Canadians Continue To Show Support For 4-Day Work Weeks And 3-Day Weekends

Canadians are among several people worldwide who support a proposed scenario involving four-day work weeks and three-day weekends.

A few months ago, citizens across the country took to Reddit to discuss the pros and cons of the concept. The thread was started after the release of two petitions, both of which would unfortunately turn out to be unsuccessful. The first received a great deal of support (49,963 signatures) but was eventually closed, and the second gained some traction but was ultimately unable to generate enough momentum.

Still, Canadians continue to keep the conversation going today, with a another Reddit thread having surfaced just a few weeks ago. Many commenters were quick to show their continued support for the idea:

"Currently doing four days on, four days off. I'm never going back to a "normal" schedule, this is too beautiful." - mr-circuits

"Yep. Same here. Never again. I stay at a job that - if you ask me - underpays me because I think the work/life balance it affords me is worth it." - IpponDropkick

"Currently doing a 4-day work week of 10 hours a day, Monday through Thursday. I have to admit, it's jarring at first to only work 4 days a week but god damn, I'm not feeling burnt out at all on my days off. I'm all for 4 day work weeks." - LuntiX

"I'm with you. That third day is like a holiday every week. Two extra hours each day is nothing compared to an extra 24-hour block of off time each week." - Rndy_Bbndy

"We all work too much. We need more time to just connect and enjoy life. Less production and consumption. The whole system is crap and we're slaves for the people who know how to take their cut of everything. The world serves them, not the mass of people, but we buy into it. We become almost robotic consumers..." - Kamelasa

"I work 4 day weeks, with 10 hour shifts. I work Monday to Thursday. I am definitely more tired during the week, but having the extra day off is wonderful. I do all my chores and housework on Friday and have Saturday and Sunday free for playing, running, social activities, and just having free time. It's wonderful and I don't feel stressed out about cramming so much into a short weekend. I love it." - 0runnergirl0

Of course, not all commenters were fully on board with concept. A few addressed their concerns on the possible decline in productivity:

"It depends on the industry, but the issue with a 10-hour workday is that productivity suffers. I'm in software dev, so every now and then we have these forced "death marches" where everyone is made to work 3-4 hours extra each night for weeks, leading up to some deadline or another. The thing is... after a certain number of hours, your mind is spent and you just can't really do it anymore, people start f***ing the dog to run out the clock and the project is late anyway." - Mr44

"Virtually every employer I've ever been with, including the feds, have 'allowed' you to do a condensed 10-hour/4-day week if you so desired. So I've done it many a time, and now I'm back on the 5-day week. It has its ups and its downs. Obviously it's nice to get that day off, but that extra couple of hours a day really does make it drag on. Less hours off between shifts also sucks. It's really just a toss up, sometimes you like it and sometimes you hate it." - openforum2011

"Removing a day would have too much impact on productivity, as much as a three-day weekend would be nice. My preference would be to explore 30 hour work weeks, where most companies would opt for a six hour work day. It would cut down the number of work hours by roughly the same as a day removed, but have much less of an impact on someone's productivity while still giving everyone a sense or relief and more time to live their life." - grantmoore3d

The debate went on for much longer in the thread, but it was clear that most Canadians were in favour of working 10-hour days in order to have three-day weekends. You can read the full thread here.

Where do you stand?