Latest / RealTalkwithMikeD / Episode 69 - Why the Hell do we work 5 Days a Week and Only Get 2 Days Off!

Transcript

Episode 69 - Why the Hell do we work 5 Days a Week and Only Get 2 Days Off! · RealTalkwithMikeD

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Real Talk with Mike D. All right, welcome
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: back to Real Talk with Mike D. I am the one,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the only, and the original Mike D. This is the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: podcast where we talk about real life, real problems, and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the absolute nonsense we deal with every single day. I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: your host, Mike D, and today we're talking about something
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that has bothered me for a long time. And I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: know I'm not alone in this. Why in the hell
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: do we work five days a week and only get
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: two days off? Seriously, who came up with this system?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Who was sitting around a table one day and said,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you know what? I've got a great idea. Let's make
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: people work Monday through Friday and we'll give them Saturday
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and Sunday to recover from the psychological damage. And everybody
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: else at the table said, brilliant! Give this man a raise.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: You know, I want to meet that person. I want
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to sit down with that person, look them directly in
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the eyes and ask them one simple question. What in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the hell did we ever do to you? Because this
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: is ridiculous. Five days of work and two days off.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: That's not a work-life balance. That's a hostage negotiation. And
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: today we're going to talk about why we should work
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: two days a week and have five days off. So
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, let's get into it. Now, I want
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to start right at the beginning. Who decided that five
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: days of work and two days off was the perfect arrangement? Now,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I understand that society needs people to work. We need
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: doctors and nurses, teachers and firefighters, truck drivers, grocery store workers,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and all the other people who keep this world running.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I get it. But why five days? Somebody looked at
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: seven days on a calendar and said, let's take five
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of those and give them to work. work gets Monday
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: through Friday and Saturday and Sunday, you get those. And
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: somehow we all agreed to this. Imagine if you went
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to a restaurant and ordered a steak. The waiter comes
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: back with a plate containing two tiny pieces of steak
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and says, here's your meal. You would say, excuse me,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: where's the rest of it? And he'd say, oh, the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: kitchen gets to keep five pieces and you get two.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: You would never go back to that restaurant again. Yet,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: we do the equivalent every single week. Monday through Friday,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: we're handing over our time, our energy, our patience, and
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: occasionally our will to live. And then Saturday and Sunday
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: shows up, and we're expected to be grateful. Oh, thank goodness,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: two whole days! Two days? Are you kidding me? That's
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: like giving somebody a swimming pool full of water and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: letting them take home two teaspoons. And don't even get
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: me started on the people who say, well, at least
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you had the weekend. At least I had the weekend!
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: That's like getting hit by a car and somebody saying, well,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: at least it wasn't a bus. Thank you. That really helps. Now,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: here is my proposal. We keep the seven-day work week.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: We keep the economy. We keep the businesses open. But
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: we switch the schedule. Two days of working and five
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: days of living. You work Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday through Sunday.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Those are your days. Your days to relax, travel, spend
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: time with family, work on your hobbies, get some sleep,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and finally finish that one television series you've been pretending
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to watch for six months. Now that sounds like a
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: society I want to live in. Now, I know we
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: all hate Mondays, so let's talk a little bit about Monday.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You know, Monday morning is proof that time travel exists,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: because every Sunday night I mentally travel back to a
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: place I never wanted to be. Sunday evening is a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: special kind of depression. You're sitting on the couch watching television,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: enjoying yourself, maybe eating something you probably shouldn't be eating,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and then you look at the clock and it's 8.17 p.m.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and suddenly your entire personality changes. You were happy 30
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: seconds ago. Now you're sitting there thinking about your alarm clock.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: You're thinking about your boss. You're thinking about your emails.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: You're thinking about all the things you have to do tomorrow.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: And then you start negotiating with the universe. God, If
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: you can somehow make tomorrow Saturday, I promise I'll be
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a better person. You start considering things you've never considered before.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Maybe I should move to a remote island. Maybe I
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: should buy a farm. Maybe I should become a lighthouse keeper.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Do lighthouse keepers work Mondays? I don't know, but at
