the four-day work week: a joke

The spiraling of crude oil prices to record highs prompts P/GMA to issue Administrative Order No.117 providing for adjusted official hours in selected offices in the executive branch from April to May 2005. This is government’s style of leading the way in energy conservation without jeopardizing the delivery of public service to mitigate the impact of the oil price increases on the its fiscal position and the country’s dollar reserves. Thus wage earners like us report to office from 7:30 AM to 6:30 PM, Mondays through Fridays.

This drives me up the wall. Now I can’t stay out late at night because I have to be in by 7:30 AM; I can’t visit the wet market (one thing I really enjoy doing) because when I leave the office at 6:30 PM, all the premium fish species are already sold out!

All this because the government wants to conserve energy! But analyze this: before, our office came to life between the times when the janitress reported at 7:00 AM and went home at 5:00 PM. That’s a total of 50 hours a week. Now, our office comes to life between the times when the janitress reports at 6:00 AM and goes home at 6:30 PM. That’s a total of 50 hours a week. See?

It is said somewhere that a daily worker is only productive for two hours max in the morning and two hours max in the afternoon. This is like saying that government workers, under the new work scheme, do nothing for six hours!!!

And if you live in a place where government servicing ends invariably at 3:00 PM because most clients have to catch the last trip home, what do you do given that it’s still 3.5 hours away from calling it a day? Of course you surf the net, chat and, if hit by an inspiration, write fiction. Ehem.

Assuming the government saves a lot on this, it’s the employees who lose. Now with more time spent at home: they have to cook fancy food; watch TV the whole day, leaving the aircon on perpetual buzz.

My officemates who don’t go home regularly on weekends now do. While there’s no price for quality time with family, they now start to feel the financial implications of this scheme.

This early, everything's getting to be a drag.