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Analysis of Four-Day Working Week Trial by a New Zealand Financial Services Company Finds Staff Were Happier and 20% More Productive (theguardian.com)
AmiMoJo shares a report: The founder of one of the first big companies to switch to a four-day working week has called on others to follow, claiming it has resulted in a 20% increase in productivity, appeared to have helped increase profits and boosted staff wellbeing. Analysis of one of the biggest trials yet of the four-day working week has revealed no fall in output, reduced stress and increased staff engagement, fuelling hopes that a better work-life-balance for millions could be in sight. Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand financial services company, switched its 240 staff from a five-day to a four-day week last November and maintained their pay. Productivity increased in the four days they worked so there was no drop in the total amount of work done, a study of the trial released on Tuesday has revealed.
The trial was monitored by academics at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology. Among the Perpetual Guardian staff they found scores given by workers about leadership, stimulation, empowerment and commitment all increased compared with a 2017 survey. Details of an earlier trial showed the biggest increases were in commitment and empowerment. Staff stress levels were down from 45% to 38%. Work-life balance scores increased from 54% to 78%. "This is an idea whose time has come," said Andrew Barnes, Perpetual Guardian's founder and chief executive. "We need to get more companies to give it a go. They will be surprised at the improvement in their company, their staff and in their wider community."
The trial was monitored by academics at the University of Auckland and Auckland University of Technology. Among the Perpetual Guardian staff they found scores given by workers about leadership, stimulation, empowerment and commitment all increased compared with a 2017 survey. Details of an earlier trial showed the biggest increases were in commitment and empowerment. Staff stress levels were down from 45% to 38%. Work-life balance scores increased from 54% to 78%. "This is an idea whose time has come," said Andrew Barnes, Perpetual Guardian's founder and chief executive. "We need to get more companies to give it a go. They will be surprised at the improvement in their company, their staff and in their wider community."
I've done 4x10's - and loved it. And, for an hourly position it would work.
However, for Exempt - you would sign up... then some bozo management type would still expect you to work on your 'day off'.
Wasn't New Zealand offering free flights to people interested in working there?
But this study wasn't about moving around the 40-hour-week (actually 37.5 hour week in NZ due to lunch). It was literally just dropping one day from the schedule, and moving to a 30-hour-week (4x7.5).
And weekly productivity went up 20%. Which, given the 20% reduction in hours, means hourly productivity went up ~50%.
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Ninety years ago, companies were figuring this out.
Nixon ran with it 65 years ago.
But, what a CRAAZY idea, am I right?
Back when my father was working, he used to work long days and then bring home tons of work to do every night. On the weekend, his pile was extra large and he'd work on it all weekend. I once questioned this, since he wasn't getting paid any extra for this "overtime." He said "my boss expects this level of output from me." I countered that his boss only expected it because he provided it free of charge. When my bosses tried implying that I should continue working on projects on my own time, I strongly rejected it. For an emergency, yes, I'll do it, but not for Everyday Routine Project #55 that they want me to work during my own time so that it gets finished faster.
In short, I'd add another corollary: "A manager's expectation of work that can be performed will expand to fit at least as much as the employees allow."
NOTE: This doesn't put all the blame on the employee. If an employee is stuck with a horrible manager, they don't always have the choice of just quitting. That might lead to financial ruin so they might be faced with "do what I say or be fired." So the employee is responsible for pushing back to the extent that they can, but the manager is ultimately responsible for tempering their expectations with reality. If your employees are having to take work home and do unpaid work on their own time, chances are your expectations are too high.
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Well, it might be all & well for the staff at that company to be happier, less stressed, healthier, & more productive but what about their souls? If those workers are denied the opportunity & support they need in order to toil relentlessly & arduously so that they can be better people, aren't they being condemned to an afterlife of eternal damnation? God will surely smite this evil company!
P.S. I'm reliably informed (Poe's Law) that humour must be accompanied by a smiley face in case someone thinks I'm an extremist nut-job :)
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In America cheap work visas mean you have an unlimited access to fresh employees. No need to worry about burnout, long term health or well being.
Also, a certain percentage of the populace _is_ able to be productive for extended hours. 40, 50, 60 even 80. Yeah, there aren't a lot of them, but when you're drawing from a pool of over a billion workers you've got plenty.
More than anything else this is why us tech folk can't compete with India. Their middle class is as large as our entire country. It's just a numbers game at that point.
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I think the summary writer meant something along the lines of "even though you'd expect cutting work time by 25% would result in a reduction in productivity, it did not."
The article states that productivity went up 20% and profits also increased.
This isn't really surprising. Lots of research shows that 40 hours a week is maximum sustainable effort, when you're building bombs as fast as you can to avoid being invaded by Nazis (seriously). Intellectual work seems to be less than that.
It's also not surprising that companies aren't "all over this." Management is a highly conservative discipline and people have really weird ideas about work. Yours is currently one of the first listed comments on this story, but I'm sure scrolling down will reveal a lot of people who simply refuse to believe this.
The eight-week experiment...
Smaller companies experimenting with the four-day week have found performance has been better in the first few weeks as excitement about the project took hold, before falling slightly.
A 240 person staff is pretty small, and eight weeks (over Christmas no less) isn't enough time to draw any conclusions.
The productivity increase isn't any surprise though. The employees are offered the day off *if* they could get the same amount of work done in a shorter time. Of course people will respond to a reward like that...for a while. Makes you wonder what would happen if people were offered a 20% pay increase for working five days per week but getting 20% more work done.
No one needs to be lying. It could just be the Hawthorne effect at play. They'll want to make sure to observe this over a longer period to determine whether the productivity gains are merely a short-lived effect or if they stick around because they really are the result of a shorter work week and employees having more energy or less stress due to having additional free time.
Well, the economy is much better now than in the 50s. The GDP is about 60 times higher now than it was in 1950. So where is the 4 days week?
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Management is a highly conservative discipline and people have really weird ideas about work.
I really think it comes down to what management gets or think they get out of it.
I work for a small, owner-managed company who's the typical SMB entrepreneur who thinks that everybody loves the company and gets as much out it as he does. I think this is one part of the explanation.
Another is people in jobs where they're not specifically entrepreneurs, but where there is a real or perceived benefit from making their subordinates work harder. Bonus, promotion, prestige, fill in the blank.
After that are people that are just workaholics, who like whatever is they do enough that they can't understand people who don't want to work that hard.
I've never seen what you're talking about actually happen.
The law in New Zealand is quite clear. If a holiday falls on the weekend, it moves to Monday or Friday (depending).