THREE DAY WORKING WEEK – Need of the present era.

What a novel idea! Today when I read an article in economic times, it really made sense.

This radical and revolutionary idea has been suggested by Mexican billionaire tycoon Carlos Slim, whose personal net worth of 80 billion dollars is about that of Bill Gates.

Slim says, with the introduction of three day working week, labour force could be spread over a full week with employees working up to 10 or 11 hours a day. With three working days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life. He further stated that having four days off would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied. The current retirement age comes from a time of lower life expectancies and should rise to 70 or 75.

This is a really revolutionary idea and should be considered seriously. The current working hours are a legacy of 20th century culture. With the advent of internet and cloud computing and the level of their penetration in our daily life activities – be it communicating, education, banking, doing business or entertainment, this three day working week is a wonderful idea.

This will solve the problem of unemployment and also help in bringing some kind of equity among people thereby reducing the gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have –nots’.

With four days off, people find new avenues to engage their life, which further fuels economic activity bringing more and more people to be employed and also enjoy the life!

Hope industry leaders and political class will give serious thought on this.