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: this point, I'm willing to check it out. And then
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Monday morning arrives, the alarm goes off, and that sound
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: is not a sound, it's an act of aggression. You're
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: lying there thinking, who authorized this? You hit snooze. Ten
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: minutes later, it goes off again. You hit snooze again. Eventually,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you have to get out of bed because your bank
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: account has made it very clear that sleeping until noon
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: is not currently an option. And then you drag yourself
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: into the bathroom. You look in the mirror. And the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: person looking back at you looks like they just survived
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a natural disaster. You brush your teeth. You get dressed.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: You drink coffee and try to convince yourself that you're
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: ready to face the world. But you're not. You're not ready.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: You're not caffeinated. There is a difference. If we worked
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: only two days a week, imagine how much better Monday
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: would feel. You'd work Monday and Tuesday knowing that Wednesday
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: morning was the beginning of a five-day week. A five-day
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: week off. You wouldn't have to work for five days.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't need a motivational speech. You wouldn't need a
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: vision board. You wouldn't need a self-health book. Wake up
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Monday morning and say, let's go. Two days and I
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: am free. People would be smiling at work. Coworkers would
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: be getting along. Somebody would bring donuts into the break room.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Even the office printer might stop jamming out of sheer happiness. Okay.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Probably not. Printers are evil regardless of the schedule. But
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you get my point. Now, let's talk a little bit
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: about the weekend because I have a theory. Okay. I
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: think the weekend is one of the greatest scams ever invented.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Friday comes around and everybody is excited. It's Friday. We
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: made it. You spend five days waiting for Friday, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: when it finally arrives, you're so exhausted that all you
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: want to do is go home and lie down. Friday
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: night becomes recovery night. You don't even go out. You
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: don't do anything exciting. You sit on the couch in
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: clothes that you should probably never be seen outside of
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: your house in. You eat something out of a container
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: because washing a plate feels like it's too much responsibility.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: And you say, I'm going to have a productive weekend.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Sure you are, buddy. Saturday arrives. Finally, a full day off.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: You wake up late. You grab some coffee and realize
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: you've got approximately 17 things to do. Laundry, grocery shopping,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: cleaning the house, getting gas, mowing the lawn, fixing that
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: cabinet door you've been ignoring since last year. And somehow,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: you have to fit in seeing family and friends. You
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: also need to relax because apparently that's important for your
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: mental health. So now your relaxing time has become another
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: item on your to-do list. Then all of a sudden,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: it's Saturday at 3 o'clock. And you have to schedule relaxation.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: What kind of nonsense is that? By the time you
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: finish everything, it's Saturday night. You sit down and think, finally,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I can enjoy myself. And then you remember something terrible.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow is Sunday. Sunday is a day when you're technically off,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but mentally already at work. You start looking at the clock.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: You start thinking about what time you have to wake
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: up on Monday. You start preparing your clothes. You start
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: making lunch. You start getting that familiar feeling in your stomach.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: It's like the weekend comes with a countdown timer. You
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: don't actually get two days off. You get one day
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: of responsibilities and one day of anxiety about returning to responsibilities.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: That's not a weekend. That's a free trial that expires
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: too quickly. Now, imagine having five days off. Day one,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: recover from work. Day two, do your errands. Day three,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: spend time with people you love. Day four, pursue your hobbies,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and day five, do absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: You could sit in your pajamas until four in the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: afternoon without feeling like you've wasted your entire weekend. You
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: could watch a movie without checking the clock every 20 minutes.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: You could go fishing, go hiking, play guitar, take a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: road trip, or just sit on your porch and listen
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to the birds. And if somebody asks, what are you
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: doing tomorrow? You can say, I don't know. And for
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: the first time in my life, I don't have to know.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: That is freedom, people. Now, here's the funny thing. People
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: act like working more hours automatically makes everybody a better employee.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: But let's be honest. Have you ever seen somebody at
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: work on their fifth consecutive day who looks like they're
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: ready to conquer the world? No, absolutely not. By Thursday,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: people are operating on coffee, painkillers, and the distant memory
