More Companies Are Trying a Four-Day Work Week (reuters.com)

Companies around the world have cut their work week down to just four days and found that it leads to higher productivity, more motivated staff and less burnout. Reuters highlights some of those companies: "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. Lucie Greene, trends expert at consultancy J. Walter Thompson, said there was a growing backlash against overwork, underlined by a wave of criticism after Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted that "nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. People are starting to take a step back from the 24-hour digital life we have now and realize the mental health issues from being constantly connected to work," Greene said.

Schulz-Hofen, a 36-year-old software engineer, tested the four-day week on himself after realizing he needed to slow down following a decade of intense work launching Planio, whose tools allowed him to track his time in detail. "I didn't get less work done in four days than in five because in five days, you think you have more time, you take longer, you allow yourself to have more interruptions, you have your coffee a bit longer or chat with colleagues," Schulz-Hofen said. "I realized with four days, I have to be quick, I have to be focused if I want to have my free Friday." Schulz-Hofen and his team discussed various options before settling on everybody working Monday to Thursday. They rejected the idea of flexible hours because it adds administrative complexity, and were against a five-day week with shorter hours as it is too easy for overwork to creep back in.

Comments

Re:Prediction

[OrangeTide]

if costly benefits like healthcare and retirement savings are foisted onto employers, then having fewer employees that do the work of two or three is a savings. And hard working employees are simple to replace because "right to work" laws means no notice, no severance, and no reasons need to be given for termination.

We operate a highly efficient serfdom, and it boggles my American brain that Europeans aren't doing the same.

Re:Prediction

[ShanghaiBill]

"right to work" laws means no notice, no severance, and no reasons need to be given for termination.

You are thinking of "At Will". "Right to Work" means something completely different: A ban on closed union shops.

With minor exemptions, "at will" is the law in all 50 states.

27 states have "right to work" laws.

At-will employment

Right to work

Re:Prediction

[gweihir]

I never got that. I mean it has been known for a long, long time from studies by Ford and others that mental workers have peak efficiency at 6h/day for 5 days/week and that working more _decreases_ total (!) productivity. I guess there are so many americans that are virtue signalling by working (or claiming to work) much more that the sheer stupidity of doing so does not get through anymore.

So let me state this again: If you work 40h or more a week as a mental worker, then you are unproductive and self-destructive. If you work around 30h a week as mental worker, you are pretty much at peak overall (!) efficiently. And no, if you claim otherwise, then you are just uninformed. These facts are not up for dispute and they have not been up for dispute for a long time. The current experiments are just re-discovering known information.
 

Re:Prediction

[hdyoung]

I think you're being a tad harsh on the US. First, let me be the first to acknowledge that the US has PLENTY of problems. However, it also has one of the most dynamic, healthy, advanced economies on the planet. One of the richer ones per-capita also, though not #1. I'm firmly against forcing our system on others, but the truth is that our economic system could make a TON of other countries a LOT better off, if they would just swallow their pride and adopt it (looking at you, South America).

If the 4-day work week actually improves productivity and competitiveness, you'll see it adopted in the US fairly quickly.

With regards to unions - there are places that could benefit from more unionization, and there are other places where unions are absolutely strangling progress.

Re:UBI

[Tom]

The capitol class hates it because they know that with the threat of homelessness and starvation removed, wages will drift up to the natural value of labor.

This. There was a private conversion between CEOs recently in my area, told to me by my boss who was there. One guy complained loudly about not being able to find trained workers. Another CEO calmly corrected him saying that he would have no trouble at all finding them if he paid them proper salaries.

The brilliance of UBI is in this one thing: It removes fear of survival as a factor in wage negotiations. It allows people to walk away from jobs that are in the "are you kidding me?" category.

Re:Prediction

[lucasnate1]

I know many workers who stay late doing nothing simply because management tends to appreciate workers who stay late, even if they don't do much.