IS YOUR WORK WEEK ABOUT TO GET SHORTER? The 40-hour workweek has been the standard in the United States for more than 80 years. Now some members of Congress, led by good ol Bernie Sanders, are fighting to give hourly workers an extra day off. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would shorten the threshold for mandatory overtime pay from 40+ hours in a week to 32+ hours in a week. He cited advancements in AI, automation, and robotics to argue that companies can afford to give their employees an extra day off without reducing their pay or benefits. Bernie actually makes some good points! Some experts expect the implementation of AI in the workplace to boost productivity by up to 50%. A 2022 study by a team of university researchers and the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global found that 71% of workers were less burned out and roughly 50% were more satisfied with their jobs overall when they only worked 4 days/week. Who doesn’t love 3-day weekends?!? 80% of companies from the study reported revenue growth attributed to the change in hours worked. Critics say mandating a shorter week would force companies to hire more workers and lose money, specifically in industries like manufacturing where hands-on work is required. Sanders says the regulations would be phased in over 4 years, giving companies plenty of time to adapt and reorganize. So what do you all think? Is reducing the standard workweek to 32 hours a good idea?
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CEO @ The Smart Working Revolution | Workforce Transformation & Leadership Development I Devon & Cornwall CIPD Committee Member I Shaking up the world of work
Might seem more appealing, but it doesn't suit every job, every business or every worker. Here's why..... 1. Long hours Condensing a full workweek into four days often means longer hours each day. Not only can it lead to burnout as employees struggle to maintain the same productivity in a shorter time frame but it’s really a no go for those people who work part time hours! 2. Frustrated Customers Organisations such as education, some legal or financial market orgs, who have to operate on a 5 day schedule as it is at the moment find a 4 day workweek disrupts communication and service availability, potentially frustrating customers who expect full weekday access. 3. Collaboration Then there is collaboration. If different employees take different days off, finding overlap for team meetings and collaboration becomes a logistical nightmare. I’ve seen it hinder productivity and decision-making so it needs a cautious approach. Not All Jobs Fit Some roles, especially those requiring continuous coverage, simply can’t be compressed into fewer days without sacrificing service quality. Plus, if a role is highly technical and difficult to recruit – the tendency of small organisations is to get existing staff to work 5 days, ie overtime, if there is more work to do. Not good. 4. Cost Saving? The four-day week is often pitched as a cost-saving measure (e.g., reduced overheads), but the reality is that these savings can be offset by the challenges of maintaining the same level of output. There may be better options. So, while the idea is appealing, the condensed 4 day workweek can sometimes create more problems than it solves….meanwhile we have 60 different ways of shaking up the way your business works in our smart working model. Message me for more information.
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The debate wasn’t about how long the work week should be (70/60/50/40). It’s should and will always be about how productive those hours actually are. You see, no knowledge worker puts out more than 2.5 to 5 hours of real work in a day. That’s 12.5 to 25 hours of productive work in a week. The rest? It’s just meetings, updates and moving things around. Five-day work weeks? If you’re measuring by butts in seats, sure. But if you’re looking at actual output, it’s a joke. We need to obsess over productive time, not clocking hours. The attendance/week hours mindset is a pseudo-metric killing the workforce, making us focus on quantity over quality. Think about it: As a knowledge worker - your days are filled with meetings, status updates, and email threads. How much of that is real, impactful work? Very little. We’re stuck in busyness, mistaking it for productivity. But then again, if orgs obsess on outcomes only, employees will call them out: 'You don’t see my effort to go from A to Z, you don’t acknowledge it.' Hence, orgs measure you by hours. And for those thinking, 'Pay me by hours, overtime factored in' – great on paper, but useless for knowledge workers. IMHO, we are way more more comfortable measuring by hours than outcomes. We rave about deep work, about focus hours, but in reality we laude how long someone stays logged in. Weird isn't it. #recruitment #recruiting #productivity #workhours #workweek #recruiters #hiring #employment #employers #employees #managers
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The 8-hour day is from the 1900s when a majority of the workforce was a direct labor force and 8 hours meant absolute effort for eight straight hours. https://lnkd.in/gFbpQPYy. A century later Ford would introduce the 5-day work week https://lnkd.in/g5HN_MfC a 4-day work week barely crosses the 50% well-being threshold, where is the 5-day work week is just below it. https://lnkd.in/gK62zDdq. Did you ever wonder what would happen if you adopted a 4-day work week, and worked until stuff was done? Not 8 hours a day but less? If you want return to office to work, keep all the performance benefits of work from home, get rid of any overtime and reduce hours to less than eight with the stipulation that when your work is done you're free to go. Obviously meetings would interfere with this (workplace is strategically placed meetings sometimes specifically to interview with anyone leaving early even though they've completed their work), but all meetings should be held at the beginning of the day and they should be limited substantially. "What if all your work is meetings?" Set up a meeting with HR. Keeping people busy shouldn't be part of leadership, getting work done is all that should matter. That's supposed to be the difference between salary and hourly.
