Amazon Prime Day, the 48-hour discount blitz that kicks off Tuesday, is a “major” cause of worker injuries, according to the preliminary results of a Senate probe.

The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Tuesday released the interim results of a yearlong investigation into Amazon’s warehouse working conditions just as the company holds its annual Prime Day deals event.

People on the left and right use the term “girlboss” in wildly different ways. On the left, it’s a term of empowerment to praise women who have a take-charge attitude and successful careers. On the right, it serves as a derogatory term, suggesting that modern women pursue careers and materialism at the expense of what is considered the most important role — marriage and family.

“This is not a radical idea,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told Congress this morning. The chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is calling for the legislative branch to pick up an issue dropped nearly 70 years ago:  changing the workweek to 32 hours without docking employee pay, or in other words, a four-day week.

Sanders spoke of successes in his opening statement that other countries have had in implementing shortened work weeks, like, of course, France, but also in specific companies across the nation. 

Get ready for a long weekend at Bernie’s!

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants Americans to follow in the footsteps of some lawmakers in Congress and cut back on their working hours while getting the same pay.

The self-described “Democratic socialist” passionately advocated for a 32-hour workweek as the national standard while chairing a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing Thursday.

“American workers are now over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s,” noted Sanders, 82.

Many people hate their jobs. Some don’t. But almost everyone would like to work less. And over the past several decades, American workers have worked longer hours overall as their wages have stagnated. As if that weren’t enough, they have also seen their declining amount of free time disrupted by increasingly erratic schedules. It’s a dismal situation. Strange, then, that politicians almost never speak to this widespread desire.

People who are thinking of their personal and professional lives as in conflict with each other are thinking as man sees, not as God does.

Nearly 900 school districts across 26 states are transitioning to, or are already using, a four-day schedule in order to tackle teacher shortages.

A shift to this kind of flex schedule has been prevalent in rural areas, but the trend is now expanding.

“We are taking a very different approach, this was not about saving money — it’s actually going to cost more — this was about recruiting and retaining the very best staff,” said Dr. Dale Herl, superintendent of the Independence, Missouri, school district.

A growing number of retailers in city office districts are relocating their businesses to the suburbs, where visits to shopping centers are on the rise as fewer people commute to downtown workplaces. 

With average office usage rates still only around half of where they stood before the pandemic in many major cities, many bars, restaurants and other retailers that cater to the five-day-a-week office crowd have been reeling. 

Millions fewer Americans worked remotely last year, according to a new survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Why it matters: The data show the work world returning to a new normal, where there is some working from home — more than in the pre-COVID era — but less than at the height of the Zoom and sweatpants moment.

By the numbers: The share of establishments with employees rarely or never working remotely rose to 72.5%, up from 60.1% the year before.

Progressive Democrats are renewing a push to make four-day workweeks federal law, with lead sponsor Rep. Mark Takano of California saying the change will give Americans more time "to live, play, and enjoy life more fully outside of work."

Takano introduced a bill earlier this month that would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32, effectively ending the traditional five-day cycle. 

The legislation follows a shift in workplace trends after the COVID-19 pandemic influenced conversations about what the future of work may look like.