Next six months could set a new pace for work-life balance
- Reference: 1654621518
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/06/07/4day_work_week/
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In the UK, a 70-company trial program the BBC [1]described as "the world's biggest" began this week, with participants paying their employees a regular week's pay for 80 percent of the labor. That pilot may be the largest, but it's hardly the only one.
Some companies have opted to trial the four-day week on their own, like Dell, which recently [2]switched to a shortened week in the Netherlands after previously trialing it in Argentina.
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Kickstarter put its team on four-day weeks [6]in March , while ecommerce platform Bolt adopted it [7]permanently in January.
The broader UK four-day week trial takes place across six months stretching from June to December this year, with 3,000 workers from across the country taking part, including a few from [8]Canon's UK arm .
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Beacon, a London-based CRM company participating in the trial, said there's mounting evidence that four-day work weeks make employees more productive. "Turns out, our happiness and productivity doesn't positively correlate with the number of hours spent at our desks," Beacon CTO David Simpson [10]wrote .
Why now?
It's hard to miss repeated headlines about the changing nature of work since the coronavirus pandemic upended society two years ago. Most of the news has centered on return-to-office [11]initiatives and their [12]failures , but a four-day week had been a topic of discussion for some time prior to the pandemic.
A 2019 Microsoft trial of the four-day work week in Japan resulted in a 40 percent increase in productivity, the company [13]said . Iceland's trials ran from 2015 to 2019, but measured results weren't published until [14]2021 , further pushing the four-day week into the spotlight at the same time as returning to the office became a hot topic.
The [15]4 Day Week Global initiative, a non-profit convern that's one of the organizations behind the current six-month four-day work week trial in Britain, may also have something to do with the surge of interest. Founded in 2018, the non-profit is running pilot programs in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and offers support to companies considering the shift. Brit thinktank Autonomy, Boston College in the US, and the British universities of Oxford and Cambridge are also backing the UK initiative.
[16]Half of bosses out of touch with reality, study shows
[17]Only 29% of techies truly want to stay in current job
[18]Amazon CEO: Directors and team leaders will determine return to work policy for white collar workers
[19]Biggest takeaway from pandemic lockdowns for Microsoft? Teams stopped talking to each other
[20]Global pandemic was good for business, say UK infosec pros – but we're still burning out
According to 4 Day Week Global's [21]research , job performance was maintained with a four-day work week, while stress levels dropped and work/life balance improved significantly, rising from 54 percent to 78 percent who were satisfied with theirs.
Additionally, in the current economic climate 63 percent of businesses surveyed by 4 Day Week Global found it easier to attract and [22]retain employees after switching to a four-day work week.
"You can be 100 percent productive in 80 percent of the time in many workplaces, and companies adopting this around the world have shown that," 4 Day Week Global lead researcher and Boston College economist Juliet Schor [23]told the BBC . Schor said workers across industries are discovering that their days are filled with unproductive activities that can easily be cut without harming the business.
Not all businesses will be a good fit for the four-day week: Schor said industries like health care and teaching, where staff is already stretched thin and overworked, wouldn't be able to adapt to a four-day model.
There is, however, the pesky challenge of operational transformation. If executed poorly, a four-day week experiment could [24]further burden those with an already overloaded schedule.
Economist and Institute of Economic Affairs fellow Julian Jessop told the BBC he's skeptical of the four-day work week for what looks to be no other reason than simple math: "You'd have to become 25 percent more productive per day," he said. ®
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[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61570021
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/4day_workweek/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yp-KiSzy3Shit7JAZaYIqQAAAJI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yp-KiSzy3Shit7JAZaYIqQAAAJI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yp-KiSzy3Shit7JAZaYIqQAAAJI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://time.com/6161220/kickstarter-ceo-aziz-hasan-four-day-workweek/
[7] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/the-4-day-workweek-becomes-permanent-for-tech-company-bolt.html
[8] https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jan/16/canon-uk-arm-trial-four-day-week-pilot-shorter-working
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yp-KiSzy3Shit7JAZaYIqQAAAJI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.beaconcrm.org/blog/beacon-switching-to-four-day-work-week
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/06/google_omicron_lockdown/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/03/apple_return_to_the_office/
[13] https://www.npr.org/2019/11/04/776163853/microsoft-japan-says-4-day-workweek-boosted-workers-productivity-by-40
[14] https://en.alda.is/2021/07/04/going-public-icelands-journey-to-a-shorter-working-week/
[15] https://www.4dayweek.com/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/16/microsoft_work_trends_index/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/09/gartner_only_29pc_of_it/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/12/amazon_ceo_tells_corporate_workforce/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/09/microsoft_crossteam_conversations/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/08/ciisec_state_uk_infosec_report/
[21] https://www.4dayweek.com/access-white-paper
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/tech_layoff_hiring/
[23] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61570021
[24] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220322-the-realities-of-the-four-day-workweek
[25] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: I already do a 4 day week
I did until I couldn't anymore.
When I first started consulting and I'd fly out Monday morning and fly back Thursday evening I would get roughly 2x8 and 2x12 days for a 40 hour week. I might get a phone call or have a couple emails on Friday but all consultants were working those hours so Friday was sort of a day for the full time staff to do stuff that didn't involve me. Or at least I wasn't there so out of sight, out of mind I guess.
