Only around two thirds of people will full time jobs are still doing a classic 5 days, Monday to Friday, with hours from around 9-ish to around 5-ish. And now The Gambia has moved to a four day week; it's not the first time such a (shift?) system has been used - there have been other experiments and specialist businesses that have done it too, and indeed I did a four day week / eight day fortnight back in the early 1970s.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21242782Moving a significant number of people onto four days per week / longer days schemes, starting an hour earlier and finishing an hour later, would help spread the peak. And it would also cut commute journeys for the people involved by 20%. That's better use of transport resources, and of people's time.
But - which days of the week? For larger organisations / pools of skills in which a significant number of staff undertake the same role, should we be shifting the Monday->Friday crew onto seven different starting days? With travel and transport infrastructure, that allows for the further dilution of the peaks and greater comfort and efficiency, and within workspace too it moves us further to hotdesking, with space in use a potential 41% of the time rather than the current 21%.
President Jammeh wants the extra rest day to "allow Gambians to devote more time to prayers, social activities and agriculture".
And, whilst a scheme like this might not generate a huge boom in allotments in the
UK▸ , it just might aid quality of life
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