Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
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Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#2I swapped to a 4 day week (with relevant pay cut, which certainly made it easier to justify with my employer) in order to finish my MSc without burnout and it's changed my life. The entire balance of the working week has changed - 4 days is almost a 50-50 split which makes an enormous difference to your psychology (0.57:0.71).
My employer has stated they've not noticed any change in productivity either, including on the day I'm off (I do a video handover and notes every Thursday for the rest of the team) - which I partly credit with the fact I no longer can justify "oh I'll just leave that to tomorrow" + feeling energised come Monday after 3 days of my own time.
I really would struggle to entertain changing back to 5 days now.
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#3I swapped to a 4 day week (with relevant pay cut, which certainly made it easier to justify with my employer) in order to finish my MSc without burnout and it's changed my life. The entire balance of the working week has changed - 4 days is almost a 50-50 split which makes an enormous difference to your psychology (0.57:0.71). My employer has stated they've not noticed any change in productivity either, including on…
So your employer is getting the same work out of you with less pay? Sounds like you should push for your old pay back.
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#4Curious among folks here: Are you aware of companies that allow for or even encourage four day work weeks?
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#5I swapped to a 4 day week (with relevant pay cut, which certainly made it easier to justify with my employer) in order to finish my MSc without burnout and it's changed my life. The entire balance of the working week has changed - 4 days is almost a 50-50 split which makes an enormous difference to your psychology (0.57:0.71). My employer has stated they've not noticed any change in productivity either, including on…
I did the same as you and it felt so good. I did a break on the Wednesdays and it was perfect. I really felt way better just because of this break every 2 days. Don't know about the productivity though.
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#6If investors still expect the same returns, four-day work week being in effect a labor cost increase will be a no go. And before you mention “productivity”, keep in mind that from the looks of it, AI and tech driven productivity gains go to shareholders, those owning the IPs and the means of production. Yes you can push laws to push companies, but then you are over regulating your country and that too is problematic.
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#7If investors still expect the same returns, four-day work week being in effect a labor cost increase will be a no go. And before you mention “productivity”, keep in mind that from the looks of it, AI and tech driven productivity gains go to shareholders, those owning the IPs and the means of production. Yes you can push laws to push companies, but then you are over regulating your country and that too is problematic.
We have laws now. Are they problematic?
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#8I've begun to think that a shorter workday is as important as a shorter work week. Doing gig delivery for ~3 hours a day, 7 days a week has been less taxing, emotionally and physically, than 7 hours (+lunch, +commute) on a standard work week waging for a retailer, at ~80% of the take-home. I imagine my current set-up would be better than divvying up that 20ish hours over 4 days. But obviously a similar take-home with the same or fewer days would be even better.
And, of course, pay is important, too. I'm only able to do this by walking the TOS knife-edge, and it would be nice if I could make something similar with a "real" job instead. America's workers, in general, should be getting out far more than they do.
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#9Considering the opposition to working from home from some parts of (USA) society, I have trouble seeing this get widely adopted. At least in the short to medium term.
The anti-WFH people appear to fall into 3 camps: landlords and property owners, middle management who believe people are not as productive or efficient at home. And, as pointed out in a reply, there's also the group who believe that face to face communication is more agile and fosters more innovation.
Perhaps one question to ask is: who will lose money and/or power due to this move?
Somewhat offtopic: How has WFH been treated in European media? Has it been much the same as the USA?
Re: Who will lead the charge to a four-day work week?
#10I swapped to a 4 day week (with relevant pay cut, which certainly made it easier to justify with my employer) in order to finish my MSc without burnout and it's changed my life. The entire balance of the working week has changed - 4 days is almost a 50-50 split which makes an enormous difference to your psychology (0.57:0.71). My employer has stated they've not noticed any change in productivity either, including on…
So your employer is getting the same work out of you with less pay? Sounds like you should push for your old pay back.
Kind of amazing that they just admitted that freely.