Thread: 10 Day Week

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  1. #1
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    10 Day Week

    Most of our calendaric time frames have some basis in nature. The year is based on the time it takes to revolve around the sun. The month is (loosely) based on the time the moon takes to revolve around the Earth. The day is based on the amount of time it takes the Earth to rotate once. Why, then, do we stick with a 7 day model for the week, one which is completely arbitrary and doesn't divide comfortably into any of the other measurements?

    Why don't we instead have a 10 day week? It would divide comfortably into a 30 day month, by having 3 weeks a month. You would have 36 weeks in a year, with 5 "leap weeks," months where 1 of the weeks would have 11 days, with the extra being a day off. The work week could be 4 days of work, 1 day of rest, then 3 days of work and 2 days of rest. I think breaking the work week up a bit like that would enable people to recharge their batteries partway into the week and get their thoughts in order. It would give students a day for study in the middle of the week if they felt the need to catch up. You would have "mid week," and "week end."

    The 10 day week system would have 252 work days per year, before national holidays. The current 7 day system has 260.71 work days per year before national holidays. That number would be even closer if several of the national holidays were held on "leap weeks."

    Anyone else like this idea?
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

  2. #2
    No it makes my brain hurt.

  3. #3
    Damn, I'm so accustomed to the general 5 on, 2 off rhythm that it'd be almost impossible for me to break. Well, I suppose I do for vacations, and I work about one weekend a month, but the general pattern is still lodged in my head.

    The reason for the 7 day week is almost entirely an artifact of ancient Semitic and Christian cultures using it, right?

  4. #4
    Didn't the French try something like that with their revolutionary calendar (1792-1805)? Didn't catch on.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    Damn, I'm so accustomed to the general 5 on, 2 off rhythm that it'd be almost impossible for me to break. Well, I suppose I do for vacations, and I work about one weekend a month, but the general pattern is still lodged in my head.

    The reason for the 7 day week is almost entirely an artifact of ancient Semitic and Christian cultures using it, right?
    Eh, didnt the Roman Empire have a Julian Calender which had 12 months with 365,25 days too...?

  6. #6
    Because then you'd have to tell girls that you're going to love them 11 days a week.

  7. #7
    Honorary PvM "Mod" Darsithis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    The reason for the 7 day week is almost entirely an artifact of ancient Semitic and Christian cultures using it, right?
    Yes. We won't really discuss it here (discussion of religion is not allowed), but yes, it has religious roots. It is not based on nature.

    I don't like the idea of changing weeks. Everything is built upon it. Everything, from the seasons to the sales to the holidays to schools...it would be such a mind-numbing change I can't imagine how that'd even work.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Darsithis View Post
    I don't like the idea of changing weeks. Everything is built upon it. Everything, from the seasons to the sales to the holidays to schools...it would be such a mind-numbing change I can't imagine how that'd even work.
    Yeah, it would probably suck as much as change to/from SAE or Metric

  9. #9
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    Wouldn't it be nice to be able to say the first week of November and have that always be the same set of days every year, though? To know that Halloween would always occur on the same day of the week every year? You would lose the weird variations that cause holidays to be more or less celebratable (a new word I just made) every year. The day that school begins every year wouldn't change dates based on when the Monday occurred. Not sure why seasons would have to be based on a 7 day week either.
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

  10. #10
    Bloodsail Admiral Honzi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    The reason for the 7 day week is almost entirely an artifact of ancient Semitic and Christian cultures using it, right?
    Actually the 7 day week has its origin in babylonia and 7 days are approximately a quarter of a lunation.
    "You're messing with my zen thing, man!"

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Rocko9 View Post
    Yeah, it would probably suck as much as change to/from SAE or Metric
    That would just mean reprinting some signs and putting different marks on rulers. Changing the calendar would be a whole lot more work, because it would need implementing world-wide on the same day.

