So far, most Twin Oakers seem to value our tradition of equality over individual incentives. We haven t quite achieved Skinner s four-hour work day yet. This year our work quota is 45 hours a week. But our 45 -hour week includes tasks like child care, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, mowing the lawn all work we d be expected to do during our free time on the outside. We take work credit when we re sick, too, and quota is gradually reduced for older members as they age.
Every member is given close to three weeks of vacation time each year.
If we want more and most of us do we work over quota to earn it, like comp time. Every hour a member works over quota goes into a personal vacation balance, which is cumulative for the entire period of membership. We take our vacations whenever we like. Still, lowering quota is always a popular political issue at Twin Oaks, much like lowering taxes is on the outside. But while most of us would like to work less, few of us would like to take away hours or money from areas we care about.