NHS Weekend Working and Sunday Trading?

remorseless

I was reading about the NHS debate about working on weekends and Sunday Trading;

Given that life is mostly 24/7, etc - do you care if your days of rest were on different days? Would you care if your weekend was on 'Tuesday-Wednesday' or 'Thursday-Friday'?

What about office jobs? etc?

Generali

remorseless wrote: »

I was reading about the NHS debate about working on weekends and Sunday Trading;

Given that life is mostly 24/7, etc - do you care if your days of rest were on different days? Would you care if your weekend was on 'Tuesday-Wednesday' or 'Thursday-Friday'?

What about office jobs? etc?

In some ways it's a good thing: offices are expensive places and are, in many cases, only used 5/7ths of the week and even then only for 8 or 10 hours a day (admittedly more if you work in investment banking as I did!) so there are definitely efficiency gains to be made from being able to use assets more effectively.

However, I used to work in retail and it wasn't much fun having to be the one traipsing off home just as the party was getting going on a Friday night and never being able to go to the match on a Saturday afternoon.

There is something to be said for a day or two each week when the majority of the population are off school and work and can socialise all together.

It may be less efficient economically but the world isn't just about money.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

In some ways it's a good thing: offices are expensive places and are, in many cases, only used 5/7ths of the week and even then only for 8 or 10 hours a day (admittedly more if you work in investment banking as I did!) so there are definitely efficiency gains to be made from being able to use assets more effectively.

However, I used to work in retail and it wasn't much fun having to be the one traipsing off home just as the party was getting going on a Friday night and never being able to go to the match on a Saturday afternoon.

There is something to be said for a day or two each week when the majority of the population are off school and work and can socialise all together.

It may be less efficient economically but the world isn't just about money.

NHs ( and some other professions) isn't just about economics though. Not much fun socialising if your friend is admitted to hospital at one of the times they are statistically less likely to survive because of staffing issues. Then, if we expect these people to work they deserve services available to them. I think that's why times like the two 'sacrosanct' bank holidays we have are still not great for those who get I'll, but precious socially/ family wise. A day like that a quarter, or every two months might be a medium measure? Some people, whether we like it or not will fall between cracks, but as it stands the system creaks and its inflexibility with those in work is not practical.

remorseless

I suppose Sat/Sun weekend is a legacy from Christian religion? Muslim countries usually have Fri-Sat? Lots of Asian countries, beside office, really operate 7 by 7.

If the UK was operating more 7 by 7, would you care if your weekend was on the traditional days? Do you really need/want Sunday off to go to mass/service?

Since moving to the UK, I perceive the limited Sunday trading as an inconvenience inflicted for no reason, sort of reminded me of when living in Switzerland I had 'laundry roaster' to do my washing :eek:

the_flying_pig

pff, dunno, there are both positive & negative, uh, externalities with having a 5-day largely daytime week for education & most employment. People often derive benefits from having similar schedules.

e.g. as in Generali's example, mates all being able to meet in the pub on a Friday night [and if they're young & single possibly then moving on to some kind of nightspot where other single people will be there for looking for some 'action'].

also, parents value being at home when their kids are at home & so on, friends & families of all kinds like being able to visit each other, concerts and football matches etc are put on at times [evenings and/or weekends] when most people are free, etc.

the complications are that:

(i) there are also negative externalities of everyone being on similar schedules, e.g. rush hour weekday tube trains would be that bit quieter if most people's work was spread across entire weeks, same for roads heading towards the seaside on a warm Saturday, etc;

(ii) some people work in jobs that simply need 24/7 coverage; and

(iii) some people work in jobs [e.g. retail, leisure] where customers want to be able to buy stuff.

remorseless

are these benefits really there still?

For Generali's example about meeting in the pub, maybe it does affect younger workforce (in my 20s forget it) but in your 30s, 40s, etc would you care to go to the pub and getting plastered on Fri as much?

Society is moving fast towards wanting to have a more instant gratification, most things are NOW NOW NOW.

Want a book? Bang download on kindle
Want to flop on the couch with a movie? Bang stream from the net
etc

Society is also more multicultural.
Could for example Muslim work on Christian holidays whilst Christian work on Muslim ones? Or Indus, Jewish, etc

How long is the traditional 5 day week (Mon-Fri) going to last?

