Scrap Bank Holidays to save the Economy?

Janesy B said:
Let's scrap weekends too, let's all work 24/7 all year round the fix the economy. I don't need a life anyway, just hook me up to a caffeine drip.
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Lol i agree with him,I mean i work bank hols anyway so does not make any difference to me but seriously..for those that work allot of hours or say 6 maybe 7 days a week how the hell we ever going to get a break.

I honestly don't know who thinks up these things.
 
If we would be £19bn better off with regards to time alone, how worse off would we be because of increased stress and lower productivity?
 
There's plenty of research to show that productivity rapidly declines after 37ish hours per week and also that time off is intrinsic to promoting fruitful work. But I can see the logic here run us all into the ground to pay for all those rapidly rising CEO wagebills whilst at the same time ensuring everyone dies before retirement thereby negating the pension problem at the same time!
 
Bit of a pointless report...

in other news getting a second job on weekends will earn someone more money...

Maybe we should work Saturdays too...

Also re: the USA - they tend to have less vacation allowance overall despite having more public holidays.

I'm quite happy having bank holidays etc...
 
What really needs to happen in the UK is for workers hours to reach the same as other countries. Everyone I know in the UK seems to work 9-5 with about 1 hour of breaks, while the rest of the world works 8-5:30 with 1 hour of break.

That alone will add another 1300 hours or more to the annual work output per person compared to the mere 70 or so hours scraping the public holidays would have!
 
D.P. said:
What really needs to happen in the UK is for workers hours to reach the same as other countries. Everyone I know in the UK seems to work 9-5 with about 1 hour of breaks, while the rest of the world works 8-5:30 with 1 hour of break.

That alone will add another 1300 hours or more to the annual work output per person compared to the mere 70 or so hours scraping the public holidays would have!
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And when does 9-5 ever mean 9-5!
 
D.P. said:
What really needs to happen in the UK is for workers hours to reach the same as other countries. Everyone I know in the UK seems to work 9-5 with about 1 hour of breaks, while the rest of the world works 8-5:30 with 1 hour of break.

That alone will add another 1300 hours or more to the annual work output per person compared to the mere 70 or so hours scraping the public holidays would have!
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That's not really practical in Britain, especially in the winter. Do you honestly expect people to work through all of the sunlight hours? Can you imagine what physiological implications that might have?
 
The money to the economy isn't lost, it's mostly just deferred to the next working day.

The money gained from leisure and retail along with productivity gains by allowing the workforce a break will more than outweigh any perceived loss.
 
I'd be happy to scrap them if the money would definitely make a difference to the economy. It will be far better for all of us in the long term.
 
The economy that still runs on debt, by debt, for debt?

Hell no, until the foundations and basics of capitalism are respected, this is pointless and just aggravates everyone.
 
PermaBanned said:
That's not really practical in Britain, especially in the winter. Do you honestly expect people to work through all of the sunlight hours? Can you imagine what physiological implications that might have?
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People do it all the time....you'll see for yourself when you enter the workplace.
 
PermaBanned said:
That's not really practical in Britain, especially in the winter. Do you honestly expect people to work through all of the sunlight hours? Can you imagine what physiological implications that might have?
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You have obviously never lived and worked in scotland during the winter when this happens anyway.
Your argument is utterly absurd, what do you think all of those people in higher latitudes do, do you think they just don't work all winter because the sun doesn't arise above the horizon?. Do people in northern norway just work 2 hours a day?


A completely stupid argument.

yes, working though the daylight hours suck but that is indpendent of work hours. you can combat this by starting work early. I often will aim to start work around 6am so that I have some hours of evening light, others will start work nearer 11am and work into the might to enjoy a morning. Other people use daylight lamps, and others just get depressed and drink a lot.
 
Castiel said:
Quite......9-5 means 8.30-5.30 in reality.......with a half hour lunch, if youre lucky.....
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And the same unwritten extension applies everywhere else with 8 to 5:30 often meaning 7:30 to 6pm.

The fact is people in the UK and some European countries work less hours than countries like the US and canada.

My point is that arguing over the existence of 8-10 8 hour public holidays when hundreds if not a thousand hours or more are lost per person due to reduced working hours is stupid.
 
PermaBanned said:
If we would be £19bn better off with regards to time alone, how worse off would we be because of increased stress and lower productivity?
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You still get the statutory days off as required. The problem with bank holidays is that nearly everyone takes a day off on the same day shutting down the economy.

Say an economy produces £X billion on any given day with full employment minus sick leave and holiday leave.

Even having half of those people working produces much more than £(X/2)bn due to diminishing returns to labour.

Therefore it is much more efficient to have 50% employment in 2 separate days and everyone still has the same number of days off. It is even better if you stagger it over more days as what happens when you give people choice on when to take leave.


kibblerok said:
The money to the economy isn't lost, it's mostly just deferred to the next working day.

The money gained from leisure and retail along with productivity gains by allowing the workforce a break will more than outweigh any perceived loss.
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Not everything can be deferred as otherwise we'd all just take a midweek break deferring income to Thursday and Friday. This calculation incorporates the calculation that not all income is lost. Economists at the CEBR aren't quite that silly.

Hikari Kisugi said:
It is 11 in Northern Ireland, not the 10 that absurd think tank assume.
Peoples leave generally includes bank holidays, so remove them and they just take the leave at other times.
Might save a bit but not as much as they think.
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Exactly what they want. Again the CEBR aren't stupid enough to ignore that.

These are all simple things, why are people saying the CEBR missed this?
 
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