Is the Four-Day Work Week Inevitable?
The four-day workweek has been gaining traction in recent years, with more and more companies considering it to improve work-life balance and increase productivity. The idea has instant appeal. After all, who wouldn’t want an extra day off every week? So eventually we're all doing this, right? Read on and we'll talk about the pros and cons of that extra day off.
What Does the Future of Work Look Like?
In 2022, the U.K. did a pilot program with the nonprofit organization 4 Day Week Global. Almost 3,000 people at 60 companies across multiple industries participated from June to December, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. People felt more rested, worked faster, and experienced less burnout and stress. And while the four-day workweek isn’t a new phenomenon - hello, summer Fridays - it is absolutely picking up steam.
During the pandemic, companies began to offer their employees more flexibility to deal with the immediate need to homeschool children, take care of family members, and learn to work remotely if they hadn’t before. Battling burnout and offering employees more flexibility and rest were also top of mind for companies as we continued dealing with the pandemic in 2021. Industry leader HubSpot introduced a global week of rest, giving its team the entire week of July 4th off.
The combination of fighting burnout and offering more flexibility and choice are major drivers for introducing a four-day workweek. And there’s no specific way to do it. Some companies are choosing Fridays off. Others create staggered, flexible schedules to ensure ongoing service and support coverage for customers all five days of the week. Some companies offer reduced pay for fewer hours worked, while some employees are expected to work more in less time for the same pay.
We dug into some of the main pros and cons of this policy and approach and how they may impact your business.
Pro: Better mental health, less burnout
Longer hours and a five-day workweek can lead to burnout and increased stress. A shorter workweek can reduce these issues and lead to a happier and more satisfied team.
Con: Increased workload for less pay
One of the biggest concerns from workers is that their companies may still expect them to do a 40-hour workweek but in less time and may get reduced salaries to boot. This approach may still encourage burnout if employees feel forced to work longer hours to accomplish the work.
Pro: Competitive edge for talent acquisition and retention
Culture is a key driver for ensuring teams don’t experience burnout, and companies that offer a four-day workweek may gain an edge over those that don’t. Companies with thoughtful benefits and a proven tactic to avoid overwork and burnout will win over those without, especially if the pay compensation is competitive.
Con: Calendar Tetris and coordinating schedules
As services professionals, it can be difficult to adhere to client needs and schedules if they are on a five-day workweek. Don’t work on Fridays? Great. What happens if your clients do and don’t want to wait until Monday to tackle a problem or complete a project? Abbreviated schedules can lead to impacted timelines and deadlines.
Pro: Greater productivity
In the U.K. experiment, most companies felt an uptick in team productivity. Employees were motivated to finish the work, and there were no lost downtime or issues. Many companies that participated decided not to go back to a five-day workweek.
Con: Who wants four days of meetings?
One of the biggest concerns for reducing the workweek by one day is the extra meetings crunch that may be put on a company’s workforce. Too many meetings are also a major cause of burnout and stress. Who can forget all the discussions about Zoom fatigue?
But let's face a very real fact, the world of work is changing more than just the number of days we log in. That's why in an upcoming issue we'll tackle the question, "Can AI make the four-day workweek an easier reality?" What do you think?