You’ve heard of remote working, and you’re probably familiar with flexible working hours; here’s the newest workplace buzz, a four day work week. We all love a bank holiday weekend, skipping into the short work week with a spring in your step after an extra day to recharge. If you use social media or read the news, you’ll have seen that Scotland is planning to trial a four-day workweek (without reduction of pay) for many of its workers.
Working fewer hours for the same pay sounds too good to be true; it’s not. We do it here at Breakout Media, and we would never look back. It keeps us motivated, our productivity is sky high, and we all get more time to put our feet up. You might be thinking, does the business not suffer as a result? How do you get everything completed in time? It works perfectly for us, and it’s worked for many other companies.
Parkinson’s Law
This isn’t a new, radical way of thinking; it’s a pretty old idea that work expands to fill the time allocated for completion. Cyril Northcote wrote a humorous essay for the economist back in 1955. He shared a story of a woman whose only task in a day was to send a postcard; this task should take less than 30 minutes. The woman spends an hour finding the postcard, another half an hour looking for her glasses. She then takes 90 minutes writing the card, then a further 20 minutes deciding whether or not to take an umbrella on her walk to post the card! This goes on and on until the task takes all day.
When you know you have more time to finish a task, you usually take more time. You start looking into other things along the way; you take more breaks, you get distracted. In the end, the task usually ends up taking longer to complete.
NOT To Be Confused With Compressed Hours
If you’ve heard of compressed hours before, don’t get mixed up. The idea of compressed hours is that you still work full-time hours, but over fewer days, so working 10-hour shifts for four days a week. Working like this, you’re almost asking for burnout! The 4-day workweek we’re talking about means working fewer hours over fewer days for the same pay! Don’t forget that.
Does a 4 Day Work Week Actually Work?
Iceland has made headlines after completing the worlds largest trial of a four day work week. 1,500 workers were moved to a shorter workweek for the same pay and were found to be happier, healthier, and less stressed! The country is moving towards making this an option for most workers; 86% of Iceland’s workers have since either moved to shorter workweeks or will eventually gain the right to! Productivity has either remained the same or improved since the change! This trial caused other countries to follow suit, such as New Zealand, where they found the same results. And now Scotland is following, maybe England will be next?
Is It Really Worth The Hype? Here’s What to Expect
Increased Productivity
As mentioned above, Parkinson’s Law talks about how we tend to take longer to complete a task if we are given more time. A study at Stanford University also found that overworked employees are less productive. Overworking often leads to sleep deprivation, and reduced sleep is known to impact productivity negatively!
A study trial of the four day work week found that employees productivity levels improved, alongside experiencing reduced stress and improved teamwork. Work-life balance satisfaction went from 54% to 78%! The company have since decided the change is here to stay.
None of these findings come as a surprise if you look at the facts; here’s a list of the worlds most productive companies. It’s no coincidence that the countries top of the list works on average around 27 hours a week!
Reduced Carbon Footprint
Doing their bit for the planet and reducing carbon emissions is on many businesses’ agendas right now. The four-day workweek can help massively—less time at work = less commuting. The University of Reading found that a national four-day working week would reduce the number of miles driven in a week by 558 million! This would hugely reduce travel costs and fuel consumption!
When office buildings are only in use for four days, running costs and electricity usage are reduced. Research has found that a three-day weekend in the UK would reduce carbon emissions by 117 thousand tons of CO2 per week. This is the equivalent of removing 1.3 million cars off the road annually!
Closing The Gender Pay Gap
A 4 day work week promotes an equal workplace, allowing all employees, regardless of gender, to spend more time with family. Workers can be more involved with children’s upbringing and also save hundreds on childcare costs. Research has found that around two million British people are not employed due to juggling childcare; 89% of these people are women!
And, this is not because women don’t want to work. Women across the globe were asked if they prefer to work in paid jobs or solely care for their families. 70% of women stated they’d rather be working in paid jobs! Allowing everybody to work four days means men and women alike can work and still provide care for their families.
Increased Employee Satisfaction
The annual cost of burnout (workplace stress) to the economy is £255 billion! Happy employees enjoy being at work and are much more likely to stick around. With a better work-life balance, workers are less likely to get stressed and subsequently less likely to take sick leave!
An extra day off means staff return to work feeling refreshed; that extra sleep in can work wonders. This time off gives people a chance to see family, catch up on housework, attend appointments, practice hobbies, or exercise. Things they might not get the opportunity to do with just the normal two days off.
Attract New Talent
Millennials value work-life balance; 92% of people born between 1980 and 2000 stated flexibility as a top priority when searching for a job. That extra day off could get a lot of new staff through the door!
Four hundred thousand people also stated they couldn’t work unless they find a part-time job. Working four days might be the deciding factor for many people. 1.5 million people are trapped in poorly paid part-time jobs below their skill level, thanks to a shortage of quality flexible jobs! Introducing a four day work week to your business means you’ll attract more talent, and you’ll also give job opportunities to people who deserve it!
What’s Stopping You?
If you’re unsure about introducing a four day work week, go for it, you won’t regret it. Your staff will be forever grateful, sit back and watch the productivity and staff morale soar. Remember to make sure you don’t hold back on other things to make your workers happy and motivated. You also need to provide trust, space for creativity, and a genuine value for your employees.
Here at Breakout Media, our four day work week leaves us all feeling satisfied at work, and we have a damn good team dynamic going on. Our days at work are super productive, which is how we absolutely smash our SEO and PPC strategies. If you’re after some help getting your business seen online, get in touch.