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: of happiness. By Friday, Half the workforce is physically present,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: but mentally sitting on a beach somewhere. And then the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: boss asks, how's everybody doing? And you say, great. Meanwhile,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: your brain is screaming, I have not experienced joy since Tuesday.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Imagine if people actually did. actually had time to recover.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: They could sleep properly. They could exercise. They could spend
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: quality time with their children. They could take care of
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: their homes. They could pursue creative projects. They could learn
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: something new. They could do things that make them feel
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: like human beings rather than employees with legs. And let's
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: be honest. When you're exhausted, even the smallest inconvenience becomes
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: a major event. You drop a fork on the floor. Normally,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you'd pick it up. But after five days of work,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: that fork hits the floor and you stare at it
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: like it's betrayed your entire family. You open the refrigerator
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and there's no milk. You stand there looking into the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: refrigerator like the milk might suddenly appear, if you believe
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: hard enough. You spill coffee on your shirt. You miss
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a green traffic light because you were thinking about work.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Everything feels harder when you're running on empty. Now imagine
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: a society where people had more time to recharge. Maybe
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: we'd be a little more patient. Maybe we'd have more
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: energy for the people we love. Maybe we'd stop yelling
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: at strangers because they took three seconds too long at
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: a traffic light. And maybe, just maybe, we would stop
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: answering emails at 930 at night. Now here's a radical thought.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: When you're not at work, you shouldn't have to feel
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: guilty about not being at work. Your employer hired your
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: time during your scheduled hours. They did not purchase your soul,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: your dreams, or your right to sit on a couch
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: eating nachos. At least I don't remember signing that contract.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Now I know what some people are thinking. Mike, five
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: days off? What would you possibly do with all that time?
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Are you serious? I could feel five days before breakfast.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: First of all, I would sleep. I would not set
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: an alarm. Do you know what it's like to wake
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: up naturally, no alarm clock, no emergency, and suddenly realization
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: that you're late? Just opening your eyes and thinking, wow,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'm alive, and nobody needs anything from me right now.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: That is a luxury. I'd have time to enjoy my
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: coffee instead of drinking it like I'm trying to put
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: out a fire inside my body. I'd play guitar. I'd
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: rock out. I would spend more time with people I
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: care about. I'd go places without having to calculate whether
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I could get back home in time to prepare for Monday.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I would take a spontaneous road trip. Imagine waking up
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Wednesday morning and saying, you know what? Let's drive somewhere.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know where. I don't know how long. But
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: who cares? If you don't have work tomorrow, that is
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: a dream. You could visit a new town, try a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: new restaurant, explore a state park, or take a drive
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: with no destination. You could have an entire day dedicated
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to doing something you enjoy. And here's another thing. You
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: could actually finish projects. You know, that list of things
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: you've been meaning to do, the closet you want to organize,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the garage you want to clean, the hobby you've been
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: putting off, the book you wanted to read. that musical
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: instrument that you wanted to learn, you could finally make
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: some progress without having to squeeze everything into two tiny days. Now,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: would I spend all five days being productive? Absolutely not.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Let's not get carried away. One of those days would
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: be dedicated to lying around and questioning why the television
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: remote is always on the other side of the room.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Another day might involve ordering food because I don't feel
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: like cooking. And one day, I might Accomplish absolutely nothing.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: And I would be proud of it because rest isn't
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: a moral failure. You don't have to earn every single
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: moment of peace by exhausting yourself first. And sometimes doing
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: nothing is exactly what you need to do. And ladies
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and gentlemen, that is going to do it for today's episode.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And I love that. Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you need to do because after we've worked five days,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: We are mentally, physically exhausted. We don't feel like doing anything.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: And sometimes all we need to do is absolutely nothing.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Sit around on your couch, watch TV, eat takeout, and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: just relax. Anyhow, that's going to do it for today's episode.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I greatly appreciate you being here. I appreciate you listening.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And until the next episode, please be the reason someone smiles. Peace.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you.