Shorter working weeks could make folks happier and extra productive. fizkes / Shutterstock
A gaggle of firms which were trialling a four-day working week have not too long ago reported elevated income, with fewer staff taking day off or resigning. Whereas it’s straightforward to grasp the consequences of a shorter week on employee wellbeing, the optimistic results on firm earnings and productiveness could also be extra of a shock – however analysis backs this up.
These companies have been collaborating in a trial organised by non-profit 4 Day Week International. The four-day working week trial, which concerned 33 firms and practically 1,000 staff, noticed no lack of pay for workers – organisations paid 100% of their salaries for 80% of their time. However staff additionally pledged to place in 100% of their normal effort over the shorter working week.
And this sort of technique doesn’t simply work for nine-to-five workplace jobs. Iceland trialled decreased working hours between 2015 and 2019 in a scheme that included hospitals, colleges and social service staff. The nation thought-about it an “overwhelming success” and decreased hours – and not using a discount in pay – has since been rolled out to 86% of Iceland’s workforce.
All through historical past, our working patterns have tailored to the challenges of the day: whether or not that be extra time toiling at an industrial loom, or a farmer shifting their hours to eke out productiveness throughout fading daytime. However now, nearly a century on from Henry Ford introducing the two-day “weekend” to his factories, many countries are nonetheless caught with a 40-hour week cut up throughout 5 days of labor, whatever the trade. This fashion of working is more and more at odds with our Twenty first-century existence.
The most recent findings from the 4-Day Week International pilot are in step with ongoing analysis into working patterns that present decreased hours increase staff’ psychological well being and their productiveness. It additionally brings different advantages resembling decreasing emissions by chopping commutes and offering the premise for evaluating our lives in additional than simply financial phrases.
Higher psychological well being
Regardless of a lot financial development because the Nineteen Seventies, little or no progress has been made on liberating up time for staff. Worse, in some circumstances, the pattern has began getting into reverse: Individuals now work extra hours than they did in 2000, for instance.
That’s beginning to take its toll on worker wellbeing and psychological well being. It doesn’t take a lot to understand that turning into many instances extra productive over the previous century (thanks in no small half to expertise) means our human brains are being requested to course of much more throughout a five-day work week than previously. This has led to large will increase in stress, anxiousness and burnout.
That is hitting nationwide well being companies and households significantly onerous. However employers are additionally bearing the associated fee: accountancy agency Deloitte estimated the annual value to employers of psychological well being points is £45 billion within the UK alone. That is largely resulting from absenteeism, or worse “presenteeism” – the place an individual is bodily current at work however not engaged as a result of they really feel sick.
The UK’s Workplace for Nationwide Statistics estimates that there have been 17 million employee days misplaced to emphasize, despair or anxiousness within the UK in 2021-22. And the identical developments present up for many different rich international locations.
Elevated productiveness
In fact, firm bosses may suppose: “If my staff are working 20% much less time, absolutely output will drop, too?”
However a number of research have proven that isn’t the case. Actually, international locations doing the least hours of labor are sometimes the best on an hourly foundation. These international locations, resembling Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, are additionally the happiest. All work lower than 1,400 hours a yr on common, in contrast with the US and UK common of about 1,800 hours.
My very own analysis, in collaboration with British Telecom, helps clarify why working much less hours doesn’t essentially imply an equal loss in output. We have been in a position to present the optimistic impact of feeling higher through the week on weekly productiveness. We discovered proof of extra gross sales and extra calls per hour when staff have been completely happy.
Based mostly on our analysis, we consider the work-life steadiness adjustments and enhancements in wellbeing popping out of the 4 Day Week pilots may result in a rise in productiveness of about 10%.
In fact, a ten% enhance in particular person productiveness is not going to instantly make up for workers working a day much less. However these productiveness beneficial properties would cut back the price of a transition to a shorter work week. So there may nonetheless be a necessity for funding and subsidies from authorities and enterprise alike to assist this alteration, however folks and the planet have a lot to realize from doing so.
A shorter working week may have wider advantages such chopping emissions from commuting.
William Perugini / Shutterstock
Chopping emissions
It’s additionally vital to suppose extra holistically about the advantages of the four-day week past productiveness and wellbeing. A shorter week may even cut back the UK’s carbon footprint by chopping commuting – assuming that most individuals received’t journey or will journey considerably much less on their day without work. A four-day week may have a optimistic impact on gender equality as effectively, because the pilots counsel that girls report the biggest will increase in wellbeing.
Learn extra:
Past GDP: altering how we measure progress is vital to tackling a world in disaster – three main consultants
The four-day week debate additionally scratches the floor of an ongoing dialogue amongst economists. GDP has lengthy been used as the last word measure of a nation’s progress, typically with the impact of seeing policymakers chase development at any value. However a rustic is far more than its gross home product.
Seeing the profitable outcomes of makes an attempt to implement a four-day working week may persuade enterprise and coverage leaders to redistribute a few of the beneficial properties in GDP when it comes to our most treasured commodity: our time. Now that may very well be thought-about actual progress.
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a Director of the World Wellbeing Motion which counts the 4 Day Week International group amongst its founding members.
