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Many trials of the shortened workweek have yielded favourable results. It’s becoming a more viable option for some businesses, but it won’t be an option for others.

A four-day workweek used to be such a pipe dream that it barely registered on the radar of most workers and businesses. However, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies around the world have given this setup a try – with promising results.

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A six-month trial among 33 volunteer companies in the United States and Ireland in 2022 revealed a positive impact on company performance, productivity, and employee well-being. Employees who worked the shorter week reported less stress and fatigue, as well as better work-life balance and job satisfaction. The trial received a nine out of ten rating from the 27 companies who completed a final survey.

In a 2022 UK trial of 70 firms, 86% said the four-day week was a success. They intended to keep it after the pilot ended. They cited advantages such as increased productivity and substantial financial savings for employees on transportation and childcare. Similar trials in Belgium, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have yielded similarly encouraging results for businesses. Employees, unsurprisingly, appear to be especially eager to make shorter work weeks the norm.

Despite the overwhelming positive data, a four-day workweek remains out of reach for many employees. Tech workers in agile, forward-thinking companies may hope for such a benefit in the near future, but schoolteachers and office workers in more traditional companies may find it more difficult. Finally, some industries and deeply entrenched work cultures mean that, for the time being, the four-day workweek may not be feasible for all employees.

Finding the right fit

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So far, technology and office-based industries have made the most progress in reducing work hours.

“It is quickly becoming a noticeable trend in areas such as technology, software, ICT [internet communication technology], finance, and professional services.” – knowledge-based roles that were previously primarily office-based but are now frequently hybrid or remote,” says Joe O’Connor, director and co-founder of the Work Time Reduction Center of Excellence in Toronto.

While such companies frequently have an agile and innovative mindset, they also have an advantage in terms of simple, time-saving solutions. Meeting-free days, for example, can allow employees to focus solely on productivity and drastically reduce work hours while maintaining output – Something that is far easier to accomplish in small organisations.

We have seen very successful examples everywhere, from non-profits to manufacturing companies, to even hospitality – Joe O’Connor

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Shortening the working week is possible in other industries, but it requires rethinking long-held norms. Consulting and law, for example, are frequently organised around the concept of the billable hour, which means that less work equals less income. “We’re starting to see examples of law firms moving to four-day weeks by switching from billing by the hour to billing by project value, or by reducing their non-billable overheads so that their teams are more focused on client work,” says O’Connor.

The viability of this shortened workweek for companies in these less-flexible industries may also differ from what other, more nimble firms and industries can do.

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As an example, “If [these firms] close on Friday and give everyone the same day off, coordination with clients, suppliers, and the rest of the economy becomes more difficult,” says Pedro Gomes, author of Friday is the new Saturday and coordinator of a forthcoming Portuguese government trial of the four-day workweek. “Another option is to give different people different days off so that you can keep working five days a week, but then you need communication processes in teams to deal with days when colleagues are not present.” 

As a result, while collaborative workplaces such as advertising agencies may choose to have all employees take the same day off to improve team coordination, industries that rely on trade throughout the week, such as hospitality and service, may establish processes for salaried, non-shift workers to take different days off. As a result, many experts believe that the four-day workweek can be tailored to most industries. “We’ve seen very successful examples everywhere,” O’Connor adds, “from non-profits to manufacturing firms to even hospitality.”

Entrenched culture

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In today’s workplace, company size and culture may be important predictors of whether an organisation is likely to successfully implement a shorter working week. So far, only a few major international corporations have conducted four-day workweek trials.

Despite the positive results of Microsoft’s trial in Japan and Unilever’s trial in New Zealand, other major corporations have been slow to follow suit. “Large corporations have the financial capacity to change, but much more rigid structures,” Gomes says. “In practise, we see more small and medium-sized businesses experimenting with the four-day workweek because they are more agile, and they typically have a CEO or founder who has a very good picture of how it would impact the entire business.” In other words, leaders of smaller firms may face less red tape and find it easier to forecast how widespread change will affect the company as a whole than leaders of larger global organisations with more labyrinthine, layered structures.

However, in businesses of all sizes, a certain type of manager may be resistant to changing entrenched norms, posing a significant barrier to the implementation of shorter weeks. Although there is a growing global movement in support of the four-day work week, it is not yet a standard work practise, and implementing such progressive change requires a high level of trust between leaders and workers. Managers are unlikely to test a change if they do not believe employees can make it successful. (It should be noted that productivity-related trust issues have been a major issue for managers throughout the pandemic.)

“The most significant impediment to companies implementing four-day workweeks is likely to be a combination of entrenched culture and resistant bosses,” says Benjamin Laker, professor at Henley Business School. Reading, United Kingdom. “Some managers may perceive a shorter workweek as reducing their control or making employee management more difficult.” In other words, risk-averse managers may wonder why they would disrupt an already functioning system.

Reports of managers intensifying performance measurement, monitoring, and productivity pressures have been a common issue in cases where four-day workweeks have proven unpopular among employees. As a result, while many workers report improved wellbeing in some areas, the added elements can increase worker stress levels. “If an organisation does not have that trust in its culture and instead has a very top-down, centralised decision-making structure, they will probably struggle to make this work,” O’Connor adds.

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