Why We Will NEVER Have A 4-Day Work Week And Why A Shorter Work Week Is A Terrible Idea
Who wouldn’t want to work less while getting paid the same amount? Anyone? Don’t get your hopes up. I’ve expressed skepticism about the feasibility of a 4-day workweek, let alone a 3.5 day workweek. This topic has sparked a lively debate, prompting me to delve deeper into this subject rather than addressing each comment individually. In fact South Korea recently announced they are going to be trying this as well.
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 (which they abandoned)? 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.
Competition
Can you imagine an organization like Apple telling their entire workforce that they only need to work four days a week instead of five? What do you think will happen to Apple as an organization in terms of profit and market share if they mandate working less while their competitors like Samsung, Microsoft, and Alphabet are all working more? Any athlete or individual in any field who has achieved success or reached their potential will tell you that the got to where they are by working harder and smarter than their competitors not by working less. Marc Randolph, the first CEO of Netflix told me that one of his rules for success was to do 10% more than what was asked of him. Today it seems like people want to do 20% less while asking for 10% more!
Microsoft tried a 4 day work week with reduced hours in Japan a few years ago and they reported that their employees were happier and stayed productive. But keep in mind this was a trial done during the month of August which is already a slow business month over the summer. If this pilot would have been THAT successful then why didn’t they role this out across the entire company already? Japan tried this in the 90s and saw a reduction in economic output by 20%. There are several companies in Japan offering a reduced work week today BUT with proportionally reduced pay. Iceland tried a four day work week as well but stopped it after it caused a lot of business turbulence and required an additional spend of $30 million a year in healthcare workers. Lots of stories like this are out there again, demonstrating both the successes and challenges.
For employees in organizations who want to do more and make more of an impact, shrinking their work week can actually cause far more harm than good, forcing them to try to get more done in less time which can in and of itself lead to burnout.
If your company has a shorter work week option and you take advantage of it, then that is of course your choice. However, all things being equal, in a scenario where a leadership role opens, up, who do you think will get it, you, or your peer who is putting in the extra time? The amount you work and how hard and smart you work should align with the expectations that you have of career and leadership development. If you want to be a senior leader at your company, then expect to do more and care more than your peers. This approach has been reflected with every single CEO I have ever worked with and interviewed on my podcast, in fact, do you know how many CEOs I have interviewed who go to where they are by not working hard? 0. I get it, not everyone wants to be CEO and some people are happy to stay where they are, again, your choice.
Competition is a major roadblock to mandating employees to work less.
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The research says…
Lots of comments I received highlighted research done by various organizations showing the benefits of working less in terms of productivity, stress, engagement, etc. It’s no surprise that if you tell people to work less but give them the same amount of money, that they will be happier, less stressed, and more engaged. I won’t highlight the research here but it’s something you can easily find with a Google search. The results should not be surprising.
In fact, if you tell people they can work 3 days a week without cutting their pay I’m willing to bet that they will be even MORE engaged, happy, and less stressed. Not only that, but one of the things I have talked about extensively is the hedonic treadmill, a concept in psychology which explains that we eventually adapt to changes and then get back to our usual baseline. So if your company starts offering free food tomorrow you will be more happier than you were today, but eventually you’ll get used to that perk and return to your baseline. The same is true for a shorter work week. Employees will be happy for a while but then they will return to baseline.
There are a few challenges with a lot of the research I have come across. For starters it’s a tiny sample, oftentimes representing a few hundred or maybe a few thousand employees (if you’re lucky), many of them tech companies. Second, the sample usually represents small companies with less than 50 employees. I have seen very few examples of larger organizations implementing this at scale (granted they do exist). Next, almost all of the data is self-reported and not based on anything quantifiable. So if you work for a company and I tell you that you can work less and get paid more, and then I give you a survey asking you if you were just as productive, why would you ever say anything other than “yes!” Much of the research in terms of things like happiness, stress also don’t take into account the changes in happiness and stress already occurring in the city or country. In other words, there are other factors that are impacting the results. A lot of what I come across seems to be overly sensationalized media fluff.
Lastly, there’s a big difference between research and practice. For example research says we should eat healthy, exercise, and not smoke. Yet despite all of that research the U.S. ranks #1 in terms of obesity among high income countries.
We have collectively worked 40 hours a week for decades and our entire economic, financial, and social systems are built around this structure. Even though research might say it’s the best thing since sliced bread, it still won’t happen on any mainstream level.
Other options
The entire idea behind working less is to improve the overall quality of life for the employee. This isn’t necessarily because 40 hours a week is too much but because in many organizations and countries, employees are going far beyond the 40 hours they are supposed to work due to the culture of the organization. In Japan for example, they have a term “Karoshi” which means “overwork to death.”
Instead of focusing on decreasing what is considered a full-time work week, organizations can do a better job of making sure that their employees don’t burn out (for example less meetings!) This is something I have long advocated for and what I wrote about in my book, The Employee Experience Advantage. However, according to recent data, the average American works 36.4 hours a week with some other data sources having this number even lower at 34.4 hours a week.
Things like flexible workspace options, unlimited vacation time, multiple workspace options, health and wellness programs, no meeting days, and the like, are far more effective at creating an engaged and productive workforce versus just telling people to work less.
Transition time and cost
For smaller organizations, telling their employees to work fewer hour might not be that complicated. But what about for a company like Waste Management with over 50,000 employees, United Airlines with around 100,000 employees, Johnson Controls with over 120,000 employees, or Microsoft with almost 240,000 employees? The cost of adjusting all of their practices, systems, and protocols to make this the new standard way of working across the company will cost many many millions of dollars.
How it could become a reality?
So what could make a 4 day, 32 hour work week possible? Simply put, if everyone does it. In order for that to happen, new legislature would need to be passed amending the Fair Labor Standards Act (in the United States), which officially shortens the work week and offers overtime for those who exceed it. Basically, if won’t become law, it won’t get adopted.
Barring that, I don’t see a scenario in which any sensible company worth its weight in salt would want to expressly tell their employees to work fewer hours while everyone around them isn’t doing the same thing.
Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment below!
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