Want a Longer Weekend?

May 2, 2007

A group out of Asheville North Carolina has launched a campaign to petition congress to extend the weekend to 5 days.

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 20061
• 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 year1
• By comparison, French workers receive 39 vacation days, and Germans get 271
• Americans have increasingly worked more days a year since World War II2
• 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.

Wouldn’t that be great lots of time to hunt and even some time to maybe knock off some tasks off the honey do list.

Well before you start contacting your congressman to support this bill you should know the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau is the ones behind this campaign.