  12. #12
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    Damn, I'm so accustomed to the general 5 on, 2 off rhythm that it'd be almost impossible for me to break. Well, I suppose I do for vacations, and I work about one weekend a month, but the general pattern is still lodged in my head.

    The reason for the 7 day week is almost entirely an artifact of ancient Semitic and Christian cultures using it, right?
    You'd be surprised how quickly you can adapt. I've worked 42 on, 24 off before, and it was fine. Lots of doctors have even crazier schemes.
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Butler Log View Post
    That would just mean reprinting some signs and putting different marks on rulers. Changing the calendar would be a whole lot more work, because it would need implementing world-wide on the same day.
    And speedometers (I know they already have them, but they're printed small), everyone has to relearn their system, all of the drawings of buildings I get are in SAE, among other things.

    I think getting people to agree on implementing it would be harder than the actual changeover.

    Quote Originally Posted by Reeve View Post
    You'd be surprised how quickly you can adapt. I've worked 42 on, 24 off before, and it was fine. Lots of doctors have even crazier schemes.
    Yeah, it's mostly the doctors on standby. I was working I a hospital about a year ago, and one of the nurses did two 16s and an 8. Four days off rocks

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Reeve View Post
    You'd be surprised how quickly you can adapt. I've worked 42 on, 24 off before, and it was fine. Lots of doctors have even crazier schemes.
    Back in grad school, I had a stretch of about 2 months straight without a day off. I did not adapt

  15. #15
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    Back in grad school, I had a stretch of about 2 months straight without a day off. I did not adapt
    It might be easier to adapt when the difference is so much smaller. You'd have 4 days in a row of work instead of 5, which you already do on holiday weeks anyway, followed by 1 day of rest, then 3 days of work followed by 2 days of rest. That seems like it would feel like less hardship to recover from, not more.
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

  16. #16
    Field Marshal
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    A week seems to be more related to social and personal needs than anything in the natural world. It's served us well marking out a rhythm to productivity and rest for a while, but I think it's finally starting to outlive its usefulness in this form. I don't know about a 10 day week, but I do think expanding it to 8 days and having 3 day weekends would be superior to the current system, and be a more business-friendly way of getting everyone 3 day weekends. 10 seems like it'd feel too long before the next beat in the rhythm. Still, this is the kind of thing that'll never change even if there were all kinds of studies pointing at productivity and/or happiness increases. Just too ingrained.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Spectral View Post
    Back in grad school, I had a stretch of about 2 months straight without a day off. I did not adapt
    2 isn't that bad

    Quote Originally Posted by Reeve View Post
    It might be easier to adapt when the difference is so much smaller. You'd have 4 days in a row of work instead of 5, which you already do on holiday weeks anyway, followed by 1 day of rest, then 3 days of work followed by 2 days of rest. That seems like it would feel like less hardship to recover from, not more.
    Eh, I'd rather have 7 on 3 off, that way holidays may make it a 4th off.

  18. #18
    Legendary! Vizardlorde's Avatar
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    I thought 7 day weeks were based on the changes in the phases of the moon...
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalis View Post
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Reeve View Post
    Anyone else like this idea?
    It's not like this was a discussable matter like laws, taxes or class changes in a game. No matter how much anyone would like it or who not, it's something we agreed on at the very base of human society, 7 billion people have adapted to it and so it won't be changed unless something drastical happens that makes the change a need. Like, bombing ourselves out of orbit with the result that our entrie day / month / year calculations had to be redone from scratch. Meh.

  20. #20
    Merely a Setback Reeve's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vizardlorde View Post
    I thought 7 day weeks were based on the changes in the phases of the moon...
    I'd have thought it had something to do with honoring the Sabbath day and keeping it holy, and the whole "on the 7th day he rested" sort of thing.
    'Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead
    Or a yawing hole in a battered head
    And the scuppers clogged with rotting red
    And there they lay I damn me eyes
    All lookouts clapped on Paradise
    All souls bound just contrarywise, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

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