In the United States,
people have aspired to achieve the American Dream for decades,
imagining white picket fences, a nice home, and stability for their descendants.
The way to reach
that goal has been to work hard in whatever career you choose to pursue.
And though many still feel like it's attainable,
some find that it has become harder and harder to reach.
It's been nearly 100 years since we adopted the 5-day workweek,
but it seems like this model is no longer sustainable for everyone.
With so many other countries
trying out strategies to improve work-life balance, we decided to ask:
Is there room for a shorter workweek in the rise and grind culture
of the U.S.?
Our history of scheduled
paid work didn't really start until the late 1800s when the U.S.
started to industrialize.
By the 1830s, factory workers were averaging up to 70 hours per week,
and with labor unions and community organizers fighting for changes,
government regulation became a necessity.
Working these long shifts was grueling, but it was maintained
under the promise that it would all be worth it someday.
Boasting freedom and opportunity, America fostered an economic mindset
that encouraged hard work, which often meant long hours at work.
In 1840, President Martin Van Buren issued an executive order
requiring a 10-hour day for all federal employees engaged in manual work.
In 1869, nearly 30 years later, President Ulysses S. Grant
issued a proclamation that mandated an 8-hour workday,
and though this is still only applied to government employees,
the private sector followed suit in the coming decades.
Remember, we're still not at a 5-day workweek at this point,
so we're still averaging about 50 hours a week dedicated to working.
By 1926, the Ford Motor Company made an unforgettable
change by implementing a 5-day workweek.
This change occurred nearly a hundred years ago,
and despite vast technological developments,
it's still the standard we see today.
So are we ready for another change?
People are stressed and burned out by work,
and 2 days of a weekend
is not enough for them to recover from the workweek, to do the work
that they need to do in their households, and to have some time for themselves.
That's Juliet Schor, an economist.
She sits on the academic board of the 4 Day Week Global,
an organization that funds research into 4-day
workweek practices and the future of work and workplace well-being.
Juliet works with companies from a variety of sectors and tests out
a 4-day workweek model with them.
The companies that we have been working
with are on what's called the 100:80:100 model,
which is people get 100% of their pay, but they work 80% of the time.
So it's not 4 10-hour days, it's 4 [8-hour days],
typically a 32-hour week,
100% of the pay, i.e., a 5-day week pay
And the other hundred is the expectation that the companies
will be able to engineer out basically 20% of wasted time
so that people can be as productive in the 4 days as they were in the 5.
We have something like mid-90% of companies
who are continuing with the 4-day week after they start it.
And I think that's, you know, in the end, the most valuable
piece of information about whether these trials are working.
In a recent quarterly survey
by Slack's Future Forum, it found that approximately 42% of U.S.
office workers 'feel burned out at work,' and employees who are dissatisfied
with their level of flexibility
at work are 43% more likely to say they feel burned out at work
than those who are satisfied with their level of flexibility.
So if Juliet's studies are working, and less working hours will help with burnout,
what are some of the hurdles with implementing this across the U.S.?
Americans love to work.
Work is the new religion,
and by religion I mean it's something that we really center our lives around.
It's where most of our friends come from.
It's where we get a sense of meaning and personal identity.
That's Lindsey Cameron,
a professor that has studied work and the culture around it for decades.
And so it's actually just hard for me, you know, when we compare,
like, the culture of Americans vs. the culture of people, you know, in Europe
or the UK—that there's, there, I think, there's a much greater distinction
between the home, the domestic sphere, and the work sphere that we don't have
in the same way in the United States.
We really are a culture of overwork.
So to think about a shift into a 4-day workweek
would really challenge, like, our our cultural paradigm.
There's also been dozens of debates on
if a 4-day workweek model could work across every industry.
There's certain types of jobs in which, you know, you need someone there
on demand, you know, 5 days a week, 7 days a week.
Think about teachers, or nurses, or plumbers.
And so to say, you know,
can you have a 4-day workweek across all jobs, across all of America?
You know, it's too broad of a statement because it really is job-specific.
4 Day Week Global's
most recent 4-day week pilot
included 61 different companies across 11 different industries,
though roughly half of the industries were technology-facing
and corporate companies, where implementing a shorter week is assumed to be easier.
It's also worth
noting that a majority of these companies were small, with less than 50 employees,
so when we compare this study to the entire U.S.
there are definitely some gaps.
In January 2023, Rep. Mark Takano got a lot of attention
when he proposed amending the Fair Labor Standards Act
to reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32.
You think about how the bill for reparations was actually put forth,
you know, every year for, you know, decades.
And reparations are not something
that our country has done yet for African Americans.
But it had a lot of symbolic value in that
it kept this conversation going.
And I think in a—around the 4-day workweek,
there's a similar ethos that was behind putting forward the bill.
And so I think by proposing bills like that,
it brings it into the conversation so more people can think about it
and can experiment with it.
While many countries across
the globe have implemented a shorter workweek with great success,
the idea of a 4-day workweek
might still seem like a far-off dream for many in the U.S.
The evidence suggests that it could have real benefits for our mental health,
productivity, and overall quality of life.
As more companies experiment with this model and see positive results,
it's possible that we may see a shift in the way we approach work in the U.S.
However, there are still many challenges to overcome, such as the work culture
and issues with implementing this type of work schedule in all industries evenly.
Only time will tell if a 4-day workweek will become a reality for Americans
in the future.