Once I stopped traveling (after the 2008 recession) and clients were comfortable with having me telecommute full time it was impossible to maintain a 4 day week, because Friday is just another day when everyone else is working. So I was sort of forced to regress to a 5 day week, because people will always try to schedule you for meetings on Fridays and expect timely responses on emails sent on Friday. I gave up fighting against it and worked the way everyone else was.
Re: I already do a 4 day week
Some of this mainly the 9x80 week, was operating in Calgary (as I stated the other week) in the Oil & Gas Industries, which made for a relaxing commute on Fridays for the remainder who were working.
A UK company I worked for missed a trick on this reduced working hours, as we had to take a lunch break then return for 1hr 35 mins work on Friday afternoon. Most staff wound down after 2pm, if they weren't already suffering from post lunch apathy (not pub related) & wouldn't take on any work that was liable to work them to clocking out time.
The year they decided that no raises could be given an idea that was mooted was to work through to the normal lunchtime & finish at one, improving moral, reducing hours, which would have been equivalent to a 4.23% raise for very little impact on overall productivity.
Missing the point
The detached CEOs planning their moves from private jets after taking young blood transfusion to cure hangover from 3 days coke bender in Magaluf do not grasp that you can't do effective work in a noisy open plan office where you have no choice but "brainstorm" and then fight going into coma after having yet another organic poached chicken avocado salad.
It's the suffering of managers, that they can't show off their new Gucci suit or ostentatiously throw keys to their new Tesla at their desk and moan how buying Twitter shares was a bad idea.
They realise how their lives are empty. There is nobody to yell at after they spotted someone looking at Reddit rather than VSCode. And things are delivered on time.
They feel useless.
And that beautiful statement office. Posh coffee machines that you need a PhD to operate, have not produced a single drop in months.
And you can't get "the gang" to the club after work and buy everyone drinks so they have to pretend they like you...
I mean it's not a rocket science. If you can't get someone to do something it means you don't pay them enough. You can try some elaborate schemes to trick some workers into giving up their freedom for less, but it will only work for so long.
That ship has sailed...
A 4 day week at scale, it will be great at first. But humans being humans will figure out how to be slack at times, people aren't robots. Eventually you will have a workforce working 80% of the usual time who have worked out how to slacken off a bit on the days they do work. So then it becomes a management problem to incentivise etc. Just like it should already be.
I still believe the future is WFH. This shuffling to and from an office to operate the same computer you use at home is laughable.
Brit thinktank Autonomy, Boston College in the US, and the British universities of Oxford and Cambridge are also backing the UK initiative.
Imagine how many meetings, presentations, banquets, trips across the world this genius idea must have taken... a small army of people, paid for by whom? Who benefits? Surely they don't do this because they want to improve workers' lives...
Say goodbye to any pay rises or bonuses.
I'm now on 5 days full work from home. However the cynic in me thinks that at some point some businesses will realise they don't need as many employees or just fire and rehire. The way business may eventually look at it is why pay for 5 days when they can pay for 4 and still get all the work done.
The current suggestion is to work 4 days, but still pay for 5. That either means expecting 4x10-hour days, or the equivalent of a 20% pay rise for 4x8. I'm sure, as others have noted, that people will soon realise that 4x10 is unsustainable and (especially when WFH) will drift back to 4x8, wiping out these imaginary productivity gains. Just look at France's 35-hour week fiasco that they've been trying to reverse for years.
Interesting idea
I have a feeling that it is an idea whose time has come. After all, the unions fought for Saturday off and (then) 48 hour weeks in the early years of the last century. So instead of 'that Friday feeling' you will have that Thursday vibe!
Here is another idea, back when pension schemes were more valuable than they are now one I knew of had a facility where you could start winding down your working week a few years before normal pension age. A colleague I knew went from 5 to 4 and then 3 days a week till he finally chucked it in. Perhaps that is something that could be widened out.
I am still a few years off being able to hang up my work email.
40 hour weeks?
I thought most people where on 35-39 hour weeks these days? My working week dropped to 39 then 38 hours per week when I worked for the local town council about 40 years ago. Before I left that job, we changed to a 4 day week shift pattern of 2x9 + 2x10, the business operated 9am-7pm, 6 days per week. Current job is 5x7.5hrs.
Re: 40 hour weeks?
I'm surprised by the apparent normalcy of 40 hours too. I've been on 37.5 hr weeks across 3 different jobs / industries since graduating in 2010, just with different philosophies of how to spread that time across the week (e.g. 4x8 + 1x5.5 or 5x7.5). All UK jobs but parent companies have been US or Canadian based.
I already do a 4 day week
We have a choice of a a regular 5 day week, a 9x80 week where you work 9 hours a day, and then 8 hours every other Friday, or just 4x10, where you work 10 hours a day for 4 days.
I was doing 10 hour days anyway since that's what happens when I concentrate to get things done. A 3-day weekend is really useful, and lets me get things done at home too. I absolutely love it.
Now if we can just get rid of the fucking daylight saving shit too.