We keep hearing that the four-day workweek is the future. So why are so few businesses adopting it?
Belgium, Iceland and Lithuania have passed laws to require the practice, and other countries in Europe are piloting the idea. Hundreds of companies in the UK have signed up to try it. Microsoft tested this concept in Japan. Non-profit organizations such as the 4 Day Week Foundation and Work Four are dedicated to expanding the concept.
There has to be a winner, right? An employee works fewer hours and gets paid the same, but if he’s still getting the job done, who’s to complain? As it turns out, many people. Especially employers. And the reason is clear: working four days but getting paid for five days doesn’t seem fair. Employers — who by their very nature make countless deals every week — seem to be getting the short end of the stick.
Just mention the phrase “four-day workweek” to a typical business owner or manager and you can expect an eye roll. The reason for this is not difficult to understand. The four-day workweek exemplifies complaints about today’s workplace aimed at younger generations: laziness, apathy, disinterest, indifference.
Whether that perception is fair or not, considering this idea invites confrontation. It’s like all the trends that employees are inventing to avoid work.
Because of which the concept is failing. But that’s a shame, because a four-day workweek isn’t a bad idea. It just needs better branding.
Some believe that, because of AI, the four-day week is inevitable. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, says it will “eventually shorten the workweek in the developed world”. Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and other tech luminaries keep telling us that AI will bring such productivity gains that workers won’t be working at all, let alone four days a week!
Maybe these people are right. And the recent wave of corporate layoffs may be just the beginning of that shift. But in my world – the world of small and medium-sized businesses – employers don’t want to cut hours and they don’t want to get rid of workers. They actually need more help to function. This is why there are still millions of job openings and why small businesses repeatedly say that finding quality workers is one of their top concerns. They want AI to help them get more out of their existing workers in a 40-hour week, not a 32-hour one.
But if the lights are right and someday in the future AI creates a world where shorter work days are required, I bet most employers wouldn’t call it a four-day workweek. There is a lot of baggage around the phrase.
Maybe the solution is scrapping the name and coming up with a better term. Such as “performance pay” or “smart pay” or “results/rewards” compensation systems. These are terms that are less about affordability and more about functionality. These are terms that are more appealing to the business executive.
Ironically, the four-day week is already happening. The same employers who cringe at the idea of shortening the work week are simultaneously looking for other ways to provide flexibility through remote work, compressed schedules and generous time off.
This practice is not-so-secretly already in use by many organizations. My daughter, a veterinarian, works three 12-hour shifts a week for full pay. People in the healthcare sector are used to 10-hour shifts, followed by several days off. It’s the same for production and construction workers. Companies that offer four or five weeks of paid time off per year (plus holidays) are effectively offering a four-day workweek when you divide those holidays by the total number of workdays. An unusual number of my clients offer flextime and half days on Fridays, and close shop on additional holidays.
Which supports the notion that the problem with the “four-day workweek” isn’t the practice — it’s the label. By rewarding loyal employees with better remote working options and offering benefits like more generous paid time off plans, we can avoid mentioning these words altogether.
