President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr. is entertaining a proposal to change from a 5-day work week to 4-day work week. After reporting the idea to the national leadership this week, he convened a group to study the proposal and its potential effects.
The proposal is to have a 4-day work week while employees continue to be paid a full 5-day week salary. President Remengesau said that it would give more opportunities of quality time for families and opportunities to promote food security such as subsistence agriculture or fishery. The group will be looking at costs and impact on services and will make recommendations to the leadership.
COVID-19 and its impact on the entire community has not all been bad and have opened the community to new innovations, new norms, as well as filter out priorities. The new normal can go far beyond just the conscious practice of proper hygiene. It might mean a new alignment of national priorities.