What about a law demanding 2 consecutive days off every week?

[JanMichael]

I know a lot of retail places have a split "weekend". Actually I worked at a Borders bookstore ages ago and that's the way they did it too.

Is this an issue that could catch on?

It seems like a no-brainer.

Of course if one chose to not do it that way, fine, but at least make it the worker's choice not the company.

[xray s]

1. I would like to see a law...

...that we all get the same amount of vacation as the President of the United States. After all, if he can take time off, why can't we?

[JanMichael]

7. I don't see why the President shouldn't earned the US median income.

Sure, provide the house and clothes, like a movie set...But pay that person a salary approached REAL salaries.

[xray s]

9. He should get the median health insurance too

No annual golden rectal exams by socialist government doctors. Oh no. It's should be the free market for him!

:evilgrin:

[JanMichael]

16. Exactly. If they want those things then we ALL should have them.

All or nothing for these wonder weasels.

[jshafted]

2. ehhh

It would make having a full-time job and going to college full-time much much harder

[JanMichael]

4. You must have stopped reading my post halfway down.

I said give the worker a choice if they wished to do it differently.

[Fla_Democrat]

12. Don't they have that choice now?

:shrug:

[JanMichael]

14. I know of several companies that give schedules that don't do it.

Borders did when I was there & a poster on this thread say's his job doesn't either.

So no, people do not always get to have two consecutive days off.

[Fla_Democrat]

15. Ahhh, too bad workers don't

have the choice of changing jobs.

My job has it's faults too, they want me there at 7:30 A.M. Those bastards. They should let me come in at 9ish.

[JanMichael]

17. What's your point? You don't believe in Workers Rights?

I do. We're not on the same page. So be it.

[Fla_Democrat]

20. I believe in workers rights

I just don't think we need a law for someone to have 2 consecutive days off. I think that if employees, er, workers, don't wish to work their schedule, they should take the steps to alter their deal with their employers.

I believe workers have the right to make the best deal they can make with their employers, as long as there is no force or fraud exercised by either party.

I see no difference between making a law requiring 2 consecutive days off, and making a law requiring a flexible start time. Both would 'benefit' the worker.

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Excellent point, but...

>I believe workers have the right to make the best deal they can make
>with their employers, as long as there is no force or fraud exercised
>by either party.

The problem is that we do not have a level playing field between employers and employees. Even unionized employees, less than 5% now iirc, have much less bargaining power than they used to.

Proper dealmaking is only possible between to fairly equal parties, and employers do "force" employees to take it or leave it.

[Fla_Democrat]

24. Then they leave it.

One thing I've always had a problem wrapping my mind around, is the anti-Walmart posts. People post about how terrible it is there, how they treat the workers so bad, just short of daily whippings, or so it seems. Yet, there always seems to be a full house of blue smocks at every Wal-mart I have seen.

When a new one is built, there seems to be a line out the door of people applying for a job there.

If it is so bad, how do they get people to apply. If it is such a cesspool, how do they retain employees.

This is just one case, but it makes the point.

If a company is so unreasonable, that they can not get employees to work, then they will go out of business. If an employee has standards that are beyond what is reasonable for a company to meet, they will not be hired. I don't see this as being a problem. :shrug:

[Aaron]

28. So how do you feel about minimum wage and the eight hour workday? (n/t)

[sandnsea]

30. Choice

Okay, let me start with my theory of what's wrong with the philosophy in social education with kids. It starts with the premise of choice, sex, drugs, alcohol are all choices, one choice is as good as another. Wrong. Choices should be between two equally or nearly equally good options. Anything else is an error. Having unprotected sex for example, isn't a choice, it's an error. Of course, we all make errors as well as intelligent choices.

So, do people lining up at Walmart have equally good choices available to them? I don't think so. Does a person working at a nonunion shop have the ability to negotiate their own working conditions? Generally not. That's what annoys me about the premise of letting the individual work it out on their own because they have the choice to work at a particular place or not. They don't have that choice. And if millions of individuals have no collective voice then the one who tries to negotiate 'extra' benefits will be moved out. Two consecutive days off is an 'extra' benefit; when will minimum wage be an 'extra' benefit?

China has 15 days mandatory vacation per year. China. But two consecutive days off in the US is outlandish. Damned greedy Americans.

[GayboyBilly]

3. They want to take overtime pay away from us...

you think they are going to make a law "demanding 2 consecutive days off every week"?

[JanMichael]

5. Just because one is sought doesn't mean the other is forgotten.

I'm multi-tasking;-)

[Droopy]

6. Good idea

Got a petition? Where do I sign on? I've been working mostly six days a week for the past three years. That sucks! To top it off, I work 60 hours a week and I don't get any overtime pay. I'm a trucker and I get paid by the run, so I guess I'm considered a salaried employee.

[JanMichael]

8. Do you have to work 6 days a week?

There are some professions that would obviously be treated differently, like firefighters etc.

But I sure as hell wouldn't want to get screwed on the OT.

[Droopy]

10. Yes, I have to work it

My only day off is Sunday. We are supposed to get every other Saturday off, too. But so far it hasn't worked out. It's a dedicated route (same run every day) and for some reason the boss can't get them covered by somebody else on Saturday most of the time.

[JanMichael]

11. This is why we have/had Labor Laws.

Why do we work? To have a Life. If you can't get anytime to enjoy that Life why work?

[Droopy]

13. I'm not enjoying life all that much

About the only thing good about it is that my bank account is doing okay. I'd gladly trade in the extra dough for the extra time. I'd make enough on a five day schedule.

