🤔 Four-day work week: a blessing or a curse?
A shorter work week might actually weigh heavier on employees, experts say.
In 1817, industrialist Robert Owen initiated the ‘eight-hour day movement’. He divided the 24 hours in a day into: 8 hours of labor, 8 hours of recreation, and 8 hours of rest. This formula is still currently used, but some factors—including the pandemic, have raised questions of whether it is the most effective in today’s workforce.
Almost two centuries later in 2018, an entrepreneur from New Zealand, Andrew Barnes, started a trial in his company Perpetual Guardian where they conducted a four-day work week for 6 weeks in total. The results have caused quite a buzz in the HR industry ever since.
It even led to New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, officiating a four-day workweek as a means to support work-life balance and tourism following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Damned if I do, damned if I don’t
As more big players in the industry implement their own four-day work week programs, more companies are now being faced with the option to follow suit. Will companies who refuse to go the four-day way get left behind, or will they survive just fine? Here are the overall benefits and risks of a four-day work week:
Benefits
Better work-life balance: allows employees to have time for personal errands such as visiting a doctor or travelling to see relatives.
Leads to innovation: helps employees to come up with new, better work procedures and best practices which continue the surge in productivity.
Tighter team bonds: fosters a culture of teamwork, as employees are likely to focus more on goal achievement and less on engaging in disputes.
Greater ecological impact: reduces carbon emissions as fewer people take the commute to work, with less busy offices accounting to smaller carbon footprint.
Risks
Customer satisfaction may suffer: customers accustomed to receiving personalized service every day of the week may feel unhappy.
Inapplicable for certain industries: some industries, such as healthcare and security, must maintain a 24-hour presence.
Increased work fatigue: employees might struggle to meet their weekly requirements in just 4 days, and find difficulty to switch back to working mode after a three-day hiatus.
Higher cost for companies: workers might still put in the same amount of time professionally each week, only now companies are responsible for paying the extra time as overtime wages.
Whether a company should go for a four-day work week definitely depends on the needs and goals of each company. Learn more about the risks and benefits of a shorter work week in the articles we’ve curated here and here.
The big players
Four-day work week has been gaining traction and has almost become a trend due to industry leaders taking their parts. Check out some of the most notable moves and shifts that have been made by the world’s renowned companies:
Panasonic Japan. Despite the country being known for its hustle culture, the conglomerate MNC has offered its employees the option of taking a four-day workweek.
Microsoft Japan has also experimented with a shorter work program, called the “Work-Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer”, where it gave its 2,300 employees the opportunity to choose a variety of flexible work styles.
Bolt, a fast-growing fintech unicorn, is also a follower of the four-day workweek movement, with its CEO betting on the belief that by taking good care of his team, they’ll happily outperform.
Uncharted converted to a four-day work week in 2020, implementing four eight-hour days hence delivering 100% of the work at 80% of the time.
Read more about the companies making their marks in this latest movement, and how governments have even started regulating it in the Forbes piece here.
Too bold of a move?
Though it seems intriguing, conducting a four-day work week seems daunting for many companies. It turns out that companies could actually achieve the benefits of having a four-day work week by implementing other less disruptive means, such as mandatory vacation.
There are a variety of mandatory vacation policies, including one where a company requires its employees to take off at least one week or five consecutive work days in a year. For at least once a year, the person should be out for an entire work week.
The benefits are similar to a four-day work week and even more promising:
Rejuvenates employees
Offers time for review
Encourages cross-training
Fosters a safe workplace
Helps with recruiting
Supports year-long planning
Find also the cons of mandatory vacation in the full article here.
It’s up to the company which alternative they deem to work better with their business model—a 4-day work week, a mandatory vacation policy, or a variety of either.
As an employee, which policy would you find more helpful in terms of work productivity? And, has your current company tried out any of the methods above? Tell us in the comments or shoot us a DM on Instagram with your thoughts and opinions!
In the meantime, we’ll get back to sourcing more insightful articles for you and get them ready for another Monday Mavens release next week.
Cheers!