to acknowledge my bank existed, and then refuse to accept the routing number, trying to force me to get one of those temp debit cards mailed to me (that I think they charge fees on). I was so frustrated towards the end of it all I started putting “Why do I FUCKING need to tell you about a job from 6 years ago when I’m requesting unemployment for THIS FUCKING MONTH” in the comment sections.
Basically, until the laws/regulations regarding worker’s rights are standardized and written in a way where workers can actually benefit from shorter work weeks, or actually enjoy the incentives that shorter days and such provide, then these corporations will continue to find these loopholes to fuck us over. It’s why I’m trying to go into business for myself in the next few years: set my hours, choose my workload, and not deal with this corporate bullshit anymore.
Sorry, that turned into a rant, and I do want shorter work weeks, but unless the law is written extremely well, companies will just continue these bullshit antics.