Burnout, Stress Lead More Companies To Try a Four-Day Work Week (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Work four days a week, but get paid for five? It sounds too good to be true, but companies around the world that have cut their work week have found that it leads to higher productivity, more motivated staff and less burnout. "It is much healthier and we do a better job if we're not working crazy hours," said Jan Schulz-Hofen, founder of Berlin-based project management software company Planio, who introduced a four-day week to the company's 10-member staff earlier this year.

In New Zealand, trust company Perpetual Guardian reported a fall in stress and a jump in staff engagement after it tested a 32-hour week earlier this year. Even in Japan, the government is encouraging companies to allow Monday mornings off, although other schemes in the workaholic country to persuade employees to take it easy have had little effect. Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) is pushing for the whole country to move to a four-day week by the end of the century, a drive supported by the opposition Labour party. The TUC argues that a shorter week is a way for workers to share in the wealth generated by new technologies like machine learning and robotics, just as they won the right to the weekend off during the industrial revolution.

Comments

Beware

[MrLogic17]

From personal experience: one employer offered a 4x10 week for better "work/life balance".
My local manager saw that and said, essentially, "oh, so you can work 10hr days. We need you in on Friday too."

Beware.

Re:Beware

[SantiagoMcRib]

From personal experience: one employer offered a 5x8 week for better "work/life balance".
My local manager saw that and said, essentially, "oh, so you can work 8hr days. We need you in on Saturday too."

I mean... I see what you're saying and agree with the problem of some management mentality, but I don't know that I completely agree with this conclusion. A manager will get as much out of an employee as the employee will allow. The form of the work week doesn't make a boss better/worse.

Re:Beware

[jellomizer]

I had implemented Flex Time at my previous job. Giving employees freedom, isn't taking your hands off the reigns. You need to be sure you have people covering every day that your business is open. So if they all take Friday off, then you need to make sure there is some sort of rotation, or rule. Either you have a first come first serve, or a rule that you cannot take the same days off every week. Or make sure there is enough coverage every day, by other means.

Re:Beware

[Mashiki]

Yeah just watch out for things like firefighting and policing, which is where this brainwave is currently heading as well. Every police service that I know of in Ontario that's tried it, has had massive screwups, jumps in complaints, more gun-draw incidents, and so on. The brain only handles working for so long before you start screwing up rather hard. Luckily, most realize how bad of a screwup it really is. Sadly a friend of mine who's currently in Division E(BC) is stuck in a 4x12(3.5 off) rotation for a year because of a lack of available mounties(RCMP). He's better off then some people who get remote locations and their RCMP jail is also in their house.

Re:Beware

[geoscodin]

We have several people working four 10s and taking off Fridays, so I took Mondays and worked four 10s t be sure we always had coverage. Suddenly I didn't hate Mondays anymore. Plus having a specific workday off every week allowed me better plan medical appointments, vehicle maintenance, deliveries, etc. while still providing a three day weekend which could be use to do home projects while still getting a day of actual rest, or short trips to refresh and recharge that allowed a full day at the wherever, and didn't include driving to a place on Saturday and back straightaway the next day.

Re:Beware

[aaarrrgggh]

We do a 4-9-4 schedule, and I really like it. It makes Friday a pretty chill day, and I only need to take 4 hours of PTO to have a 3-day weekend. 4-10 Is painful, especially for the poor saps that end up working 10 hours on Friday. I guess they can get Monday off, so YMMV...

I don't think 4-10 would reduce burnout. The main factor for combating work-related burnout is to make work fun and interesting... which simply isn't always possible.

Maybe I will propose a 4-1 schedule next year...

Re:Beware

[Anonymous Coward]

The oddest schedule I've ever seen was an 8-12-12-8 four day work week... on Friday through Monday. The position was doing international tier 3 tech support, and paid well, but it was absolutely the kiss of death for a social life.

Re: Beware

[Anubis IV]

Try being a programmer. You're exempt [...]

Whoa whoa whoa. Who says you're exempt? I'm a full-time software developer and I'm not exempt. I've never been exempt. I get paid time-and-a-half for every minute over 40 hours and always have.

If your employer has you categorized as exempt and is abusing it in the ways you're suggesting, you're at a bad company, plain and simple. The only valid reason I can think of to classify a programmer as exempt is if there's an expectation that they be on call, and if that's the case, there should already be additional compensation established. Anything less and you're working at a bad place. Leave.

Compermize?

[DarkRookie2]

How about instead of 4-8s or 4-10s, how about 5-6s.