St George's Day

My son negotiated a 4 day week. He is always keen for a good work/ life balance ( "you only get one life") He is one of the lucky ones and adores his job, but also plays hard as well. He works hard at both, and consequently is stress free and happy. Sounds like a sensible balance.

My daughter works for a company that whilst paying top dollar also expects every pound of flesh. She has tried and failed to negotiate her hours. She is another who works extremely hard and enjoys what she does(gets huge bonuses as a result of good appraisals) but is as a result of the inflexibility of the company/manager stressed and frequently unhappy.

Four day work weeks are brilliant. Of course business can do and still profit.

My husband organised the business to run on a rolling week calendar. Work hours over 3-4-5 days, 3 days off with 2 days alternate switching every week. Half the workers were working whilst the other half enjoyed a long weekend, then switch. Everybody was happy, work got done, profits were quite healthy.

Yes, it needs to be reclaimed!
Every country seems proud of its flag and we should be able to feel proud of the English flag again.

Well said grannyp. I think it's sad that the flag of St George is now largely associated with the yobbish BNP culture. Maybe if it were seen at more family-friendly events like parties and bbq's and school sports days it would seem less of a threatening symbol.

Jalima You are right i am a Scot back living in Scotland.Our family celebrated St Georges Day and flew the cross of St George, my DH because he is English, my adult children because they live there and me because i strongly believe that it is high time the English took their flag back and stopped feeling ashamed uncomfortable to be patriotic and for the fact i loved living in the shire's until it just got too busy. I do miss England but i love being back here in rural Scotland.
I am so glad you enjoyed the day.

three day weekend every weekend? For everyone? Perhaps not for bus drivers, hospital staff, ambulance drivers, shop workers, garden centres um, er half the population.

Why should people working a four day week mean that only four particular days are worked Jalima? Two people working a four-day week gives you a seven-day week with half a days hand over.

Jalima I know the concept of a 4 day week had been mooted before but that was a different time/context. People who won't consider things again 'because we did once and it didn't work' often halt positive progress. Things change. It does no harm to think if it would work now!

^In the 1980s, i think, all the emphasis in secondary schools was on 'education for leisure' to ensure we would be able to make the most of all that free time when technology meant everyone working shorter hours.
What went wrong?^

People wanted to hoard their gold and not share it more evenly allule.

In my last job we all worked four days a week. The days were slightly longer, but the extra day off was most welcome and because of the nature of the business, we covered more work and made better profits. Although we we were a small company, our CEO had profit sharing in place, so we were all keen and happy workers. I wish all employers could be like that great lady!

In the 1980s, i think, all the emphasis in secondary schools was on 'education for leisure' to ensure we would be able to make the most of all that free time when technology meant everyone working shorter hours.
What went wrong?

I know it is St.Georges day because it is my birthday,cheers to me.

Thank you grannypiper for starting a happy thread under Chat, especially as I think you live in Scotland

Probably overseers with whips still needed, Gracesgran, to ensure they work hard enough to justify their masters' billions. Isn't that what happens in Amazon warehouses - electronic whips, of course.

So Theoddbird You care so much about your country that you would never vote Labour - the Labour Party that was responsible for:

The establishment of the NHS
The introduction of old age and widows pensions
The clearance of slums and building of council homes
The establishment of the Open University
The introduction of anti-discriminatory laws relating to Race, Gender, Disability, etc.
The minimum wage, etc., etc., etc.

That is, for almost every social policy that has sought to improve the lives of the average person in the UK and thus the strength and wellbeing of the country as a whole - most of which policies the Conservative Party opposed.

We had a St. George's day parade in our local town. It seems that many still do. I think the biggest difficultly is claiming back the flag from what the far right have done to it.

You have to love those who think the idea of a four day weekend 'loony'.

I get the feeling they know little about anything before they were around. I can imagine their ancestors believing that working very long hours 'by the clock' in the industrial revolution was good for the scroungers and of course the children of these feckless people should work.

And, no doubt they would have been telling their husbands that working often 11 hours and sometime a 13 hour day as some seamstresses did should not be alleviated by a half day holiday on a Saturday afternoon. This was first won for the Manchester's warehousemen and clerks but they then went of to fight for the seamstresses and 'servants'.

The groups who fought for better working conditions have always, as far as I am aware, been left of centre in nature and now there is talk of a four-day week. Good for the greens. We will probably have to share work as it becomes more automated and AI does things more accurately and faster than we can. This seems like a step in the right direction.

We'll just have to look forward to May Day

According to the Yorkshire Post:

Saint George's Day WAS once a public holiday - although you have to go back to 1415 for when it was declared a national feast day and holiday in England.

Nothing new under the sun

*Penstemmon^
I do not know what I think of a three day weekend..but I am open enough to think about it and not reject it out of hand because myparticular political party did not suggest it!

I think these kind of ideas were mooted years ago in the days when we thought we would all be working about 3-4 days a week and retiring on fat pensions at 55, so it is not something new that is being thought of.

That's why the Green Party are investigating the idea. It's strange that people can just call it a bad idea because the "loony Green party" has thought of it, without any supporting evidence.
The Tory party has come up with lots of "loony" ideas, too.

A four day week was thought of way back in the sixties, when mechanisation of jobs was going to become more prevalent. We were supposed to have more leisure time.
Instead what happened was that those who owned the factories sacked their workers so they could make more money, and the wage differentials became enormous.
Very worker friendly.

A very interesting article in Business Insider, Apr. 9, 2017. uk.businessinsider.com/3-day-weekend-economic-logistics-2017-4
Most telling sentence " . . . the Green Party's idea might work if installed as a law. But only if you accept that your boss will likely want you on the job for four 10-hour days."

If you are a firm believer that all bosses are busy screwing their workers 24/7 to fund their decadent lifestyles, then you will be lobbying for this to be made law, but if you are running a small business that is only just viable and you treat your workers fairly, then you will face filing for bankruptcy unless the hours per week stay the same, however many days they are spread over.

A three day weekend?A typical loony Green idea.

Does the four-day week mean
1) the same number of hours distributed over four days instead of five, same work for the same pay?
Or 2) the same hours each day as now but only four days out of five, so less work for less pay?
Or 3) would the pay be the same as before, same pay but for four-fifths of the work?

If 1), it has attractions.
If 2), there would have to be either more people employed to get the same amount done (costing employers in many indirect ways), or there would have to be overtime (again, costing employers more) - which everyone would want to do so as to kepp their income the same.
If 3), employers would have to pay the same but get less done, so they would have to provide overtime (and pay more) or employ more people (and pay more)

In scenarios two and three, all prices would inevitably go up to cover the extra cost.

I do not know what I think of a three day weekend..but I am open enough to think about it and not reject it out of hand because myparticular political party did not suggest it!

That is the trouble with being too partisan/nationalistic etc. Instead of giving credit where credit is due, or acknowledging things went wrong we, generally, have a tendency to reject or accept ideas according to our broad political allegiance/ nation.

My mum always made spotted dick as one of the puds, but mine is not as nice as hers so we have cakes and a torte. Is spotted Dick traditional to others?