[Deleted User]

remorseless wrote: »

I was reading about the NHS debate about working on weekends and Sunday Trading;

Given that life is mostly 24/7, etc - do you care if your days of rest were on different days? Would you care if your weekend was on 'Tuesday-Wednesday' or 'Thursday-Friday'?

What about office jobs? etc?

"Work more" says MP whose workplace "sat" for 162 days in 2013-14

WR

Andy_L

remorseless wrote: »

If the UK was operating more 7 by 7, would you care if your weekend was on the traditional days? Do you really need/want Sunday off to go to mass/service?

No, but I'd want them to be (mostly) the same 2 days as family & friends. If everyone was doing a random-ish 5 days out of 7 it would be a nightmare to try and organise social events

Generali

remorseless wrote: »

are these benefits really there still?

For Generali's example about meeting in the pub, maybe it does affect younger workforce (in my 20s forget it) but in your 30s, 40s, etc would you care to go to the pub and getting plastered on Fri as much?

Society is moving fast towards wanting to have a more instant gratification, most things are NOW NOW NOW.

Want a book? Bang download on kindle
Want to flop on the couch with a movie? Bang stream from the net
etc

Society is also more multicultural.
Could for example Muslim work on Christian holidays whilst Christian work on Muslim ones? Or Indus, Jewish, etc

How long is the traditional 5 day week (Mon-Fri) going to last?

It's not necessarily going out and getting trashed for me these days.

If I still worked in retail I'd never get to see The Boy play soccer on a Saturday for example. Organising a soccer tournament where kids went to school for 5 days out of seven rather than Monday - Friday would present challenges alone.

Economically it is better for assets to be used more. Socially, maybe not so much.

Wild_Rover wrote: »

"Work more" says MP whose workplace "sat" for 162 days in 2013-14

WR

Good. The less they sit the less damage they can do.

The Texan 'Parliament', IIRC, is limited by the constitution to sitting for a maximum number of days each year for that very reason!

The Texan

Out,_Vile_Jelly

A friend of mine's mum had a stroke on Christmas Day. She didn't receive any physiotherapy for the two holiday days, by which time she was permanently paralysed down one side. I don't think that's acceptable. Some jobs need to be on shifts so all time periods are covered, and remunerated accordingly.

As a side note, I wonder about email making work more efficient or not. I see it encroaching more and more onto people's time off, usually needlessly. So much time is spent managing it, which usually means sending holding responses and skim-reading when people demand a quick response to something that actually needs careful consideration. I was reading an article (over someone's shoulder on the Tube- a bad habit of mine) about a magazine editor who decided to just stop using email as her inbox had "gone feral". The magazine is still functioning and she said she didn't regret it.

Generali

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

A friend of mine's mum had a stroke on Christmas Day. She didn't receive any physiotherapy for the two holiday days, by which time she was permanently paralysed down one side. I don't think that's acceptable. Some jobs need to be on shifts so all time periods are covered, and remunerated accordingly.

As a side note, I wonder about email making work more efficient or not. I see it encroaching more and more onto people's time off, usually needlessly. So much time is spent managing it, which usually means sending holding responses and skim-reading when people demand a quick response to something that actually needs careful consideration. I was reading an article (over someone's shoulder on the Tube- a bad habit of mine) about a magazine editor who decided to just stop using email as her inbox had "gone feral". The magazine is still functioning and she said she didn't regret it.

When I reply to an email on a day I'm not working I send it with a delay so it doesn't appear in the senders inbox until I'm back in the office.

I have colleagues who can deal with things in my absence and if something is really that urgent they can call me and get a considered or curt response depending on my assessment of urgency.

I agree with the point about your mate's mum. With some jobs, weekend or shift working goes with the territory. Perhaps it's time that more of medicine came under that regimen. I guess that back in the day it made little difference if specialists were available urgently. The hospital system is perhaps working on a C19th model in the C21st when modern technology means that specialised, rapid intervention can make a huge difference to outcomes.

100 years ago I suspect your mate's mum would have had a bad outcome regardless. Now she has had a far worse one than could otherwise have been the case.

How do we weigh up the benefits to society and to individuals of the physios being able to attend their sons' soccer game on a Saturday with mums being paralysed for life?