The 4 day week. The coming reality or a potentially damaging gimmick?

The 4 day week. The coming reality or a potentially damaging gimmick?

The four-day workweek has gained a lot of attention recently as a major experiment into the effects on wellbeing and productivity were evaluated and further debated.

As individuals, people are looking for more ways to achieve better work-life balance and companies are focussing on supporting employee wellness initiatives while simultaneously increasing productivity, reducing days lost through illness and attracting and retaining the best talent.

This experiment involves reducing the standard workweek from five days to four, without reducing employees' pay or benefits, but if more companies were to adopt this independently, adjustments to that model are likely.

This most recent experiment with a four-day work week has been hailed as a success by news outlets, but some business leaders and Wellness practitioners are questioning whether it is just a gimmick.

The trial was conducted by 61 UK-based companies over a six-month period, involving nearly 3,000 employees. According to research carried out by the University of Cambridge and Boston College, companies adopting a four-day working week increased their revenue by more than a third, as well as improving happiness and reducing stress levels among participating staff. Of the 61 firms, 56 have chosen to continue with the programme, with 18 making the new policy permanent.

However, a previous study has suggested that a shorter working week can actually make employees less productive and more susceptible to burnout.

Nevertheless, campaigners and academics have claimed the results of the trial are a “major breakthrough” for productivity and the way we work. They will be presenting their findings to MPs in the House of Commons, with the aim of reducing the maximum working week from 48 hours to 32 hours, potentially paving

the way for a four-day week.

Of the 61 companies that participated in the trial, 56 have

chosen to continue with the four-day week, and it has been revealed that the number of sick days taken by staff fell by about two-thirds, with 39% of employees stating they were less stressed. Proponents of the four-day week argue that it incentivizes staff to do more in a shorter period of time, thereby boosting productivity and profits. They also claim that it provides employees

with a better work-life balance.

However, critics argue that the four-day week can create scheduling difficulties, especially for smaller organizations. They suggest that the focus should be on creating cultures of flexibility that serve the needs of employees without neglecting the needs of customers. They also question whether the four-day week is merely a gimmick, and whether it will truly create the flexibility that employees want.

With my cynical head on, I would question whether the trial has gone on for long enough, in order to establish the true long term impact this would have, and just like the work from home surveys, employees are going to vote almost unanimously in favour of this, but the real dilemmas associated with this experiment are going to be faced by the employers, who seem to be dealing with an ongoing onslaught of radical changes over the last few years.

The reality of this, is likely to be similar to the remote

working issues, in that many or even most people have demonstrated increased productivity and improvements to wellbeing and work life balance, which validates the theory to an extent, while others have either struggled with mental health or

abused it, and most companies admit to simply not knowing or are able to determine what overall negative and positive effects it has actually had on their business, especially within smaller organisations.

The outcome is that many companies are likely to adopt this initiative, maybe out of fear of losing their best talent, or because of the perceived positive effects that it might have on attracting fresh talent in to their organisation.

What is also likely, is that there will be a significant portion of people that will struggle with the pressures of trying to cram 5 days work into 4, and the irony is, that is likely to effect the most committed, most hard working and focussed individuals, who already work at something close to their maximum capacity.

Overall, at face value, the four-day workweek offers a lot of benefits to both employees and employers. It can improve work-life balance, increase productivity, and reduce costs, making it a win-win situation for everyone involved. But, as we are now starting to see the impact on mental health and wellbeing on individuals who have not adapted well to the new work from home arrangements, there will likely be negative longer term negative impacts on certain individuals too.  

The moral question is, should we consider this a reasonable sacrifice if 10% of employees forced to adopt a 4 day week suffered with more health and burnout issues, if the overall wellness and productivity levels improved?

On a more humorous level, don’t be surprised to see some companies offer employees a 4 day work from the office alternative, to the current 5 day work from home arrangement.