“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning
and does not stop until you get into the office.” ~ Robert Frost
Microsoft Japan ran a trial of a four-day workweek in the Summer of 2019 giving all
of its 2,300 workers Fridays off without loss of pay.
Not only were the workers happier, but also more productive — 40% more productive, in
fact.
They also took 25% less time off, electricity use went down by 23%, 59% less pages of paper
were printed, and 92% of employees said they enjoyed the shorter workweek.
New Zealand trust management company, Perpetual Guardian, trialled a four-day workweek over
two months in 2018 for its 240 employees without loss of pay.
After the trial, 78% of workers said they could successfully manage their work-life
balance, an increase of 24 percentage points; Stress levels decreased by 7%; Work performance
was maintained; and overall life satisfaction increased by 5%.
Employees were involved in the planning of the trial with University of Auckland academic
Helen Delaney stating,
“Employees designed a number of innovations and initiatives to work in a more productive
and efficient manner, from automating manual processes to reducing or eliminating non-work-related
internet usage.”
There are reports coming out of Europe that the Finnish Government are planning to implement
a four-day working week, with only six-hour days.
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin stated,
“I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families, loved ones, hobbies
and other aspects of life, such as culture.
This could be the next step for us in working life.
A four-day workweek, a six-hour workday.
Why couldn’t it be the next step?
Is eight hours really the ultimate truth?”
However, conflicting articles are also coming out that say that Finland have no plans of
implementing such a scheme.
This seems to be corroborated on the Finnish Government’s Twitter feed (and as we all
know, Twitter is the most reliable source of factual information).
It states,
“In the Finnish Government´s program there is no mention about 4-day week.
Issue is not on the Finnish Government’s agenda.
PM @marinsanna envisioned idea briefly in a panel discussion last August while she was
the Minister of Transport, and there hasn’t been any recent activity.”
Okay, so maybe it is a myth, but it does say one thing — people are enthusiastic about
the prospect of a four-day workweek.
Australian digital advertising agency Versa have actually implemented a four-day workweek
which they have been trialling over the last 18 months.
However, they’ve done things a little differently.
Instead of taking Fridays off (which is what most people think of when they think of a
four-day workweek), employees instead take Wednesdays off — no meetings, no deliveries,
no pitches to clients, and no expectation of checking emails.
This breaks the week up into two mini-weeks and the results have been astounding.
In her own words, CEO Kathryn Blackham stated,
“We are three times more profitable than we were last year, we have grown by 30 or
40% in the last year in terms of revenue, and we have got happier staff who are much
more productive.
So all of the factors that you would have thought would have gone down because we're
working 20% less — in theory, we're working one day less, although we are doing longer
days on the other days — actually we've seen them increase dramatically.”
Managing Director Jonny Clow was a bit hesitant at first thinking that a four-day workweek
would never work.
However, he was pleasantly surprised by the results.
He said,
“Logically, you would consider a four-day working week to end on Thursday, creating
a long weekend each week.
However, creating two short weeks means staff treat Friday as a proper working day and schedule
medical appointments and similar events on the Wednesday.
I'm very used to, as an Englishman, going in with the doom and gloom you have on Monday,
and 'Suicide Tuesday'…
All that kind of stuff just goes away.”
Of course, they’re are naysayers, especially in Australia.
“Damaging for jobs: Australian business says the four-day week wouldn't work”; “Why
a four-day workweek is not good for your health”.
It’s very hard for companies to try new things, especially things that they think
might result in loss of revenue, so the typical response is to dismiss any new ideas that
involve employees working less.
In the run-up to the UK general election in December 2019, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn proposed
a four-day workweek.
The audience members openly laughed at him and we all know the eventual result — Labour’s
worst defeat in post-war Britain.
But we have to remember that it wasn’t that long ago that we thought that it was okay
to force children as young as six to work in the coal mines.
I’m sure there were many people at the time who saw it as immoral and tried to fix the
situation, but mostly, their pleas were dismissed as being “bad for the economy”.
It wasn’t until America implemented the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 when “oppressive
child labor” was outlawed.
That’s less than 100 years ago.
Anyway, I certainly have hopes for the four-day workweek.
I think ultimately we have to go that way as there won’t be enough jobs to go around.
There are too many people underemployed who need more work, but on the flip side, there
are too many full-time workers who are overworked and want to work less.
I think a four-day workweek is a step in the right direction.
But when will Australia get on board?
Perhaps when the International Cricket Council decide that test matches should only be four
days long, then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be ready for a four-day workweek.