It is belived that the working days should be shortened, and individuals need to have more passtime in weekends. While there has been some professions that don’t allow people to have longer weekend due to certain sensitive situations, I strongly agree that employees need to have more leisure times.
It is proven that working hours reduction has several benefits in terms of productivity, mental and physical well-being, and job satisfaction. In today’s fast-pace world, opposed to previously old-fashioned opinions about long, exhausting work hours, large companies have come to realize that the key parameter is performance, which is acquired by high levels of concentration. For example, a survey conducted in Europe in 2018 reveals that working hours are directly linked to productivity and creativity, and they have a general optimum figure among staff. As a result, long working hours often lead to severe consequences for people, such as cognitive disorders and physical challenges due to short sleep time and low level of entertainment. Additionally, this phenomenon gradually causes job dissatisfaction among people, contributing to high unemployment rate and redundancy. Had the governmental bodies known about the correlation between performance and quality in work environment, they would not have implemented harmful regulations about long working hours.
In contrast, there are nemerous cases in which people are not allowed to have more weekends, imposing solid work structure on employees. Take medical staff as an instance; in such professions, doctors and nurses have to do shift work in certain days in a week, ensuring to deliver high quality services to patients. The more related jobs to public services, the less leisure time and social hours they have.
In conclusion, although there are mandatory positions that need working in holidays and weekends, I would argure that shortening working hours can bring about positive changes with regard to performance, and overall human well-being.