The major goal of the Five Day Weekend is simple: We want to reverse the U.S. workweek so that Americans clock in for two good days of work, followed by five well-earned days off.
Why? Because overwork has become a major problem for Americans, and it's getting worse by the year. The two-day weekend was created in 1930, and despite decades of unparalleled technology growth, our people are actually working more and more each year.
Check out the stats:
* Americans wasted more than 570 million vacation days in 2006(1)
* Unlike 96 other countries, the U.S. has no law governing vacations
* U.S. workers receive an average of 14 vacation days but only use 10 a year(1)
* By comparison, French workers receive 39 vacation days, and Germans get 27(1)
* Americans have increasingly worked more days a year since World War II(2)
* A nine-year university study recently found that not taking vacation can increase the chance of heart attack or coronary disease.(3)
* In 2006, members of the U.S. Congress clocked 104 days in session – which means they worked exactly two days a week.(4)
We want to stop this trend and begin to reverse it. So we're aiming high and going for a Five Day Weekend.
Oh wait....grad students are expected to work on the weekend anyway...this wouldn't change anything for me:) Doh!
