8 day week

this entry has nothing to do with percy. mostly.
i've been thinking a bit lately about why we have a seven day week. given the 365 and a bit days it takes earth to get around sun, 52 weeks of seven days each fits nicely. we just have to add this little extra day (today, by happy coincidence) every four years to make a smooth fit.

having an eight day week in a 365 day year results in 45.625 weeks in one year. kind of an awkward fit. however i think there is still merit in an eight day week. some other maths guru will have to work out how to make it fit.

the reasons for me finding an eight day week a good idea are varied and a bit muddled but i'll try to explain myself. first up i think it would help with employment. i'm not suggesting we work six days instead of five (god no!) i think we should all work four day weeks, divided into two lots. for example half the working population works 'A' half-week for four days and have 'B' half-week of four days off, while the other half of the working population works 'B' half-week and has 'A' half-week off. (maybe i really mean we should have four day weeks?) i'm just using A and B as labels, nothing more.
much of the traditional 9am-5pm, 5 working days has gone by the wayside in our modern society. all of the service industries work seven days at present (think health, food, entertainment, holidays, travel, cleaning, emergency services, call centres, child care) and certainly outside 9-5 hours. even more traditional industries such as finance and legal are expecting workers to be working outside these hours and on weekends, while in the other corner 'family friendly' strategies call for earlier or later starts and finishes to 'normal' working days. if we were all divvied up as A week or B week workers there'd be no 'weekends'. just A or B days- four days your working or four days your not.
i realise there are heaps of issues here surrounding our current labour practices- penalty rates, overtime, loadings, long weekends, etc, etc. i'm not going to address them. i'm just airing some thoughts. i also realise we could divide the day into three eight hour periods, meaning we could all work eight hour shifts thru the 24 hours of the day. see the list above of industries/people that already work outside traditional hours. or look at mining and the like- they often have arrangements of working ten days, then five off, or something similar.
the benefit of four day working periods may be in increasing the participation rate, the actual numbers of people employed and a consequential drop in the unemployment rate.
of course i know people/ projects that have a spaz waiting two days over the weekend for work to recommence- could they possibly wait four days for a person to be back in the office? maybe all jobs would become jobshare; two people working the alternating four days...

anyways, this is probably too boring to continue. plus there's no way i can go into it in detail. just having a think on a slow friday afternoon.