I saw a poll not too long ago that revealed that most people would prefer to work a four-day work week instead of a five-day work week, even if that meant working longer hours Monday-Thursday or whatever the four workdays are.

Personally, I’ve had the privilege of working a job like this where we eventually worked a four-day week which was 10 hours per day, but then we were off on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It made work so much easier to put up with. I don’t want to say enjoyable, because it was still work and I’d rather be home instead, but it made work tolerable because you get so much more time off in one chunk.

California is actually putting forward a bill that would mandate a four-day work week for companies that have more than 500 employees and force the employers to pay overtime to people who work more than 32 hours per week.

This means that a normal work week would not be 40 hours in California, it would be 32 hours. So, they would be 8-hour days instead of 10-hour days like what I did years ago.

Now, I love this idea honestly, but I don’t think that the government should be mandating it. It’s my opinion that the government has no business telling a company what they can or can’t pay their employees, however, I do understand the necessity sometimes because some employers will absolutely abuse their employees.

I’ve worked jobs where I had to work 60 hours per week for months on end. I’ve worked a job where I nearly got fired because I didn’t want to work on a Sunday when my regular schedule was Monday-Friday and had already worked overtime on Saturday.

Many European countries emphasize time off from work and have 32–36-hour work weeks. I think it’s time that we do the same honestly and give families their time back. We shouldn’t have to work our entire lives just to spend a small portion of it with our families. Families are for us to enjoy.