[jackcosgrove]

We should switch everyone to rolling weekends.

It makes no sense that everyone gets the same two days off. It is such a hassle scheduling doctors appointments, receiving repairmen, going to the DMV, etc. on a weekday.

The only reason we have the same two days off is for historical religious reasons. And a rolling schedule could still accommodate that for those who care.

For everyone else, just put them on a rolling schedule of five (or four) days of work per week, any days, with some predictability.

[armagon]

Russia tried this 90 years ago. It was awful.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar#Five-day_weeks :

"Eighty per cent of each factory's workforce was at work every day (except holidays) in an attempt to increase production while 20% were resting. But if a husband and wife, and their relatives and friends, were assigned different colors or numbers, they would not have a common rest day for their family and social life. Furthermore, machines broke down more frequently both because they were used by workers not familiar with them, and because no maintenance could be performed on machines that were never idle in factories with continuous schedules (24 hours/day every day). Five-day weeks (and later six-day weeks) "made it impossible to observe Sunday as a day of rest. This measure was deliberately introduced 'to facilitate the struggle to eliminate religion'".[25]"

See also https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/why-don...

[b0rsuk]

I broadly agree, but with one exception: I think it should be allowed to volunteer for alternate weekend days. Working on Sunday and Saturday should be totally fine for someone who is neither Catholic nor Jewish. My country is in the process of eliminating working Sundays, and it kinda forces people to do giant shoping on Saturday, while limiting leisure options on Sunday (no aquapark etc). That kind of opt-in should be fixed in the contract.

[anticensor]

France too.

[denni9th]

Rolling weekends are problematic because it limits all social events to the evening. If no one has a shared day off, then daytime events which involve groups of people aren't possible.

A 2-day weekend, with one day/half day off during the week for appointments, would be a much better system. The employee could select the day themselves to suit their preferences.

[darrenf]

I presume almost everyone with school age children would, during term time at least, prefer to keep weekends as they are.