TGIF … or T … or … what day is it?

There’s been lots of buzz around an experiment out of Iceland where trials were conducted into the impact of a four-day workweek.

If you just read that sentence and thought, “Ugh. Four days? They want me to work four days now?” maybe this column isn’t for you.

What the trials revealed, Boss, is that while employees worked four days per week instead of five, productivity remained the same.

Makes sense. I mean, this column, er, I mean, a random person’s work, has to get done whether I, er, they, spend 40 hours on it or 40 minutes on it. This is an exaggeration because there is no way I, or a random worker, could produce this quality of work in 40 minutes.

You might sense from my tone that I like the idea of a four-day workweek. I’m also not opposed to a zero-day work week but baby steps.

The Iceland trials were such a hit that most of the working people there reported having more time to spend with their families, do hobbies and complete household chores. But I am sure there are positive aspects to the four-day workweek too.

Workers say they feel less stressed and reported that their health improved, and they felt they had a better work-life balance.

I remember being a kid in the ’70s and my dad worked fourday weeks. Back then, I don’t think we knew what work-life balance was. What we did know, was that dad made a very tasty pork chop with gravy and boiled potatoes while my mother was at work. He might have been ahead of his time.

With workers and researchers calling the Iceland study a huge success, it seems logical that all of us should start making plans for three-day weekends. It’s obvious we will all be freed up for an extra day a week once corporations accept the evidence that we all work better when we have Friday 10 a.m. tee times booked.

The science is in. We can work less and produce at the same level. Only an incredibly negative person would say we are all currently slacking off for at least five hours per week.

Slacking off? I would hardly call it slacking off. It’s hard work running a hockey pool and selling leggings online without IT catching you!

Anyway, I’m not overly optimistic that four-day work weeks are coming to North America any time soon. And even if they do, I don’t know if working four, 10-hour days is really any better than five, eight-hour days.

After a solid eight hours, it’s all I can do to get home, eat supper and fall asleep while scrolling Netflix looking at all the stuff I would watch if I thought I could stay awake.

Since, for most of us, the fourday workweek is unlikely, I have another great idea to improve our workplaces.

In addition to our usual vacation time, we should get two weeks a year to behave as though we’ve just given our notice.

That’s two weeks’ worth of coming in late and not caring, leaving early and not caring, and taking longer for lunch and not caring.

You know — just working hard at looking like we’re working and doing enough to not burn any bridges and to get a good reference in the future.

We all need two of these mailing-it-in weeks every year. Clean out your desk, delete all your emails, take it easy then return to the normal routine refreshed and ready to go.

Of course, we don’t currently have a two-weeks’ notice break so if you want to experience it, you’ll have to, actually, like, quit.

If you have not enjoyed the experience of quitting a job, I highly recommend it. You will never experience a freedom quite like the freedom of being a lame duck.

Who are you trying to impress? Absolutely no one. It’s two full weeks of getting paid to say your farewells and to hear everyone else tell you how lucky you are.

Not to mention the honeymoon on the other side when you start a new job. It will be a solid two weeks there before you start hating it and wishing, praying, for a four-day week.