Daylight saving time is just one way standardized time zones oppress you

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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8 Responses

  1. Gunther Behn says:

    A little off topic: my own experience since 2000, definitely since 2008, is that my corporate employer has cut positions as a result of a Crash, and has maintained lower staffing levels. The remaining employees continue to do 1.5x or 2x their work loads of almost 20 years ago.

    It doesn’t matter whether we’re using Standard or Daylight savings time. People work longer hours because it’s the only way to meet the goals you’re given, and obviously it’s more profitable for the employer. A tough situation for older workers; but that’s another issue.Report

    • Will H. in reply to Gunther Behn says:

      I’ve talked with some old-timers* that tell me it used to be double time on Saturdays as well as Sundays, and almost no one worked on Saturdays; but “as soon as Saturdays went to time-and-a-half, you couldn’t run away from them.”

      Granted, this is on a union pay scale where the benefits are paid in straight time regardless. For example (and keeping the numbers simple here, for illustrative purposes), with $30 in the pocket and $10 in benefits:
      Straight time = 30 + 10 = $40 total package
      Time & a half = 45 + 10 = $55 total package
      Double time = 60 + 10 = $70 total package

      So, if you’re wondering how twice of 30 can add up to 70, it just takes a bit of union math.

      Often 10 hour days are dictated because of equipment rentals. They don’t want to keep that stuff sitting still.
      But there is an economic dividend to overworking the employee rather than hiring more.

      A lot of places have rules against that; e.g., 35 hours a week max, everyone calls in one day a week, etc.

      * Journeymen of trade unions working during and prior to the Reagan years.Report

      • Damon in reply to Will H. says:

        Back in the day when I assembled cars, we were working 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Second shift got off at 2am, so those sunday hours were nice double time.Report

  2. Road Scholar says:

    1. In all my years of working (~40) I don’t recall ever actually having work hours of 9 to 5. That includes a stint of white collar work.

    2. As a long-haul trucker I live by the clock as much as anyone, more really, since I need to meet pickup/delivery appointments while adhering to hours-of-service regulations. But every day is different.

    3. We already have a Universal Time of a sort with GMT. At least astronomers do. But related to my point above a North American Standard Time would be very useful for me. I’m constantly having to worry about what time zone a location is in and add or subtract an hour or two when planning trips.

    4. DST sucks. It’s just getting stupid given that the super special time now lasts twice as long as the old regular standard time. If we’re going to do this shouldn’t we just call the summer time standard and the winter time something like Daylight Squandering Time?Report

  3. Jaybird says:

    Cis-het White Men created Daylight Standard Time.

    We need to get rid of it. We need to shame the people who say stuff like “Oh, I like DST! It lets me mow my lawn!” Publicly shame them.Report

  4. Kazzy says:

    This week is generally a very unproductive one in schools.Report

  5. Damon says:

    I’m really failing to see the utility on this “program”. You could make an argument back when America was agrarian. Then again, when I worked on the farm, day light was irrelevant. We were baling wheat between 1AM and 1PM, but you know, school kids, whatever.

    I get up on workdays at 5am. The amount of daylight is irrelevant.Report