Sunday, March 14, 2010

Cliff's work schedule

For over a year, Cliff has worked a four-day workweek.  He works from 3:30 P.M. till 2:00 A.M.  He sleeps until 10 o'clock each morning, takes about an hour to wake up, and then we take our walk.  And then it's time for me to make lunch.  By the time we eat, it's time for Cliff to get ready for work.  
The upside of this schedule is that we get three-day weekends, which would be great for trips to St. Louis or Arkansas on the motorcycle.  Except that for the past year, it rains on weekends, EVERY cotton-picking weekend; riding a motorcycle in the rain is not only no fun, but it's dangerous.  Still, Cliff gets three-day weekends.  He can work on his tractor project.  Unless it involves painting, because it rains, most weekends.  You can't paint when the humidity is high.  
From the time Cliff's place of employment started allowing the four-day workweek, it was voluntary.  Some of those volunteers work Monday through Thursday, others work Tuesday through Friday.  Many people who tried the four-day week didn't like it, and went back to five eight-hour days.  So now, on Monday nights and Friday nights, there are only three people working for those two hours after midnight.  Obviously this doesn't make a lot of economic sense for the company.   
Cliff has a feeling the four-day, forty-hour week could very well become a thing of the past.  
Both of us have mixed feelings.  
Yes, the three-day weekends are nice.  But the four days Cliff works, there's no time for anything except sleeping, eating, and his going to work.  There's precious little time for a motorcycle ride before work.  
I'm a morning person.  If I'm going to do any housework, I'd prefer to do it early.  But Cliff's in bed until 10 o'clock, so I can't run the vacuum; I can't do laundry (the washing machine is near the bedroom).  Then he gets up and I fix breakfast and sit and watch the news with him.   
Even Cliff agrees that if he's forced to go back to working five eight-hour days (evenings, I should say), it wouldn't break his heart.  
Whatever happens, we'll deal with it.  

2 comments:

  1. At the place I work most of our men work a 4 day work week and they seem to like it. I have always worked 5 days a week. Any more it seems with the economy most are just happy to have a job so they don't care either way. 10 hours a day doesn't leave much time left over for sure. Even with my 8 hour days 5 days a week I still don't get much done in the evenings. With more daylight hours though it will be a little better.

    Glad to see your entry this evening. I thought it strange you'd not made one all day.

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  2. Good Luck with the possibility of a new schedule. My hubby also works 4 days a week. The 3 day weekends are wonderful, I agree. We've had word the place he works for, is going to shut down, in the next year. At his age... a new job someplace else isn't likely. So getting used to the idea of him being home all day is going to take me a while.

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