DAILY DIRT: Could four-day workweeks be on the horizon?

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Daily Dirt for Friday, Feb. 24, 2023

So, on those Monday holidays, there would be a four-day weekend, right? … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 535 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Maybe none of you reading this at the moment will ever get to experience it in your lifetime, but there is a growing global movement toward a four-day workweek.

The Associated Press reports that the trial of a four-day workweek in Britain, billed as the world’s largest, has found an overwhelming majority of the 61 companies that participated from June to December 2022 will keep going with the shorter hours and that most employees were less stressed and had a better work-life balance.

Companies involved reported revenue stayed virtually the same through the trial period and even grew when compared to the same six months of the preceding year.

Similar studies are now underway in Ireland and the United States.

“The pandemic changed the way the world works, with people seeking greater flexibility to improve work-life balance,” writer Courtney Bonnell points out.

While an item of this magnitude will obviously not materialize overnight, it appears the necessary research is well underway. 

“We think there is a lot here that ought to motivate other companies and industries to give it a try,” said David Frayne, research associate at University of Cambridge, who helped lead the team conducting employee interviews for the trial in Britain.

2. Here’s some food for thought that might be surprising to some.

The following Hall of Fame pitchers all had losing career records:

  • Rollie Fingers, 114-118
  • Trevor Hoffman, 61-75
  • Lee Smith, 71-92
  • Bruce Sutter, 68-71

Fingers was a starter early in his career and Smith started a handful of games early on as well. Hoffman and Sutter never started a major league game.

3. Here’s another chapter of what we simply like to call “Bad Food.”

Instead of looking worldwide for another disgusting dish, I stayed within U.S. borders for today’s bad food choices. Here are three medal-worthy options of the worst menu items found across the nation:

Gold medal: Doughnut burgers, California. I think it’s safe to say we all enjoy a good burger. And a good doughnut, too. But not together, in sandwich form. This is another reason I fully expect the entire state of California to one day break off and sink into the Pacific Ocean.

Silver medal: Arkansas, chocolate covered bacon.To make things even more bizarre, a lot of Arkansas folks top their chocolate-covered bacon with sea salt.

Bronze medal: Idaho, ice cream on potatoes. No. Just no. How could this ever become a thing, even in Idaho?

Steve Thought O’ The Day — That ice cream-on-potatoes idea is going to bother me for a long time. 

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Chocolate-covered bacon is delicious.

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