Four day working week
15th November 2019
There’s been a lot of talk about the 4-day working week recently, in both the politics and business worlds. It’s an interesting idea: more productive working across 4 days to enable a 3-day weekend.
But is it realistic? We take a look at current research and case studies to find out.
Where does the 5-day week come from anyway?
The idea of the ‘weekend’ stems from the 1800’s, where factory workers had time off to attend church. However, it was Henry Ford that cemented the idea, permanently increasing his factory workers days off from 1 to 2, and adopting a 40-hour work week in the early 1900’s.
This was revolutionary at the time, but Ford was confident of increases in productivity and employee satisfaction. Manufacturers and companies across the world then followed suit and it has been the standard ever since.
Why reduce it?
In 2017/18 it was estimated that 15.4 million working days in the UK were lost due to work related stress and ill-health, which was over half of all days lost for ill-health. It is clear that stress and mental health is becoming an increasingly important issue within society, and many companies are unsure how to effectively tackle this.
A shorter working week, and a better work-life balance has been suggested as a way to help combat this. Alongside this, many companies are adopting a ‘if we can, we should’ mentality, hoping happier staff will stay with the company longer and work harder.
So, with an increase in flexible working and rapidly changing workplace trends, could now be the time to try it?
What have companies found?
> In August 2019, Microsoft Japan trialled the 4-day week and found it to be hugely beneficial. Across the month period productivity increased 40%, time off reduced 25% and overall employees were found to be much happier. However, Microsoft have no current plans to implement this policy permanently, with more research and trials in the pipeline.
> Shake Shack have been experimenting with a 4-day week in various locations since March, and while still in the trial period their CEO has said results seem promising so far.
> Big Potato, a UK based board games company moved from a flexible work culture to a more structured 4-day week and has stayed this way since, saying that employees are much more focussed, but the office atmosphere is different because of this.
> A software company, Wildbit, trialled taking Fridays off in 2017. Since then they have reworked the format to adjust for busier times of year, mixing up days off between Monday and Friday to ensure consistent service coverage. They found that being challenged to do more in less time made them more productive and creative. They also plan to experiment with working shorter 5-day weeks in winter, the reverting back to a 4-day week in summer.
> Treehouse, an American educational company trialled a shorter week in 2015 and found that it actually harmed the business and reduced work ethic amongst employees, so removed the policy shortly after.
It’s hard to deny the mostly impressive results from companies who’ve tried it – but with few longer-term studies it’s hard to properly predict what effects this would have.
What do the experts say?
Research on the idea is mixed. According to YouGov, 63% of Britons support the idea. Some have even suggested it could help to reduce gender disparities in the workplace.
As caring responsibilities that traditionally fall to women are able to be conducted more in their free time, and not at the expense of their work. While the obvious benefits of productivity, happier workers and a better work-life balance are all positive, there is certainly scepticism.
Research found that the risk of exhaustion across the 4 days worked may be higher, as some would inevitably end up working the same hours just across fewer days.
An obvious downside is that even with the technology we have today, some industries simply need 24/7 involvement, or a more structured work week.
For example, teaching and the service industry cannot just be made more productive – it’s not that simple. Critics also suggest it may lead to a more polarised society. Where the highly skilled, salaried workers reap the rewards of innovation but lower-skilled workers who rely on their hours to pay the bills are left worse off and more stressed.
Ultimately, it seems that for now the answer is unclear. For some industries it could work, and it has been proven to work successfully at least in the short term. Yet, in industries reliant upon public interactions and real-time changes it seems very unrealistic currently.
However, it’s important to remember that just because an idea is new and challenging does not mean it’s wrong – as we’re sure Henry Ford would agree.
Here are some interesting reads:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49672757
15th November 2019