How about a 4-day work week… anyone?

Apparently the number of cars ain’t the only thing that MMDA is looking to minimize to lessen the traffic in EDSA. It turns out; the agency is also considering to regualte the quantity of people that are travelling in a daily basis. The proposal? Reduce the work days in a week, making it 4 instead of 5. But, as always, there’s a catch.

This suggestion came from Atty. Romulo Macalintal who claims that it will not only aid in improving the traffic situation in EDSA, but will also be beneficial for employees.

EDSA

Once implemented, a typical employee will have to render extra 2 hours on top of the normal 8-hour shift to in-lieu for the lost work day. In exchange, however, employees will enjoy three days of No-Work and All-Play. Furthermore, an employee can cut down on their transportation (maybe even food) costs because they only have to report to work for four days.

So how is this going to help the cause? According to the man behind the thought, by lessening the work days and strategically placing employees’ day-offs, then it might just free up the main road a bit.

But as good as the proposal may appear to be, the likelihood of this plan to eventually materialize is a long-shot. Even if stands a chance, it’s not gonna be an easy undertaking for both MMDA and the other agencies, not to mention private sectors, that will eventually get involved in this matter.

So what do you guys think? Is this suggestion even worth considering or would you prefer this proposal over the 4-digit number coding?

Ronnie Bulaong
33 Comments
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  2. for me : its mmda.. thre will be no trfc if mmda’s would enforce the law properly.. walng tong-tong or lagay sa mga nagaabang ng pasahero, thus walng nka bara sa daan hence walng trfic .. simple db..

  3. Make the public transport system truly public instead of franchising it.

    Imagine it, if PUVs followed one centralized schedule, traffic would be better. Wala nang unahan for passengers, excessive boundaries/quotas that lead to poor driving decisions, and we could professionalize public transport driving. Without the pressure of hitting boundaries, drivers would follow the rules better and would become government employees with better benefits. With larger resources, we could have a better, safer, and 24/7 public transport system.

  4. the best solution is to regulate the new cars being bought by the consumers. also remove all old models vehicle from the street to avoid road congestion.

  5. Yep! I totally agree. I think discipline is the key. Yun A, B and C na bus scheme nga di nila ma-implement ng maayos. Ningas Kugon din kasi ang government, sa una lang palage tpos pagtagal isang tango lang ng bus driver pwede ng magsakay at magbaba kahit bawal.. tsk tsk

  6. Guys, proposal palang naman. Yung iba nyan kung maka-comment akala mo katapusan na ng mundo.

  7. Working here in South Korea.. I like how organized their transportation system is.. Pati kapag lumabag ka sa traffic rules, pagmumultahin ka.. Siguro kailangan lang din talaga natin ng disiplina..

  8. It’s quite far-fetched for this idea, involving the stakes of the private company and their productivity, it will affect their profit generation and not all company agrees to this I’m sure.
    a
    some are already implementing this, yes I’m talking about Accenture, IBM and most BPO companies. This is not the first time this idea was implemented.

    Magiging concrete ang idea na to, kung sa una pa lang may unity and cooperation na public and private sector which, going back to my previous point, quite “FAR-FETCHED”

    If we can be at least be par with the Japanese concept of ‘discipline’ which ALL FILIPINOS LACK!

  9. No and never. Our body was built for 8-hours work only (not counting 1-hour lunch break).

    Many countries in the past already experimented with changing the work hours of their citizens (compressing it and/or extending it), they ended up reverting to 8-hour 5 to 6 days only a week.

    In some countries today, there are movements showing corporations that the productivity of their employees suffer (not to mention their long-term health which we will no longer recover) than those who stay within 8-hour 5-6 days only a week work format.

    Anyway, there are many studies made about this matter already, 8-hour per day, no less than 5 days and no more than 6 days per week, always came up as the optimal, healthy, and highly productive system.

    So no. Health is a priority. Productivity is a must.

  10. there was a stateside study kung saan sinasaad na ang efficient or productive hours ng isang manggagawa ay 30 hours per week. baka instead na habaan at gawing 10 hours/4 days ay shorten na lang to 6 hours/5 days?

    sinubukan din namin ang telecommuting sa dating office ko where some of the employees would work from home for one day each week. medyo hindi efficient lalo na at collaborative ang nature ng trabaho namin.

    di ba’t kabibili lang ng mmda ng traffic monitoring equipment? wala bang bisa ito? di ba nila nakikita ang source ng problema tulad ng mga bus nahindi sumusunod sa hanay, naka babad sa sakayan, umoovertake ng alanganin? ang private vehicle derecho lang ang takbo niyan. kahit madami hindi nagpapalitpalit ng linya, hindi tumitigil at nagbababad. karamihan sa private vehicles maayos ang driver.

    kung dumadami ang bilang ng sasakyan problema ng lto yan. pwede naman taasan ng rehistro ang mga lumang auto dahil karamihan ng tumitirik mga luma. ayusin din nila ang registration process para makitang maayos at roadworthy ang sasakyan.

    public transpo? ‘taragis! sa lrt may linya na pero pag dating ng train kanya-kanyang singitan! hindi lang driver ang walang disiplina, pati commuter!

  11. It could work on isolationist countries like North Korea pero ang industry natin operates on a global level on all sectors. Do you expect other countries to adapt to our schedule?

    I believe french workers clamored for this work schedule as well.

