The idea of converting American workers from a five-day to a four-day workweek, as recently suggested by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Mass, reaffirms our view of a lazy nation on the skids, which is vividly depicted in the science-fiction comedy classic, “Idiocracy.”

To that end, we cite just a portion of an analysis of the situation from the website www.talent-quarterly.com”

“The four-day workweek is a strange reward for bad management.

“That these companies could easily find enough waste and inefficiency to condense or shorten their weeks isn’t a great sign. It suggests the firms were badly managed if their operations were so sloppy that a few common-sense changes led to radical improvements in efficiency. 

“For example, the Kiwi-firm Perpetual Guardian and IBM both have mentioned they sharply reduced the number and length of meetings to enable their four-day workweek. That’s wonderful, but increasing efficiency is a basic, ongoing task in any organization. There’s no need to reward it with anything other than a sincere thank you. 

“The whole week matters.

“The 16-employee German company Rheingans Digital Enabler adopted a five-hour workday by having no meeting last more than 15 minutes, not allowing social media or small talk, and prohibiting workers from checking their phones. It’s truly amazing they could find such time savings. 

“But if you were hired to work 40 hours a week and you were spending four hours of it on Facebook, eliminating social media from work shouldn’t mean you get to go home early.

“Shouldn’t this newly found time be invested in the jobs everyone is being paid to do? If meetings are now shorter, that’s great. Maybe that time can be spent innovating your products, better understanding your customers, building your capabilities, or improving other efforts that keep your company competitive.

“Your competition wants you to skip Fridays.

“Your rivals are salivating over your four-day workweek. Remember, there’s always someone willing to work harder than you. They’re happy to call your customers on that fifth day, or they might use it for R&D, team-building, or crafting a new competitor-killing strategy.”

Indeeed, the economy is slumping, so we think all Americans need step up to work a six-day week — to boost productivity to revive this once-great nation.