In the recent past, there has been a contentious argument about the number of days workers should spend at work every week. Some argue that employees should have fewer days to work and longer days of rest. In my opinion, both arguments are valid. In this essay, we will discuss both views, and I will defend my stance.
Some industries require a physical presence of manpower in order to realise productivity. These areas include, but are not limited to, healthcare and manufacturing. For healthcare, patients need round-the-clock care from healthcare providers. It would therefore be important not to have such employees work a few days a week. Manufacturing also needs its employees to be available as production in most industries is a continuous process. Therefore, shortening the working week can not be possible for some crucial industries, as this move will interrupt effective service delivery and hence have an impact on the company negatively.
In contrast, it is possible to grant the workers fewer working days and longer weekends by introducing work-from-home policies that will ensure continuous productivity despite the physical location of the workforce. It is easy to implement such a measure in a non-critical industry. For instance, during the COVID period, most employers adopted this policy, and it worked effectively, ensuring minimal disruptions for companies.
In conclusion, I would argue that both views should be considered and that workers can be denied fewer working days depending on the industry, for example, healthcare, and they can again get longer weekends depending on friendlier policies like work-from-home.