Are the Friends of the Five Day Weekend carrying this work-life balance thing a bit too far?
The stated goal of The Five Day Weekend Movement is:
“We want to reverse the U.S. workweek so that Americans clock in for two good days of work, followed by five well-earned days off.
Why? Because overwork has become a major problem for Americans, and it’s getting worse by the year. The two-day weekend was created in 1930, and despite decades of unparalleled technology growth, our people are actually working more and more each year.
Check out the stats:
- Americans wasted more than 570 million vacation days in 2006
- Unlike 96 other countries, the U.S. has no law governing vacations
- U.S. workers receive an average of 14 vacation days but only use 10 a year
- By comparison, French workers receive 39 vacation days, and Germans get 27
- Americans have increasingly worked more days a year since World War II
- A nine-year university study recently found that not taking vacation can increase the chance of heart attack or coronary disease.
- In 2006, members of the U.S. Congress clocked 104 days in session - which means they worked exactly two days a week.
We want to stop this trend and begin to reverse it. So we’re aiming high and going for a Five Day Weekend.”
As Tim Nudd at AdFreak.com points out, it is a clever tourism promotion brilliantly designed to entice you to vacation in Asheville, NC, for five days at a time if at all possible.
What do you tell your boss about your desire for a five day weekend? Here’s Ron McCrerey, Campaign Director for Friends of The Five Day Weekend:
