> if there was clear value to be had

Narrator: There wasn't

https://archive.is/dBUUu

Efforts to increase productivity hold lessons for sceptics, too

If Liz Truss can compress a whole premiership into seven weeks, why can’t a standard working week be squashed into something more compact? A six-month pilot scheme, in which around 3,300 workers from 70 companies are testing out a four-day workweek, is due to conclude this month. Proponents say a shorter week delivers a better work-life balance without hurting overall output. Like previous such experiments, it is likely to be hailed a success. A mid-point survey by the trial’s organisers—researchers at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and Boston College, the 4 Day Week Campaign, a non-profit, and Autonomy, a British think-tank—found that the transition had worked well for 88% of surveyed companies.

Sceptics might observe that the companies involved are self-selecting. Roughly one in five employers who had signed up dropped out before the pilot began, according to the 4 Day Week Campaign. Most of the participants that remain are smaller companies, many of them agencies specialising in management and technology. They also include charities.

But the scheme holds useful lessons about productivity. In particular a four-day week forces firms to think harder about time management. Most businesses in the trial have encouraged employees to leave meetings when they are not contributing, and to be more selective about accepting invitations. Daryl Hine of Stellar, an asset-management company in London, calls this a “diary detox”. This also extends to reducing commutes.

Of the participating organisations, 46% reported maintaining overall output at the same level, and 49% said it had improved. The trial’s largest company, Outcomes First Group, a children’s education and care provider, tracks indicators for its 1,027 participating employees. Its hr department has goals for response time to emails; it staff are given so-called net promoter scores, which track how colleagues rate their services. On both counts, they have made “rare” leaps, says Sharon Platts, the company’s chief people officer. Participants say that their employees feel more motivated. Plenty use the extra day to get errands out of the way before the weekend.

Becoming a four-day operation can be hard in a five-day world, however. Bookishly, an online shop, chose Wednesdays off to avoid having three days in a row when packages are not mailed out; people are warned about the new schedule before they order. But customers are not always prepared to wait, so most firms in the scheme have tried to spread staff more thinly. Platten’s, a fish-and-chip shop in Norfolk, gives its 50-or-so employees two days on and two days off to cover the week. Shifts overlap at busy periods, but organising training and team events has become trickier as a result.

More tests are on the horizon. In January South Cambridgeshire District Council will become the first British local authority to try out a four-day week. The lessons learned are likely to be valuable even if the idea does not spread. Mr Hine says that if performance slips, “gift days” will be rolled back. In busier periods employees may need to come in more. But in one way or another, he says, a slimmer work schedule is “here to stay”. ■7

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "On the fifth day, errands"

What do you do to make $300k? I live in a HCOL area but they pay like we live in a MCOL Only people who make money like this are surgeons, politicians and VPs, CEOs etc around here

If you're a top 10% earner US is and probably always will be one of the best places to live since most policies benefit the top 10%. If you earn above average but below top 10% you are probably in a similar position as people in western europe that are in the same income bracket. Below that and the US is not so great anymore. I don't think there's any reason for this to change in the future either tbh.

I'm not making a normative claim of what's good or bad/right or wrong. I'm making a descriptive claim of how people with ADHD struggle in everyday life because of the demands modern society places on individuals.

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What will do you when those awesome neighbors of yours start losing their homes? Don’t think it won’t happen in your lifetime. I honestly hope it doesn’t, but start thinking about what your response is going to be.

Depends how many more trains spill dangerous chemicals into major water ways.

I am 45 years old and they have been saying the same thing about America my whole life. Don’t believe the hype of the conspiracy theorists or the Trumpsters.

Because they launch more satellites every week, and when there is enough capacity in your area they'll notify you.

It's not rocket science.

Self sufficient when you take into account neo-colonialism and the fact that the US remains the world’s superpower. Even not factoring that in, OP’s point about the US’s natural resources makes it one of the more self sufficient countries.

It has weaknesses, but it’ll probably get on pretty well relative to most other countries.

