Does the 4-day workweek really work?

First time I heard about 3-day weekends I was amazed!

It sounds crazy — Isn’t it?

Crazy is to be honest, an understatement.

The phrase is straightforward — 3 out of 7 weekdays are your weekend.

Before taking any step further:

There is no pay-cut for the work completed.

4-day workweek does mean, you still work 40 hours a week ;10 hours a day.

Best of all — the weekend is longer — it is 3 days!

How did this masterful idea come out?

Short work-hours has been afloat since the the early 1920’s — Bombed!

True enough, the trend was such, during the times of “Great Depression”, lead Industrialists focused on ways how to increase productivity and ended up owning to ideas such as 6-hour work shifts.

In the year of 1930, while battling out the Great Depression, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that we’d live in a 15-hour work week environment “within a hundred years.”

Hence,

It became a popular-fact since the times of “Great Depression” short work-hours made employees more productive.

Kudos to W. K. Kellogg and Henry Ford, the pioneers in initiating the idea into the minds of employers.

The idea was noble, and just as in the history many people were willing to take it up — Just as now, Excited!

So,

few common reasons as to,

Why did some employers focused on landing a 4-day work week for employment?

Questionable productivity

Needless to say, the effort people put in building things up is tiresome, most important, needed physical presence.

And, pioneer Industrialists like Henry Ford wanted to be sure the man-hours put in the work was effective and it made sense to be physically involved in the work.

Hence, he promoted the 4-day work week based employment, so his employees could get enough rest to function well and be productive in the 4-day work week.

Not that it was the talk of the town, but,

The 4-day work week had a sound impact on the mental well-being of employees.

Stats are discussed further below in the article!

Employees are not deemed to just work all days of the week — without being bothered about personal and inter-personal matters.

This eventually lead people up to being employed with stress — keep in mind, this was Industrial Revolution in full throttle.

Men and Women worked days in and out for a meager pay.

Most of the work had a high physical demand.

The people had a high tendency to fall ill. The most severe consequences had an terminal effect on employees as well.

And, the minor reasons as to why people needed a 4-day work week was quite evident.

But it did not have enough punch to be taken up. Hence,

End of Story…

It had good reasons to introduce, right people were supporting the argument…

So,

Why did the concept fail?

We’ll discuss later…

What progress has the 4-day work week concept made so far?

The concept has picked up quite the pace!

At least for now, it is music to ears.

Countries such as New Zealand, Japan and the most recent member of the club, Finland are working on different ways how the idea could be utilized to bring the most out of employees.

To give the concept more clarity universities around the world have conducted researches to make the idea fool-proof.

The results from an independent estate management firm, Perpetual Guardian, in 2018, using 240 employees showed,

• 24% more employees felt they could work it with work and personal lives without hassle.
• 7% reduction in stress across everyone involved in the survey.
• 5% increase in overall work satisfaction.

This was indeed a good remark!

And the idea is stuck in the mind’s of employees, employers, and government officials as well.

Similar researches conducted in the past few years, in few countries proved it is an idea that needs mass-scale testing with a potential to fully prosper.

Probably this is how Microsoft Japan landed testing the 4-day work week concept!

In addition to all benefits an employee could receive, the list below are supporting facts for the same argument.

Lower unemployment rates

Environmental benefits

Increased ties between teams

How can a company adapt a 4 day work week?

In my opinion,

Not all types of work environments will thrive adopting the 4-day work week.

The current context of work is an artful combination of, physically demanding jobs and on-site restful jobs.

The clarity an organization builds in their workload to shoot out the differences in how they achieve the work, could be the difference between success and failure of adapting a 4-day work week.

If it is for tech, the domain I work in,

Integrations in AI could be a massive pathfinder to initiate the 4-day work week.

And, in general, I’d say,

Automation could be a lead for companies to successfully focus on many paths to enter the new comfort-zone of employment.

Are 4-Day Work Weeks the Way of the Future?

Too many factors to look up to.

The buzz has drawn enough attention, responsible individuals are experimenting took look at the way-forward.

Getting along with the stats, the 4-day work week should be the way of the future.

With time, innovation and more automation across domains, 4-day work weeks can mark the territory.

Is the buzz actually around the corner?

Based on what I have read, heard, seen and experienced, I’d include the image below as my answer…

We are right at an important juncture — Pretty close.