The 4-day work week is the latest workplace initiative and topic of conversation. A number of big companies are testing this new working pattern including Royal Society of Biology, Yo Telecom and Amplitude.
Let’s delve into what the 4-day work week actually is and if it works.
What is a 4-day work week?
You may already know someone that works compressed hours and as such works 35 hours over 4 days. A 4-day work week isn’t the same as a compressed work schedule, but instead reduced hours. So, the employee would work around 28 hours over four days and have a three-day weekend.
It might seem like a drastic idea, but we’ve gradually been reducing the number of hours worked within a typical work week since the late 19th century. The creation of the weekend is still cited as a proud achievement in trade union history. In 1842 a campaign group called the Early Closing Association was formed. It lobbied the government to keep Saturday afternoon free for worker leisure in return for a full day’s work on Monday.
In 1890, the United States government estimated that a full-time employee within a manufacturing plant worked an average of 100 hours a week. By the mid-20th century, manufacturing employees only worked 40 hours a week. So reducing our work week to 28 hours isn’t nearly as radical.
What are the benefits of a 4-day work week?
An in-depth examination of this topic by Sanford University found that overworked employees are actually less productive than employees working an average or normal working week.
New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian conducted a trial 4-day work week study. They found that not only did employees maintain the same productivity levels but they also improved in job satisfaction and reduced stress levels by around 7%.
Furthermore, some of the world’s most productive countries like Norway, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands have employees working an average of around 27 hours per week. These are the same hours as are currently being proposed in the UK by institutions and employees.
A summary of the benefits of a 4-day work week…
- Maintained productivity at a minimum with some studies finding increased productivity
- Increasing equality in the workplace as employees would have more time to spend with their families outside of working hours
- Smaller employee and company carbon footprint
- Better employee engagement and concentration
What are the disadvantages of a 4-day work week?
Some wrongly confuse a 4-day work week with compressed hours. In fact, some studies have found that employees working the same amount of hours but over 4 days instead of 5 decrease in productivity.
Some companies have experienced negative effects on customer satisfaction e.g. Utah Study, when customers complained they were unable to access government services with offices closed on a Friday.
However this could be solved in a number of ways. A company could have some employees working Monday – Thursday and others Tuesday – Friday to ensure working hours are covered for communications with other companies not adopting a 4-day work week. Or automated chatbots and AI-powered websites are becoming increasingly popular to satisfy customer needs and enquiries.
In conclusion
Today a 4-day work week is very realistically adoptable by companies who want to meet employees’ wants of this new working structure. The benefits demonstrated by past and on-going studies show there are a wide-variety of benefits for both the company and employees in adopting a 4-day work week. And the disadvantages are usually those that can be overcome by a company committed to making the change.