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He meant relatively self-sufficient.

we need to also worry about the dictatorship. we now know that trump tried to organize and stage a coup. that's BIG. but people, especially on the right, don't seem to care. that's the thin little line between our current democracy, and becoming the next Belarus or Russia. it can happen. it happened in those countries within my lifetime. it can happen here. not taking things like that seriously is how it can happen. they're going to easy on the moron tacti-cool larpers on jan 6th, but at least most of them are getting at least a few years. history repeats itself. people being "apolitical" is how it happens. (which is ironically what most of the Russians in street interviews say now when asked political questions, if that isn't a clue)

now I think it's the loudest ones are the ones we hear thing. I think most republicans didn't like trump, at least after a while, and were pushed away. I don't think trump has a chance now. but the oligarchy problem usually goes hand-in-hand with dictatorships/autocracies, so it's something we need to take more seriously

and for the special trump lovers, courts just revealed basically all of the Fox News hosts did NOT believe the election was stolen or that there was fraud. we have screenshots of their texts among each other now. but sadly idiots like Marjorie T green will still repeat this stolen election crap. (how did we let clowns like this get into office???)

Not exactly an answer but the day science can find a link between genetics and mental state is the day humanity realizes beyond doubt that free will is an illusion. This would have effect far beyond psychiatry

I'm not sure that sucking resources and dirt cheap labour from across the world is being self-sufficient

just find others from your country that have moved here and ask them what they think. I'm American and think we're a great country to come to, but I'm going to be biased, of course. the media makes us look really bad, but that's what it's like to have full freedom of speech

It's extremely plausible. And the rest of the world will follow. Just read, Tragedy and Hope...

They’re being dramatic, Reddit skews HEAVILY left leaning and trump really brought out the loonies on both sides. We’ll be fine…maybe

Once the mass migration of climate refugees begins, nowhere will be decent.

As long as you understand that Democrats and Republicans are equally horrendous, useless and unfathomably dangerous. And basically the entirety of the government is set up to fuck the citizens out of their lives, energy, and money, while protecting a bunch of Rich burdens. and they only seek out to extract the livelihoods of the citizens to cushion their own finances. And will trade millions of lives (globally not just domestically) for the sake of bitch money.

Their solution for not being able to pay for retirement, is just to have every citizen work 10 years longer. So goodbye retirement. Goodbye social security. Etc. And unless you luck out, and land a lucky lawsuit or something like that. You should probably be content with the fact you're going to work till you die. Don't rely on any of the government resources because they'll take it away as soon as they feel like it/has no actual value anymore.

And you're going to have to desensitize yourself to the excessive gun violence/ hate crime culture. The only country in the world whose highest cause of death for children, is gun violence.

Understanding that "freest country in the world" was a bastardized self-proclaimed title, because history can show and does that it has never experienced true freedom and peace. And in comparative to other developed countries it's honestly quite pathetic and understandably why America sits at number 13 in the freest country. Fuckin bozos

Highest incarceration rate in the entire world. surpassing North Korea by a mile. Has been involved in war for 96% of its entirety. Race riots, that continue today, just to treat people like fuckin PEOPLE, Unfathomable amounts of taxes for the citizens but loopholes for the burdens in suits, resulting in over 75% of Americans living check by check. So any change in their livelihood will absolutely decimate their financial standing. And that almost 90% of Americans will cripple their financial standing with an emergency $300 hospital visit.

Since Trump's bitchass 1 term presidency, the amount of American citizens denouncing citizenship has skyrocketed almost 200%. And it's honestly deserved, the old generation hates the Young generation, because the Young generation doesn't care about the prosperity of the country, they don't care about the money, they don't care about the power, they will gladly watch the shithole burn and dance in the ashes of a falsified flag. It's not that the Young generation is lazy is that we understand we're going to work till we die and we don't care to do that. If you want to go stroke your boss's dick till you're 60-70-80, go on ahead. but personally, guillotining rich people sounds way more adequate and enjoyable.

America has a lot of opportunities to be an amazing country but it's definitely not something to be proud of. And before other people from other countries, decide America would be a good place to move, do research about the better countries. Every country has its flaws but Jesus Christ, America is pathetic.

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enjoy your bubble, when the rot comes, and it is coming, you're going down too

Different take here, but my experience with it has shown it to be similar to the first Colt revolvers — it’s an equalizer.

Want to build something? Instead of facing a steep learning curve to learn the language, now all you need to do is have the patience to piece things together.

Let it help you build your ideas!

Tl;dr - touch grass please