4-Day Workweek

[HoosierHoopster 6,028]

So the 4-day workweek idea is getting a new push and seems to be gaining traction. There've been studies over recent years and most recently the UK ran a pilot with dozens of companies participating (I believe they're all small to mid-sized), and it's being reported now that the results were so strong that most of those companies are implementing it going forward.

The 9-5 Mon-Fri thing is starting to sound random and out-dated. Why 5 days? Kind of interesting factoid, it was Henry Ford who reduced Ford's then 6-day workweek to 5 without changing compensation, with the idea the workers would be more productive, and then also have more time to go out and spend money. It worked. Thanks, Henry. So now we have this ingrained 5-day work schedule, but with technology gains / computing, bots starting to be integrated, online work, and the whole Covid WFH - now becoming part of mainstream work, is the idea of a 4-day workweek in the US a legit possibility? 

I can say that most firms like mine would say no f'*** way, because we're an hourly-based industry and tied to court schedules etc. But there are already pretty standard 9-80 work schedules (80 hours in 9 days get every other Friday off) for example, and with remote work and lots of ways to measure productivity, not to mention that employee retention and growth is now ridiculously difficult and that's another possible way to get employee happiness, I can see possibilities. 

[Chris007 42,066]

4 minutes ago, HoosierHoopster said:

So the 4-day workweek idea is getting a new push and seems to be gaining traction. There've been studies over recent years and most recently the UK ran a pilot with dozens of companies participating (I believe they're all small to mid-sized), and it's being reported now that the results were so strong that most of those companies are implementing it going forward.

The 9-5 Mon-Fri thing is starting to sound random and out-dated. Why 5 days? Kind of interesting factoid, it was Henry Ford who reduced Ford's then 6-day workweek to 5 without changing compensation, with the idea the workers would be more productive, and then also have more time to go out and spend money. It worked. Thanks, Henry. So now we have this ingrained 5-day work schedule, but with technology gains / computing, bots starting to be integrated, online work, and the whole Covid WFH - now becoming part of mainstream work, is the idea of a 4-day workweek in the US a legit possibility? 

I can say that most firms like mine would say no f'*** way, because we're an hourly-based industry and tied to court schedules etc. But there are already pretty standard 9-80 work schedules (80 hours in 9 days get every other Friday off) for example, and with remote work and lots of ways to measure productivity, not to mention that employee retention and growth is now ridiculously difficult and that's another possible way to get employee happiness, I can see possibilities. 

I just read this thread on Twitter about this yesterday. Some offices here at IU do it already and love it. 

 

[JSHoosier 19,559]

I can see some companies allowing more remote work or do some sort of hybrid.  COVID has shown that some rules do not need to be in office, I've been working exclusively from home since I've been with the company.

I don't know if the 4 day work week would catch on but it'd be nice, I've read studies show workers are just as productive.

[Hovadipo 52,926]

I went from a job where working as much as you could fit into a full 7-day week (and then being "on call" when you went home) was the goal to a job with the 9-80 schedule and it quite literally changed my life. It actually made me a better person. Thankful that my generation is leading the push for change to an inefficient work model.

[Demo 17,327]

I went to 4 days about 6 months ago when I decided to throttle back my career. Hands down, no question about it, the best decision I’ve made in a long time. Absolutely life-changing. Mental and physical health is miles better. And I look forward to my time in the office now in a way that I hadn’t in a long while.

