Opinion | How a four-day workweek could change Americans’ lives

While I recognize that the notion of a single provider was never universal, it was once common for households to have their economic needs met by one person who worked outside the home for 40 hours each week. Today, the number of hours worked outside the home per household is well over double that. It is no wonder Americans are unhappy! Our lives are too hectic, we are stressed and tired, and it is hard to support one another in these conditions. It has taken a toll on our society, our well-being and, frankly, our strength as a nation.

Personally, I think we should strive for three-day workweeks or ones with five half-days. The key is for these jobs to include benefits and full career-advancement opportunities. I am not calling for the same pay.

A shift to this sort of schedule would give people with young children the opportunity to be a stay-at-home parent two days a week, with the children in two-parent homes left in the care of others on the fifth day. Kids would have the benefits of focused parental attention and some professional caregiving and socialization. More people would also be able to directly care for their elderly relatives or to more actively monitor their care. Those without child- or elderly-care responsibilities would be expected to contribute to their communities in other ways.

With today’s tech and global marketplace, there is almost no such thing as regular office hours. We already live with not being able to immediately get a human on the telephone. We already keep track of and make adjustments when working with colleagues, customers and clients on flex schedules or in different time zones.

Experimenting with schedules like these doesn’t require government mandates, though federal, state or local governments could incentivize businesses to continue offering full benefits to part-time workers. Private employers can start now. I recommend Mr. Sanders prove this vision works with three-day workweeks for his campaign staff and report back!

Elizabeth Strickler, Atlanta

The recent op-ed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Shawn Fain brings to mind an alternative reduced workweek not otherwise addressed.

In the late 1980s, the Intelsat building in North Cleveland Park was undergoing construction of its Phase II addition and the ironworkers on the project unconventionally proposed a four-day workweek of 40 hours.

The city’s pool of construction workers, now filled with expats from El Salvador, was completely different then, and many carpenters and ironworkers not living in D.C. itself commuted to and from the Shenandoah Valley, typically by carpooling. There was a lot of sense in the ironworkers’ novel labor request. Stretching an eight-hour day to a 10-hour day and shortening the workweek to four days would eliminate a whole day of unproductive commuting and also netted workers a three-day weekend.

I was the general contractor’s project manager at the time, and I took the request to the owner, Intelsat director Richard Colino. He agreed to the arrangement as long as production, and the construction schedule, went unaffected. We confirmed as much and intended to proceed.

The innovative concept, however, never saw a trial. The need for unanimous buy-in by every trade on the job proved impossible to coordinate. Working some trades four days a week and others five days a week was untenable. So, unfortunately, the novel labor experiment never saw a test of its intriguing potential. Let’s hope other projects, and other employers, are willing to try again.

A handy checklist for future leaders

Regarding Dana Milbank’s March 24 column, “My week of taking Trump literally”:

Donald Trump recently said Jews who vote for Democrats hate their religion. So I looked in the Bible for guidance on selecting candidates. I found some in Psalm 15 and Proverbs 6:16-19.

Psalm 15 has 11 criteria, for which candidates earn one point each if they pass and zero if they do not, for a possible best score of 11 points.

1. Does the candidate walketh uprightly,
2. worketh righteousness
3. and speaketh truth in his heart?
4. Is the candidate someone who does not slander with his tongue,
5. does no evil to his neighbor,
6. nor takes up a reproach against his friend?
7. Is the candidate a person in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
8. but who honors those who fear the Lord?
9. Will the candidate swear to his own hurt and changeth not?
10. The candidate does not put his money at interest (usury)
11. or take a bribe against the innocent.

Proverbs…