Written by Victoria Lewis, CEO of Byrne Dean
In the past, long before we had careers or were even born, the seven-day work week was the norm for those working their own land. But with the advent of industrialization and the modern era, we’ve come to expect a five-day work week. However, times are changing. In the wake of the pandemic, which prompted many to re-evaluate traditional work practices, numerous companies are now exploring the feasibility of a four-day work week.
Between June and December 2022, over 60 companies in the UK participated in a four-day week trial. Majority of them reported greater productivity and less absenteeism and that their employees were less stressed, well-rested, and better able to manage their personal and professional commitments.
Time as an employee benefit
One thing is clear: time is the new employee benefit. According to Jennifer Moss, author of The Burnout Epidemic, time is the single biggest factor in reducing employee burnout. However, for time to truly feel like a benefit, employees need to feel trusted and autonomous. They need to feel empowered to fully exercise the benefit and have some flexibility in doing so in a way that suits them best. There are many ways to offer employees the benefit of time, whether it’s fitting five days of work into four, spreading it out across six or seven, offering fully flexible work hours, or unlimited vacation days. The key is to truly have an open mind to the possibilities and to consult with your people on what works best for them, within the context of your workplace culture and what you do, rather than mandating it. No new system will work without the behavioural changes to support it and change only sticks if it is embedded into the day-to-day culture and exemplified by its leaders.
A cost-benefit analysis
While the four-day work week may seem like a noble cause, there are also caveats to consider. To be clear, a genuine four-day week is the 100-80-100 model. The pay stays the same, the output stays the same – it’s just the input time that is reduced. Some companies are reducing the input time and the pay for full time employees. Even with the genuine 100-80-100 model how you deal with part time employees is tricky. Do you pro rate their time in line with full time reductions or do you increase their pay and keep them on the same working days? These differentials can feel inequitable. The choice of day may negatively impact some people leading them to have to “make up” for the lost time and feeling like the 4 days comes at a cost. Others may feel pressure to work more hours if they see upper management still working more than four days, which can create an unspoken expectation and strain their mental health. Some people will thrive with more concentrated and productive work time, whereas others may find it more difficult to adopt this working style, which could lead to perceptions of underperformance and feelings of exclusion and stress. The impact of a four-day week and the ‘sprint’ it encourages, is meant to set aside more time for rest and recovery – not enforce a window to cram in more.
But importantly, the four-day week also creates more time for tasks that aren’t entirely work-related, such as life admin, childcare, and volunteering. It can help employees achieve a better work-life balance and lead to greater job satisfaction. That said, there can be push back that life admin doesn’t fall neatly into a fifth day!
A middle ground?
Some companies are exploring a middle ground by offering a nine-day fortnight, which gives employees every other Friday off. If social media testimonies are to be believed, this seems to have hit a sweet spot.
Shifting to a four-day week might be too drastic of a shift for some companies. To be both meaningful and do its job, a new working schedule must be integrated into the business’ culture. There are far too many potholes otherwise, that could make the issues of employee workload and stress management more severe.
And if we are to survive a burnout epidemic, businesses are wise to explore a middle ground where we have enough time to find fulfilment outside of work – where we don’t live to work but rather work to live. Religious observations aside, the two-day weekend is an artificial construct, which has come to feel like the ways things are and, have to be, simply because of custom and practice. Since the weekend was invented by us, it should also be in our power to change. We are each infinitely unique, and it is time we make our working schedules flexible enough to embrace that. The four-day week is an endeavour worthy of effort; a step in the right direction for better work-life balance.
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About the author
Victoria Lewis is CEO of Byrne Dean and has successfully grown the team into the established global workplace behavioural training consultancy it is today. Victoria spent the first 15 years of her legal career as an Employment Lawyer at Simmons & Simmons. She moved to Byrne Dean in its infancy in 2005 as an Associate, became Head of Training in 2013 and CEO in 2016.
Victoria is known for her powerful, personal, practical and challenging facilitation style and is regularly asked to work with senior leadership teams and boards on culture change. Victoria leads our inclusion and diversity work across a range of sectors and applies the principles of emotional intelligence to help individuals understand their accountability and the impact of the things they say and do.
To learn more, visit www.byrnedean.com
