My company always worked half days on Fridays, which was a pretty good balance. I occasionally worked in something fun or recreational, but was mostly a good time to get a chore of some kind done without interruption or taking time away from the family over the weekend. My wife works and kids would be in school until later in the afternoon.

We are now off entirely on Fridays and we may stay that way. But currently that is my day to help kids with at-home schooling. It's still a blessing, but not currently useful time to get much else done. Hopefully schools can reopen here safely in the coming weeks and months.

My brother works as a paramedic, and instead of the typical 24 hours on, 48 off, his station works 48 hours on and four days off. It's a sleepier town, so they are able to get in sleep as needed while on shift. He seems to end up with one to two month-long stretches of time off each year just by taking a few shifts off.

There are some downsides, like working some holidays or some full weekends when others are off. But many of his co-workers have second jobs or own businesses to fill in their time.

Most of us have to heavily plan to get one or two weeks off in a chunk, and are usually used for vacations away that seem to add more complexity to life.

Having just that extra weekend day can help alleviate the rushed feeling of the weekend.