[NashvilleHoosier 3,634]

I love this conversation and I love that it's becoming more of a reality. I've always been jealous of many aspects of European work culture and rolled my eyes at the general American perception that it was akin to poor work ethic. I'm lucky enough to work for a small tech company that's been around for over 20 years and very stable in the industry we serve. We have few rules but the rules we have encompass a lot. Operate with empathy, be accountable, and give us your best 40 hours. No more. We don't monitor vacation time, just get your job done and take the time off you need. We have incredible, generally unheard of benefits. They take care of us, and it leads to everyone buying into those principles I listed. It works for us. We've talked about the 32 hour work week and I truly believe it's probably not that far off. And it wouldn't be a difficult shift for many folks I work with b/c we're already accustomed to operating in this manner of knowing what your most important work is, prioritizing that, and getting your job done knowing other people are counting on you to do so. I could do my job in 32 hours. Doesn't mean I don't have to work extra hours some times, b/c I do. But we also allow and encourage an openness that I've never experienced in any other job. If we screw up, it's expected that you speak up and own it, and we just find a way to fix it and move forward. No uncomfortable covering your tracks and trying to not make it look that bad. When I interview people I explicitly say, please be yourself, and that might sound cliche but what I mean is I want to interview and get to know YOU. Not the over-professionalized interview version of you. We've hired several people in roles where they don't have any previous experience doing what we hired them to do (generally non-technical roles) because we got to know who exactly that person is, how they think, how they approach certain situations, are they curious in the right ways, etc. I've told my wife if someone reached out to me about an opportunity that sounded interesting, one of my very first questions is going to be, "let's say my daughter has a dance recital at 3:30 at school, and a client asks for a call at the same time. What should I do?" If their answer insinuates in any way that I should take the client call and miss my daughter's recital I'm going to respectfully let them know I don't want to waste any of their time because I'm going to my daughter's recital every single time. I'm rambling here, in part b/c I'm passionate about it. But to come back full circle, I think the 32 hour work week would be great, and achievable, but it will also need to be accompanied with some fundamental mindset changes that a loooooot of companies are not ready to embrace.

[Loaded Chicken Sandwich 8,182]

I'm about to go to 2 days... But that's only because the lady running the daycare is retiring and another lady in town is retiring... And you can't find a day are within a couple months. And with how expensive it is, it ends up basically equaling out. Which is wild. But I get to be Mr. Mom for a little while. 

[RaceToTheTop 23,572]

2 hours ago, Loaded Chicken Sandwich said:

I'm about to go to 2 days... But that's only because the lady running the daycare is retiring and another lady in town is retiring... And you can't find a day are within a couple months. And with how expensive it is, it ends up basically equaling out. Which is wild. But I get to be Mr. Mom for a little while. 

I stopped coaching when it was going to cost more to hire a babysitter than I would have received from coaching.  No reason to sacrifice family time and lose money to boot.

[bigrod 2,784]

I have worked for a couple companies over the last 10 years, and both utilize the 4 day work week, but only for people who work on the production floor. For some reason, they both seem reluctant to push it to the people who work in the office, which is too bad. I have brought it up, but it seems to be something that they don't believe will work, for whatever reason.

I am nearing retirement age in a few years, and have always thought that instead of going immediately into retirement, I'd like to just cut back for a few years. I think I could easily work another decade if this 32 hour concept would catch on.

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

My company has been considering it for some time. With 3 different options. Main issue is needing to balance. We can’t have one day of the week where we get nothing done. 
 

Creating 3 shifts. Mon-thurs. wed-sat and mon, tues, fri and sat would solve the issue but virtually impossible to get the people to work the other two shifts. 
 

if we could figure out how to manage our incoming volume better we could probably just run skeleton crews on the other shifts but still working towards that. But I would love a mon-thurs work week.  So much stuff to get done around the house would be awesome to be able to do it while the kiddo was at school 

[reconmkd 4,169]

I have been working a compressed schedule for the last 7 years similar to the 9-80 with a little structure. Basically the first week is 4-9s and an 8, Second week 4-9s and an off day. Love having my off day as it is nice to schedule appointments or just be able to go somewhere that closes before you would normally get home. Only issue for me is the added commute, to avoid traffic I am getting up at 5am and usually not getting home till 4:30-5pm. So on my 9 hour days, they are pretty much a wash for getting anything accomplished, especially if one of the kids has an activity after school. Also, 9pm games suck on those days as well, lol.

