The Benefits of a Shorter Working Week
IELTS Writing Task 2
Response: While I believe longer weekends have extensive benefits for employees and their families, it is not essential to add more days to the weekend, because there are various alternatives to improve the quality of people's lives.
On one hand, longer weekends provide individuals with more opportunities to focus on their social life and mental health, rather than spending just two days. Significantly, three or even four days of continuous leisure enable people to manage their relationships and plans more efficiently in order to overcome their daily challenges. For instance, based on the most recent research on relationships, a noticeable group of couples broke up due to being overly occupied with their work; therefore, not having enough time to communicate with each other.
Dealing with health problems is another crucial result of working too much in a week; whereas, overworking confronts people with several negative emotions such as sadness, boredom, and anxiety. When you work twelve hours a day, without even knowing, you are making yourself exhausted and fretful, which may harm those who are around you, and finally, when you realize many parts of your life are falling apart, anxiety emerges from the shadows.
On the other hand, extending weekend days is not the only way. For example, if we do not consider our week periods as seven days, it enables us to have ten-day periods, and in every ten days, we manage to have four days of break and six days of work. In this case, overall, we will have twelve days of rest and eighteen days of work, which is almost similar to our present, real numbers. Another approach could be instead of adding days to weekends, to reduce daily work hours in order to spend the rest of the time with family and friends. However, many argue that the first approach is more pleasant, because even going to work, five days a week , exhausts them mentally but I believe having a few more hours to yourself every day is better than having nothing at all.
In conclusion, I firmly agree with a plan where governments, employers, and managers consider their employees' well-being more and try to promote their welfare, which could only be possible with the right management and program.