Why do we work 9 to 5? The history of the eight-hour workday | CNN Business
cnn.com
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Health Insurance specialist with WPA Healthcare Practice Plc. Offering healthcare plans for individuals, families, businesses and the self-employed.
4 day week? Really... how close is it? And with that extra time, will we become "healthier" or not? Will it be a temptation to use the time on socials, tv and sedentary pursuits? Last week in Vermont, USA, Bernie Sanders, the far-left independent, introduced a bill that would shorten to 32 hours the amount of time many Americans can work each week before they’re owed overtime. Given advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits. But critics say a mandated shorter week would force many companies to hire additional workers or lose productivity. 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭? A study here in the UK of companies that agreed to adopt a 32-hour workweek concluded that employees came to work less stressed and more focused while revenues remained steady or increased. 🙂 In 2022, a team of university researchers and the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global enlisted 61 companies to reduce working hours for six months without cutting wages. Afterward, 71% of the 2,900 workers said they were less burned out and nearly half reported being more satisfied with their jobs. Meanwhile, 24 of the participating companies reported revenue growth of more than 34% over the prior six months. Nearly two dozen others saw a smaller increase. What's your view, and if we go to 4 days, what's the step after that? #HealthAtWork #EmployeeBenefits #HealthTrends
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Would a 4-day working week, either on a compressed hours basis or not, work for you or your organisation? On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds held a meeting with business leaders to discuss their plan, which is part of the upcoming Employment Bill, the BBC notes. It continues: Since April, employees have had the right to request flexible working from day one, including compressed hours, but legal experts think Labour's plan will likely aim to make it harder for employers to reject requests for greater flexibility. Currently, workers need to convince their employers to allow flexible hours. Under Labour's plan, employment solicitor Alison Loveday says companies may need to explain "on what grounds can they justify refusing a four-day week". The proposals do not match the definition as set out by the official four-day week campaign, which calls for the same pay for fewer hours. Rather, Labour has said that employees would "still be doing the same amount of work" across different working patterns - such as, for example, four 10-hour shifts. Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain, has mixed views on compressed hours. She describes it as "a limited solution that will not work for all, particularly the small businesses that need to stay open throughout the week, often with peak periods of activity". She says that introducing a four-day week could lead to higher staffing costs and that there are other ways of improving flexibility and accommodating staff "rather than simply implementing compressed hours and a strict four-day week system". She advises businesses not to be alarmed by the government's proposals, though. "Labour has been clear that it is not mandating the four-day working week," she says. "It is important that small businesses are reassured that there is no cause for concern, especially for sectors where this policy would not be feasible." #hr #humanresources #hrdirector #hrmanager
Four-day week: Does working compressed hours make you happier?
bbc.co.uk
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7 x Strategic Board Advisor | Chair at Tyler Grange | Purpose-Driven Leadership | Co-Host: The Bouncebackability Podcast
We’re going back to the 1920’s in a greek time machine. 🇬🇷 Against all evidence to the contrary the greek government is trying to boost productivity by enabling a 6 day week. Henry Ford introduced the 5 day week in 1926 (He also predicted the 4 day week as even more productive). The 5 day week turned out to be so much more productive than the 6 day week that everyone else followed suit. Why did he do this? Because he had massive turnover of employees, recruitment problems, and absenteeism. His research all pointed to a reduction in working hours was more than compensated by an increase in productivity. Data backs this up. The third most productive country per person in the world also has the shortest working week. Denmark. They work close to a 4.5 day week. https://lnkd.in/eXAvpUM4 At Tyler Grange | B Corp™ we’ve seen a 30% rise in productivity over the last 2 years by implementing a 4dayweek. we’ve also seen absenteeism reduced by 66% This doesn’t mean you must do a 4 day week, but you probably should look at how you can support your employees with a method of working that gets the most out of them. Its likely that reduced hours will help. One thing I can say with a degree of certainty, anyone putting in a 6 day week is going to see productivity slump, absenteeism rise, and who the heck is going to work for these organisations. The issue with productivity is not with employees its with organisations that refuse to help them, and in some cases make their lives worse. https://lnkd.in/esk2ZEWB
Greece starts six-day working week for some industries
bbc.co.uk
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Freelance Advisor for Mining, Supply Chain, International Leadership. Finding sustainable solutions in complex environments through listening, challenging the status-quo, experience and a wide network.