  12. Color coding 1 whole day no window time and that day is the person’s (if he has a car) 3rd day off? Maybe that’ll help a little, even if commuters take public transportation at least the private cars would be more limited everyday hence slight traffic decrease.

  13. This may actually work or even do benefit, but more on the travel experience. Since number of cars / PUVs are fixed anyway.

    What they can explore as well is inclusion of Saturday as part of workday, especially for govt service office. This will even add value since weekday employees won’t have to skip work just to fulfill their routine needs like drivers license, NBI, etc.

    Another is setting office hours in tranches. Not everyone has to be 8-5. Some can be 7-4, 6-3, or as late as 10-7 or 11-8. Just so rush hour traffic gets spread out much wider.

    This will work best for plain-operational-duration-specific jobs, which mostly are commuters. But for a corporate employee like me, this won’t work. I usually work beyond office hours anyway, removing a day will just be a business detriment.

  14. It’s always been the buses and jeeps. Always.

  15. ayusin lang nila ang mga loading/unloading area in all roads just like in ayala ave. makati.

    not practical ang 4 day/week lalo na sa katulad kong contractual lang. less days less pays.

  16. As I mentioned on my previous comment on the other article. Volume is not the problem but the inefficient transport system and DISCIPLINE. I already mentioned if we only have efficient transport system like Singapore this wont be a problem. Regarding on the 4 day work this wont work either. Tokyo is one of the most populated cities in the world. Same thing with Singapore thet have an efficient public transport. What is the solution – IMPROVE PUBLIC TRANSPORT system.

    • +1 din..improve the public transport. let the people feel the fruit of their/our taxes. this is one of the basic service that the government should improved.

    • +1. public transpo and enforcement of laws and regulation should be the focus.


      To the guy who thought of 4-day work:

      http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/254928_419053074808637_1115650401_n.jpg

  17. ang problema kasi ay yung mga eskwelahan. kapag bakasyon kasi, madalang naman ang traffic.

    kapag umaga kasi at uwian, sabay-sabay lahat ang eskwelahan at opisina sa pag-pasok at pag-labas.

    siguro mas maganda kung lahat ng eskwelahan ay mag-simula ng 7:00am or 7:30am at lahat naman ng opisina (pati na rin sa mga construction workers) ay mag-simula ng 9:00am or 9:30am. Para hiwalay ang volume ng sasakyan sa lansangan.

    At least, kapag papasok na ang mga taga-opisina, naka-uwi na yung mga sasakyan na nag-hahatid ng mga estudyante.

  18. The answer is very simple: Urban Planning! Wala kasi ka-plano plano para sa Metro Manila. Puro scotch tape solutions. There should be at least ONE efficient public transport system for the whole Metro Manila – from light rail system down to tricycle transport. Ang gulo kasi ng sistema na kapag sa QC ganito, pero pagtawid mo ng Pasig iba na, tapos iba rin ang Makati tapos iba din sa Manila. Labo-labo lang!

    • Like.
      problematic Urban Planning is also evident in other Southeast Asian nations. Kaya same as Thailand and Indonesia, yung sobrang trapik ang pinoproblema nila. And even one time, Asian Development Bank proposed to rehabilitate Pasig River as a permanent solution to this. It was accomplished i think 4/5 years ago but was dumped, eventually.

  19. Yet another dumbass solution by the Freemasonic government of this pitiful nation of ours.

  20. This has been brought up countless times before….during the electricity issue. Business owners have frowned on this idea. There is only a limit on a himan’s productivity. Beyond that even if you extend the working hours, attention span is limited. Mistakes and carelessness will start to implement themselves. At the end of the exercise, it would probably be more efficient to have longer working days with shorter working hours than shorter working days with longer working hours.

  21. how about moving the business district to the side of laguna and bulacan

  22. Well,

    How about the productivity of the workers? Longer hours may mean tired employees, equals unhappy employers of course.

    IF 4 days lang pasok sa work, cgro it also means na on the 5th day of the week close din work place nila? Most probably IMO.

    Also which employees will have to go through with this?

    How about teachers? 4 days a week na lang din classes? That means 4 days din pasok ng mga kids.

    How about Banks? Gov’t agencies? etc. Medyo hassle din cgro kung less than a day in a week lang bukas mga establishments?

    I wonder how to properly implement this?

  23. best plan for the MMDA is to ENFORCE the LAW.

  24. 4 working days? I don’t think so…
    To me, the plain contributor to the problem is the increasing number of private vehicles. The economical solution would be to promote public transportation.

    • I want to agree to this. However when remembering how incompetent the bus drivers are, how the jeepney drivers’ antics have not improved AT ALL (prolly even got worse compared to the old days) since their conception, how cramped our trains are on rush hours, I just shake my head. We need even more trains, better road networks, and frankly more MMDA officers that actually enforce the laws.

  25. Not all businesses can adopt to this. Yes, an additional day off work of an employee could save a company 1 day worth of allowances and other expenses. But it will never compensate the loss in productivity 1 day coverage will bring. Kaya I agree that it’s a “long-shot.”

  26. pwede…transpo and meal expense for four days..tipid isang araw…

    but how can they regulate the flow of people?..how sure are they na hindi ito lalabas nang bahay?

    pag-aralan pa siguro…but it’s not entirely bad..

    • yeah..more family time…help my daughter in her school works…

    • I’ve been working like this for years and its great. I have more family time and can work on other things at home. The company that I’m working with implements friday off every other week.

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