The world of work is changing rapidly. The use of remote work during the pandemic led to a sustained and ongoing debate about whether “the office” is the right place for people to work and about the costs and benefits of working remotely vs. returning to the office. There is also an ongoing debate over whether employees should be encouraged or coerced into returning to the office.
In recent years, there has also been comparable debate over the viability and value of the traditional five-day workng week, and several firms have experimented with a four-day work week as a replacement. A large-scale trial of the four-day work week in Ireland was labelled a “resounding success”. Employees were both more productive and more satisfied, and there were indications of improvements in their quality of life (for example, better and longer sleep). A similarly large trial in the UK was also broadly supportive of the idea that a four-day week can improve productivity and satisfaction.
There are arguments both for and against moving to a four-day week but, before looking at them in detail, it is useful to ask where the five-day working week came from and why it is considered the standard against which the four-day week should be judged. The “weekend” is a reasonably modern concept, quite possibly originating out of arrangements between workers and factory owners in the industrial North of Britain in the 19th Century. The Oxford English Dictionary noted that the first known use of this word was in 1879.
New England cotton mills instituted five-day work weeks in the early 20th century to accommodate the religious restrictions of Jewish workers and this five-day arrangement became standard in American industry for decidedly non-religious reasons. Henry Ford realised that his workers would be more likely to buy his cars if he provided them with time off for leisure activity. This innovation was not written into US law until 1940, by which time a five-day work week was becoming standard in the US and in many industrialised countries. Although a five-day work week feels “normal” to most of us, it is good to realize that this has not been a standard for much of the history of work.
The introduction of remote work led to increases in employee health, job satisfaction, employee retention, and productivity, and the introduction of a four-day workweek has had similar effects. It reduces commuting time and costs and increases time available for family and leisure activities.
However, there are potential downsides to a four-day work week. First, a shorter work week can create substantial problems for customers, who may not receive services on the schedules they are used to. Four 10-hour days may be more difficult and more stressful for many workers than five 8-hour days. If employees are not in the office as many days per week, scheduling meetings and training sessions might become more challenging. If the office has a mix of four-day and five-day employees, scheduling and management of compensation and overtime might become especially challenging.
Employers often have legitimate, practical reasons for opposing a four-day work week. However, it is hard to read the business press without coming away with the impression that part of the resistance to things like remote work or shortened work weeks is often upper management’s belief that these changes are signs of employees’ failure to fully commit to work. Executives, especially early-career executives, often put in long hours and make substantial sacrifices for their organizations, and they may have a hard time understanding why other employees are not similarly committed.
There is a subset of executives who view the whole concept of work-life balance with suspicion and disdain. They believe that all employees should be as committed as they are, despite the often-vast difference in rewards available to executives vs. employees. At the beginning of the 20th century, German sociologist Max Webercoined the Protestant Work Ethic term, which represents a near-religious devotion to work and productivity and to the idea that good fortune is a vindication of this religious commitment.
If you think that work is what makes you good – or at least as a sign that you are good – the idea of finding ways to spend less time at work might not seem so appealing. On the other hand, most employees will think finding some reasonable balance between work and the rest of their lives is probably more appealing that the idea of committing themselves to the good of their employer.
Recent modifications in the traditional idea of work as a five-day commitment to the office present challenges to companies, but changes that add flexibility to workers’ lives are probably here to stay. The best businesses will find ways to make a four-day work week operate well for them and their employees. Perhaps in ten years time, we will be experimenting with three-day work weeks!
Source: rte.ie