[OliviaPope40 6,295]

I love working from home most people I know work from the home. We have nurses who during the pandemic were working from home and were told they couldn't continue working home due to the financial costs and that they had to be in our practices even though they don't work for our physicians. We have the option to do hybrid or work from home full time. I think it'll be a while before some companies embrace that idea. The dentist I go to her office does a four day work week and doesn't do Friday appointments.

[RaceToTheTop 23,572]

As I teach, any thoughts to year round school?  Not necessarily talking about an increase in the number of weeks kids are in schools, but rather additional week breaks during the school year and a shorter summer?  My sister also teaches and they have more of a year round -- after each quarter they have a week break and which results in a three week shorter summer break.

[HoosierHoopster 6,028]

Good discussion and perspectives from different lines of work.

At my firm we emphasize work-life balance, we’re hourly based so hours matter but our approach is if your focus is taking care of your clients and cases/matters the hours will come naturally, I’m a litigator and I don’t work weekends unless I have a trial or other need, I’ve taken to mostly working through lunch and leaving by 4:30, I don’t place any time demands on my associates, don’t tell them to come in on Saturday etc, and we go out of our way to give plenty of vacation time, family time, allow them to WFH if they have something going on or just don’t feel up to coming in etc. 

It wasn’t that long ago we all had to wear suits every day in the office (generational), it’s kind of silly sitting in your office at a computer in a suit, just because. So my generation (Gen X) has slowly moved things to a business cas office environment, more family time, family leave for everyone, generally emphasize work-life balance, and we’re more productive as a firm while being much more comfortable, less stressed, happier in the office.

We’re nowhere near a 4-day week in law, but to me that’s just because. It’s ingrained in our profession to work as much as possible. It’s the next step imo, I could be just as productive working 4 days, question for my profession is can we be as profitable, and that can be pushed by moving away from the billable hour to flat fee billing, hybrid billing and other alternatives to that big green billable hour. I’d like to see it happen 

[Golfman25 4,652]

Does it really matter -- most of these millennials don't "work" a full day anyway even if they're in the office.  :)  

But I guess if you just want a paycheck and work for the man, go with your 4 day workweek.  The entrepreneurs and high achievers are working 24/7, 365 days.  I myself have transitioned to half days -- 12 hours.  :)  

One thing though.  Don't forget you better be paying into my social security -- going to need to really up the workload for that.  Thanks.  

[Naturalhoosier 15,353]

16 hours ago, RaceToTheTop said:

As I teach, any thoughts to year round school?  Not necessarily talking about an increase in the number of weeks kids are in schools, but rather additional week breaks during the school year and a shorter summer?  My sister also teaches and they have more of a year round -- after each quarter they have a week break and which results in a three week shorter summer break.

I have a coworker in North Carolina and they’ve been doing year round for years. She says she loves it. They get 3-4 weeks off between sessions (quarters/semesters). Plus the usual holiday breaks. 

[ALASKA HOOSIER 11,169]

i believe we should all work 8 days a week. suck it slackers!

[fwgreenway 474]

4 hours ago, ALASKA HOOSIER said:

i believe we should all work 8 days a week. suck it slackers!

'Eight days a week

Is not enough to show I care....

Hold me, love me

Hold me, love me'

 

[HoosierAloha 29,887]

4 hours ago, ALASKA HOOSIER said:

i believe we should all work 8 days a week. suck it slackers!

 

3 minutes ago, fwgreenway said:

'Eight days a week

Is not enough to show I care....

Hold me, love me

Hold me, love me'

 

Don't fault him his brain has yet to fully thaw.

#cabinthinking

[bigrod 2,784]

12 hours ago, ALASKA HOOSIER said:

i believe we should all work 8 days a week. suck it slackers!

Mods - does this warrant at least a suspension??? I find this offensive!