The Largest Ever 4-Day Work Week Experiment Is Happening Now
Publié le 10 June 2022
The largest ever 4-day work week experiment is happening now, with employers and employees in multiple industries working together to attempt positive changes in the workplace.
What Is The 4-Day Work Week Experiment?
Organized by the non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global, this pilot program involves more than 3,300 employees working in over 70 different companies in the United Kingdom. This makes it the largest ever 4-day work week experiment of its kind. The goal of this 4-day work week experiment is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed 100-80-100 model: 100% of their salary, for 80% of the traditional work week while maintaining 100% of their productivity.
The pilot program officially launched on June 6th, 2022, and will run for a 6-month period. 4 Day Week Global has partnered with labour think tanks and researchers from Cambridge and Oxford in the UK and Boston University in the United States in order to analyze the results and draw informed conclusions about the program’s effectiveness. The goal is to further explore and highlight the benefits of a 4-day work week.
What Is A 4-Day Work Week?
A 4-day work week is exactly what it sounds like: employees work during 4 days of the week instead of the traditional 5-day work week, such as Monday-Thursday instead of Monday-Friday. The 4-day work week often takes one of two different structures:
- 1 – Employees work the typical 36-40 hours of a full-time 5-day work week, meaning longer working hours on each of the 4 days in order to complete the same amount of work.
- 2 – Employees work a typical 8 hours on 4 days of the week, receiving the same salary as in a traditional 5-day work week in exchange for maintaining an agreed upon rate of productivity.
The Short History Of The 5-Day Work Week
The modern Monday to Friday 5-day work week has its roots in 1926 when the Ford Motor Company began shutting down its factories on Saturday and Sunday. Other organizations followed suit and after advocacy from supporters the 5-day work week became American law in 1940, leading Canada, the UK and other nations to follow shortly. It has now been the standard work week in multiple countries and industries for over 80 years, but that has recently been more and more called into question.
Flexibility In The Work Week
The pandemic raised many concerns about the traditional nature of work, and forced employers and employees to adapt quickly to alternative arrangements. With millions of people changing to working from home, many have found that they prefer flexible working arrangements than the traditional 40 hour work. Hybrid working arrangements are more popular among a majority of working professionals, who primarily cite the benefits for their work-life balance as a primary reason. A 4-day work week stands as another possible arrangement that would provide more flexibility in the lives of professionals.
The Benefits of 4-Day Work Week
Less Wasted Hours
How many hours of work does the average person complete in a day? The obvious answer is eight hours, but this has been shown to be inaccurate. Recent studies have shown that there are as little as three hours of actual productive work completed during a standard eight hour work day. This is impacted by the sheer amount of distractions presented in the workplace, ranging from talking with colleagues, unproductive meetings and answering the dozens of emails the average professional receives in a day.
There is actually evidence that a reduced work week can boost productivity. Microsoft Japan famously experienced a 40% increase in productivity when they switched to a 4-day work week. For other organizations who have experienced productivity boosts, the elimination of unnecessary time wasters allowed people to focus and produce optimal work in a more limited time frame.
Improved Work-Life Balance
The main priority of a majority of workers is improving their ability to balance their professional career and their personal life. They say that the traditional structure of the work has not been providing them with the balance they need. A 40 (or more) hour work week, combined with long commute times and the increasingly blurred line between work hours and non-work hours, leaves many people with little worthwhile time with their families and friends. An extra day would provide a tremendous boost in the amount of time people can spend with families and friends, along with providing a mental break to help avoid overwork and employee burnout.
Happier Employees
The past two years have seen the important conversation surrounding mental well-being and the workplace grow much larger. The pandemic undoubtedly has had negative effects on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of people working in all sectors. Many people are now making their well-being a priority, with numerous organizations echoing this commitment. A 4-day work week could play a major role in reducing workplace stress and cutting down on long working hours for the benefit of employees. Even if the number of working hours remains the same, with extended working hours on the 4 working days, the increased time for rest away from the workplace can still have positive benefits.
Better For The Company
The potential benefits of a 4-day work week don’t stop with improving the personal lives of working professionals, but can even provide benefits for employers and organizations as a whole. With a workforce that feels cared for and able to balance their lives, it stands to reason that they will be able to produce their best work and be more productive with a restructuring of the work week.
It will also help employers recruitment and retain the best job candidates. With many job seekers stating they would choose a job with a flexible schedule over one with a larger salary and many employees leaving their current role for one who offers more flexibility, it’s clear that increased control of their team will be an employee expectation companies will need to address in a satisfactory manner. A 4-day work week can appeal to job seekers who want the ability to maintain an improved balance, bring their high qualifications into the workplace and move it forward towards success.
The 4-Day Work Week Is Not Just For Office Workers
One of the main criticisms of a proposed 4-day work week is that it will only apply to people working in certain types of job roles. Opponents point out that of the millions of people who transitioned to remote work during the pandemic, many who did so were employed in office-based jobs. It is true that not every single job can be performed remotely, and there are some businesses that will need to operate more than 4 days a week, but it may not be as clear cut as some might think.
One of the highlighted aims of the UK pilot program launched by 4 Day Week Global is to demonstrate that a 4-day work week can be implemented in many different job sectors besides a traditional office. Of the 70+ companies participating in the program, they work in a variety of sectors including education, housing development, recruitment, digital marketing and the food and beverage industry. There is even a fish and chip restaurant working as part of the pilot program, demonstrating the model’s potential effectiveness in a variety of industries.
Coming Soon To A Workplace Near You?
The desire for a restructuring of the workplace is not going away and, in fact, it is actually growing. Experts have estimated that 25% of all jobs in North America will be fully remote by the end of 2023. There is no reason to think that this number will not continue to grow.
The UK pilot program is not the only one of its kind in the works. 4 Day Week Global is already preparing to launch similar programs in multiple countries, including the United States and Canada. Other organizations, businesses and even entire municipal governments in Canada have already implemented 4-day work weeks with positive results.
For the moment, the implementation of a 4-day work week remains in the hands of employers and business owners. The most qualified and skillful job seekers appear ready to continue to push for more control, balance and flexibility between their personal lives and professional careers. If employers want to hire the right people to move their businesses into the future and achieve great results, it’s clear that changes to the work week itself may be in order for the benefit of everyone.
