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four day work week

A four-day workweek pilot has been launched in the UK, with similar schemes taking place in other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and The United States.

The 6-month trial in the UK will reduce hours with no loss in pay for employees and the pilot called, “4 Day Week Global” is backed up by research organisation “Autonomy” as well as researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and Oxford University.

The program states the standard 9-5, 5-day working week is outdated and no longer fit for purpose and that the long-overdue four-day working week would benefit workers, employers, the economy, our society and the environment.

Workers benefit by utilising their free time for a better work-life balance, more rest and sleep, extra time for leisure and life admin such as shopping, cleaning, managing finances and parenting duties.

Employers also benefit, with trials showing productivity increases with workers with money being saved as their employees were happier and less stressed meaning they took fewer sick days.

The four-day working week is based on the 100:80:100 model, which translates to 100 per cent of pay for 80 per cent of time, with 100 per cent productivity.

Numerous companies have already taken part in the scheme with the 4 Day Week Campaign and have become accredited employers with the program. Accredited with  Gold, Silver, and Bronze standards, the Gold Standard drops the employees work hours to a permanent 32 hours (or less) four-day work with no loss of pay. The Silver Standard gives the employee a permanent 35 hours (or less) four-day week with no loss of pay and the Bronze Standard offers their employees and 6 month minimum of the above hours with no loss of pay. 

With the global pandemic already shaking up working arrangements, the idea of a four-day working week is becoming more of a reality. 

One Melbourne based company made headlines when they introduced the concept in 2019. The Australian digital marketing agency named VERSA decided to shut down on Wednesdays and offered staff a four-day working week with no loss of pay. From their website, they state that the innovative style of working has led to better work culture and CEO, Kath Blackham says that her choice to divide the week in half rather than a long weekend was purposeful. She says, “by the time we get to Thursday, it’s like Monday again”, creating a feeling of “enthusiasm and.. collaboration”.

In Australia, an "Inquiry into the future of the working week” has been launched by the ACT Government. With submissions closing on the 13th of May 2022, the inquiry will discuss the concept of a four-day workweek, the advantages and disadvantages and how it would be implemented.
 

Image Credit: (Dmitry Demidovich / Shutterstock.com)

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A Meteor glowing as it enters the Earth's atmosphere. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

A giant asteroid, bigger than any building on Earth, is about to be expected to soar past Earth.

Called 7482 (1994 PC1), the asteroid is more than a kilometre wide at 1052 metres.

Its size means it is bigger than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which, at 830 metres, is the world's tallest building.

But the asteroid poses no threat to Earth and at its closest will pass more than five times the moon's distance from the planet.

Robert McNaught discovered asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia on August 9 1994.

Nasa's Asteroid Watch Twitter account posted: "Near-Earth #asteroid 1994 PC1 (~1 km wide) is very well known and has been studied for decades by our #PlanetaryDefense experts.

"Rest assured, 1994 PC1 will safely fly past our planet 1.2 million miles away next Tues, Jan 18."

The agency's Planetary Defence Coordination Office monitors the skies to find, track, and monitor near-Earth objects.

Nasa is also looking at ways to intercept potentially hazardous asteroids with its double asteroid redirection test (Dart) mission.

The mission aims to prove a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it, smashing it off course.

© PAA 2022

Image: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock.com

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Just when you thought the kids were over it and it was safe to go back into the water, Baby Shark breaks another record hitting a milestone that firmly puts it back into the public eye.

Since its initial release in 2016 megahit has been on repeat in worldwide family homes.

So it's no surprise that it is YouTube’s most-watched video ever, beating out the likes of Ed Sheeran, Mark Ronson and Wiz Kalifa.

But now it's time to truly grasp the power of "Baby Shark" as we take in the fact that this South Korean song for kids has been viewed more than 10 Billion times on Youtube.

Now "if I had a dollar for every time..." never mind.

In second place and released the following year (2017) is the music video for ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi at 7.7 billion views.

Not to be confused with the version that included Justin Bieber, that video only has around 335 million on a lyric video and 19 million on the film clip.

In third place on 6.1 Billion views is the LooLoo Kids with "Johny Johny Yes Papa", but we won't even go there.

Seriously, do not press play on this. We don't want to give it any more help.

Back to Baby Shark, the track was created by Pinkfong Company and is said to be the inspiration for an upcoming movie as well.

It was originally recorded in 2015 with then 10-year-old Hope Segoine who has tracked the success of the track in this video.

Just about everyone has covered the Baby Shark song including John Legend who sang it for his son Miles

and James Corden who performed it with Sophie Turner from Game of Thrones and Josh Groban

Even our own Aussie children's entertainment legends The Wiggles got in on the action.

It doesn't look like Baby Shark is going away anytime soon, so may as well embrace it, 

Just "do do, do do do do" it!

 

 

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 170122_Tim_Allen_Santa_Header.jpg

Christmas has come early! Tim Allen is reprising his role as the big man in red for a limited Disney Plus series.

Merry Christmas is in order with Disney+ announcing a brand new series that will see Tim Allen return as Scott Calvin (AKA Santa) in beloved The Santa Clause franchise.

"It’s clause for celebration!" the on-demand streaming service posted to Twitter.

"Tim Allen will reprise his role as Scott Calvin from “The Santa Clause” in a new Original limited series coming soon to #DisneyPlus." 

As you'd recall, the original The Santa Clause film from 1994 saw Tim Allen play Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who has no choice but to replace Santa after he falls off of a roof on Christmas Eve.

With the help of his son, Charlie, Scott dons the red suit and delivers the rest of the presents.

When he returns the sleigh to the North Pole, he is forced to become the big man in red due to a legal technicality known as 'The Santa Clause'.

The film garnered an exceptional response, grossing $189 million and leading to the sequels The Santa Clause 2 in 2002 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause in 2006.

Since the announcement, people have been speculating what they think the plot might be for this The Santa Clause comeback.

We particularly like the sound of Bryan Vision's theory, "The Retirement Clause".

"Scott is told he must retire and find a replacement, however he procrastinates all year and now Christmas is at risk unless he can find a new Santa, but of course, everyone he asks thinks he's nuts," he posted.

Another user hopes the series will include a little more action.

"Santa goes off the rails this year and has to be taken down by the elves carrying liquorice tazers," Liam Carey wrote.

"They shave him and stick him in witness protection due to all the B&Es and give him a new name... Tim Allen."

Meanwhile, others have their fingers crossed for more intricate details to be included, like the return of Comet, the lovable reindeer.

According to Disney Plus, the new series won't be far from 'The Retirement Clause' theory mentioned above.

The show will apparently revisit Scott on his 65th birthday after he realizes he can't be Santa forever, and so a hunt for his replacement begins.

Production is set to begin in Los Angeles in March this year.

Images: The Santa Clause (1994) / IMDB