Roy McCrerey stepped off a bus in Asheville’s Pritchard Park today to resounding applause and the beat of a bluegrass band. Banners on the bus read “Support the Five Day Weekend” and McCrerey’s message was simple. He told Xpress, “This is a grassroots movement beginning in Asheville that we expect will sweep the nation!”
Speaking to the crowd, McCrerey, Communications Director for Friends of the Five Day Weekend, an Asheville-based advocacy group, said, “Remember that phrase, ‘The pursuit of happiness?’ What happened? Asheville is one of the few places in the country that gets it. This is a place where people realize there is more to life than busting your butt in a cubicle.”
A hundred or so supporters waved signs and interrupted McCrerey’s brief speech with cheers. He said the April 17 kick-off at Pritchard Park was the beginning of a tour that would take the message to Atlanta, Greenville, Charlotte and Raleigh before heading for Washington, D.C. “We are one of the hardest working nations on the planet,” he said. “Lucky workers get two weeks paid vacation, but often they don’t even take time off. Last year 570 million paid vacation days weren’t used. That’s crazy!” He went on to point out that Germans get 29 paid vacation days each year while French workers get 39. “That’s a party we missed! There’s a lot of wine being drunk and cheese being eaten. You can bet the Germans and French don’t skip their paid holidays!”
The crowd seemed to agree wholeheartedly with McCrerey’s message, and bluegrass music continued as the crowd swelled with folks who were apparently playing hookey on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
Checking the organization’s Web site, one discovers, “The Five Day Weekend idea was born in Asheville, N.C., as a marketing initiative for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. But as it came together, this initiative became more of a public service campaign aimed at bringing attention to the worsening epidemic of overwork and encouraging U.S. workers to get out and enjoy life.”
Your room-tax dollars at work.
— Cecil Bothwell, staff writer
I work 3 days a week and make just enough money to support me and my wife, but only because our house was financed a while ago and the mortgage is less than any rent we could find nowadays. You’d be surprised how much time is eaten away with a 4-day weekend (actually a 3-day weekend and a day off in the middle of the remaining 3 days) with volunteer work, my hobbies and just plain living. But, it’s the kind and amount of living i want to do. I feel like i’m working – and working hard while i do work – to truly support quality time with my wife and dog.
My old 2-day weekends were break-neck time to myself just to decompress from the 5 days-a-week suffocation and there was either little time for slow appreciation of southern life or else event-filled weekends that made me glad to get back to work so i could ‘rest’!
I’m not terribly motivated to work just for the sake of work.
When I am able to have a five day weekend, I’ll be sure to tell the easter bunny that Roy McCrerey says hello.
I personally treat everyday like a vacation,life is short and precious.everyday you wake up is the first day of the rest of your life,and i treat it as if its my last…..Work to me is a 4 letter word,i feel so sorry for people caught up in the grind of non-sense slavery for the Almighty dollar bill.never truly enjoying life to the fullest,but allways living for someone Else’s expectations scared to fail! wishing time away waiting for there next vacation day. – We are all living within heaven on earth,money truly is not needed in the end.
I take it you are living off of an inheritance?
can we just stop jason from posting? i honestly do not see any constructive purpose in his posts
Obviously, nobody can be stopped from posting just because you don’t like their comments. The next best thing, however, is to block them from appearing on your browser and/or not responding to them, since many posters thrive on just trying to get a rise out of you. By responding at all, you’re already losing. Some people just want you to talk about them on the blog in their misguided effort to make a name for themselves as a person who writes annoying posts. Always a great career choice.
thnkas for the advise. done and done. although i will say that many message boards have rules of conduct. not that i really care either way. cuz i dont. but i thought i’d point that out. thats all.
again, thanks for the advice.
and, yes, i’d say working less is always a good thing. live simple and all that. less tax money to the man for his wars and whatnot.
and, since we are americans, we are ALL living off of an inheritence. the wealth of this nation is like no other, and most people who know how to limit their spending and work creatively can often find ways to reduce their buy-work-spend cycle, even if just a little.
five day weekend. i love it. what if there was no coffee or cigarettes in this world? i bet the machine would crash to a grinding halt as people remember that humans need sleep to function sanely.
What is with this Silverman guy? He is the one who needs to e kicked off of here… what an insulting, nasty person.
Jeffrey beaumont
what exactly is so offensive about that comment? maybe you like coffee a lot? or ciggarettes?
just to clarify, i did not say anything bad about smokers and coffee drinkers, per se.
does that clear it up, ‘jeffery’?
I heard that the whole “5 day weekend” thing was Asheville’s new slogan to attract tourists.
And why are you putting quotes around people’s names ‘silverman’?