I'll be trading in my blue collar for a white one here pretty soon. Trucking is a rough way to make a living. I've got a couple of years of college and I'll be heading back in the fall to finish up. I think I'll be much happier, even if I still have a six day work week.

[jiacinto]

18. No

That wouldn't work. For a variety of businesses that type of law would not be economically feasible.

I worked at a dept store and they did it this way for the full time people. They had one weekend where you worked Friday Night, Saturday morning, and all day Sunday. You would then have one weekday off. Then they had a weekend where you worked Friday early, Satruday evening shift, and then have Saturday off. You would have one weekday off. Then they had a weekend where you had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off.

But I think that that policy would hurt business.

[JanMichael]

19. Good god. Have you every had to draw up schedules?

I have and if I can any numbskull can do it.

Hurt business? Shit, child labor laws hurt business, so what?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

23. most intelligent post in 7 days

JanMichael, thank you very, very much. How these people can oppose giving us a weekend, I honestly cannot comprehend. And they expect us to vote for them?

[jiacinto]

32. That's not fair

And you are being unreasonable in even saying that I would ever support child labor laws! I don't.

I also do think people should have days off, but some businesses do most of their work on the weekend and your plan would hurt them and cost people jobs.

[JanMichael]

35. I NEVER SAID SATURDAY & SUNDAY OFF!

Two consecutive days could be ANY two consecutive days.

Get it?

2 days side by side without designating the specific days of the week.

[jiacinto]

33. That's not fair and you know it

And you are being unreasonable in even saying that I would ever support child labor laws! I don't.

I also do think people should have days off, but some businesses do most of their work on the weekend and your plan would hurt them and cost people jobs.

[jiacinto]

34. That's not fair and you know it

And you are being unreasonable in even saying that I would ever support child labor laws! I don't.

I also do think people should have days off, but some businesses do most of their work on the weekend and your plan would hurt them and cost people jobs.

[RussBLib]

21. Whatever happened to vacations?

Interesting article today on vacations. I get three weeks from my employer, plus I "bought" a fourth (with pre-tax dollars). But many of my co-workers feel too busy or too driven to take their vacations, and when the new year rolls around, they've already got so much time in the "bank" that they lose vacation time. This is insane.

Land of the free. Home of the brave. Yeah, right.

a few snips...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/outlook/2023739

A survey by the Internet travel company Expedia.com has found that Americans will be taking 10 percent less vacation time this year than last -- too much work to get away, said respondents. This continues a trend that has seen the average vacation Americans take buzz-sawed down to a long weekend, according to the travel industry. Some 13 percent of American companies now provide no paid leave, up from 5 percent five years ago, according to the Alexandria, Va.-based Society for Human Resource Management. In Washington state, a whopping 17 percent of workers get no paid leave.

In the early 1990s, Juliet Schor called attention to skyrocketing work weeks and declining free time in her book The Overworked American. In the decade since that groundbreaking work appeared, things not only haven't gotten any better -- they've gotten worse. We're now logging more hours on the job than we have since the 1920s. Almost 40 percent of us work more than 50 hours a week. And just a couple of weeks ago, before members of the House of Representatives took off on their month-plus vacations, they opted to pile more work onto American employees by approving the White House's rewrite of wage and hour regulations, which would turn anyone who holds a "position of responsibility" into a salaried employee who can be required to work unlimited overtime for no extra pay.

The Department of Labor issued a report in 1936 that found the lack of a national law on vacations shameful when 30 other nations had one, and recommended legislation. But it never happened. This was the fork in the road where the United States and Europe, which then had a similar amount of vacation time, parted ways.

Evidence shows that time off is not the enemy of productivity; to the contrary, it's the engine. U.S. companies that have implemented a three-week vacation policy have seen their profits and productivity soar. Profits have doubled at the H Group, a financial services firm in Salem, Ore., since an across-the-board three-week vacation became the rule nine years ago. They have risen 15 percent at Jancoa, a Cincinnati-based janitorial services firm with 468 employees that also went to a three-week policy a few years ago. The owners of both these companies told me they believe the switch in vacation policy is directly responsible for the improvement.

And contrary to the American myth, a number of European countries have caught up with the United States in productivity. In fact, Europe had a higher productivity growth rate in 14 of the 19 years between 1981 and 2000, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.

I find it strange that the land of the free should be so deficient in vacation time, which is as free as you can get all year. In fact, the word vacation comes from the Latin root vacatio, which means "freedom." A vacation is our chance to get out there and discover and travel, to connect with family and friends, to put one over on the survival game. But fear is a specialist in strangling liberty. We're told that, with real vacations, companies would fall apart and the U.S. economy would suddenly turn into Paraguay's.

[angka]

25. for it

a wonderful idea. give retail workers something to live for, since they're not getting that from their paychecks. you gotta start somewhere...

[arcos]

26. I prefer non-consecutive days...

It's less tiresome for me. Am I the only freak?

[Aaron]

29. You're not alone

I like non-consecutive days too. Although I guess that might get old for me after a while. I never leave town or anything, and I've never really liked going to work, so breaking up my work week into sections of a few days each seems reasonable to me.

[whoYaCallinAlib]

27. It's a good idea.

I think Congress may be a little hesitant to do anything to business right now. Maybe later, when the economy is cooking again, something like this might pass both houses.

[Speed8098]

31. Laws, Laws, Laws..

Why do Americans feel the need to legislate EVERYTHING?

I'm so sick of laws. Do this, do that, read this, read that. Next we'll need a law telling us when to sh*t.

It makes me want to :puke: