Why We Will NEVER Have A 4-Day Work Week And Why A Shorter Work Week Is A Terrible Idea

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Who wouldn’t want to work less while getting paid the same amount?…. Anyone?

Don’t get your hopes up.

A few days ago I wrote a short post on LinkedIn where I exclaimed “A 4-day workweek isn’t going to happen, let alone a 3.5 day workweek.” That post received a ton of comments from people around the world and I started to respond to as many comments as I could but then I realized I should just write a more thorough in-depth perspective instead of trying to break down each comment and argument.

Some of the comments were in staunch agreement with my perspective whereas others were very much against it.

In this post I’m going to break down what exactly I mean by a four-day work week, why I don’t think it will happen and why it’s a bad idea, and the one thing that would actually allow this happen (but it never will). I’ll look at some research, examples, scenarios, and lots of other stuff.

First, it’s important to break down what exactly I’m talking about here because there are lots of variations of a four-day work week. I don’t mean working your full number of hours in a condensed time period, for example doing 40 hours in 4 days instead of 40 hours in 5. I’m specifically referring to a required reduction in the time you work, so in this case, 4 days where you work 32 hours instead of 5 days where you work 40 hours.

I’m also not talking about companies that offer this to a few employees. I know there are plenty of companies around the world who offer a 4-day work week to their employees in a variety of capacities. It’s an opt-in program for the people who want to take advantage of it.

When I’m specifically referring to here is a company telling their employees…

Our new measure of a full-time work week is now going to be working 4 days at 32 hours a week instead of 5 days at 40 hours a week. There will be no change in pay or benefits, the only difference is that now you get three days off each week instead of two.

Now, I accept that there are a few smaller organizations around the world that have 4-day work week just like there are always a few companies willing to try all sorts of things, remember Zappos and holacracy? But will this ever become the new norm of how work gets done?

My argument is that THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

Let’s dive into the reasons why below.

For premium subscribers I’ll be exploring things like why competition won’t allow the four day work week, what some of the research says, other options organizations can implement, and the only thing that CAN make a shorter week a reality.

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