100 % performance - 80% working hours - 100% salary. In other words, work 4 days a week with same performance and full salary. This hypothesis is being tested since Feb by 45 companies in Germany for a duration of 6 months and will be scientifically evaluated. A similar study with 61 companies and 2900 employees in the UK has shown multiple benefits linked to increased revenues (1,4%), less turn-over (57% less quitting), less sick leave (66% reduced) and reduced mental health problems. Other studies show an increase in employee satisfaction and productivity. 56 of the 61 companies opted for keeping the 4-day workweek after the trial ended. Many employers are still reluctant citing shortage of manpower, that this model is applicable to service industries only, a general distrust in the representativity of these studies, etc. and even ask for an increase in work hours. Labor shortage is indeed high in Germany, with more than 600 k positions for qualified people remaining unoccupied, mainly in the areas of health and social, education as well as in the areas of construction and handyman in general. The companies participating in the German project are mostly SMEs and come from areas such as industrial production, trade, entertainment, energy supply and IT. Some of them take benefit of this change, to implement simplified processes, better support systems, etc to ensure workload gets reduced. Maybe a solution really could be to do something counter-intuitive and reduce working hours to get more people onboard, get higher productivity and better results? Do you have experience with this or another alternative model? What is your view? #change #goodlife #sustainability #ecogood #4dayworkweek
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Another installment of Feel Good Friday. An example of a company that was able to take their workforce to a 4-day workweek. I have others I’ve worked with that have found success (surprising success for many of them who were of the “old school” manufacturing mind.) This one is different in that they took the hours down too – most that I have worked with have implemented 4 10-hour shifts, then used the 5th day for overtime as needed. There are many considerations: potential reductions in productivity (if you have good baseline metrics, this can be easily avoided), increased safety risk as people work longer hours, days off have a higher impact, etc. But if you’re looking for ways to keep employees happy (so you can focus on hiring for new needs, not replacing due to turnover) schedule flexibility is one way that seems to work wonders. #feelgood #happyfriday #manufacturing #supplychain #america #jobs #skilledlabor #4dayweek
A manufacturer tried the 4-day workweek for 5 days' pay and won't go back
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Senior Executive Partner at Gartner | Strategic Advisor & Network Builder | Innovation & Transformation Leader | Security & Resilience Expert |
The #COVID19 #pandemic taught us that new and different work patterns can be a viable option for many organizations. This has spurred a resurgence in interest in the 4-day work week which involves reducing the total time spent working without decreasing pay. While there are concerns about the negative impact that this could have, particularly on productivity, as my Gartner research colleagues who looked into the 4 day work week point out in the article below, "Worker stress decreased, and most employees found it easier to balance work and caregiving commitments. There are benefits for businesses, too: Talent retention improved with a 57% reduction in attrition, and revenue improved by 1.4% on average." In a labor market where specialist talent is still in high demand, "the 4-day work week is a compelling employee benefit that may differentiate organizations in the talent marketplace. In fact, 63% of candidates rated a 4-day work week with the same pay as the top innovative benefit that would attract them to a job. It’s an option that offers flexibility for the frontline workforce who cannot work in a hybrid setup, and it provides a potential solution to burnout for location-agnostic workers." Would your organization be interested in experimenting with a #4dayworkweek? #HR #FoW #futureofwork
The 4-Day Work Week, Explained
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In the ever evolving spirit of balancing customer needs and team member satisfaction, companies have tried various scheduling adjustments. Hybrid and work from home arrangements continue to be quite popular post covid and certain other options shift by season or holiday. By example, some of you will be reading this on Monday, enjoying a summer Friday off. Here, a small manufacturer experimented with a 4 day work week for the whole company, and then decided to make it permanent! What schedule changes, if any have you considered for your business in the spirit of balancing team member and customer interests? #Manufacturing #4DayWorkweek #WorkLifeBalance #LaborRecruitment #EmployeeRetention #FutureOfWork #ManufacturingIndustry #Productivity #WorkplaceInnovation #HRStrategies
How a small manufacturer made a 4-day workweek make sense
manufacturingdive.com
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