The 4-Day Work Week is gathering a lot of steam lately, with companies and governments in Europe and Canada implementing the change. I can’t help but get a little triggered every time I see organizations putting a 4-day work week policy into place.
I’ve been asked, “why, when you are all about Making Work Awesome, would you be against a 4-day work week?!?”
First, I want to be clear:
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I believe the way we work today is broken.
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I believe we (especially in North America) need more time away from work
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I hope the pandemic has taught us that in many types of work, people can work from anywhere and be just as productive as they were in the office
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I don’t think Monday to Friday, 9-5 is optimal for most people
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I think many people would LOVE a 3 day weekend every week!
Here’s why I don’t think the 4-Day Work Week is the way to Make Work Awesome:
1. The focus is on time – which is the wrong focus!
If you want to create true flexibility and freedom for people, stop focusing on when or where they work, and shift the focus to setting clear expectations and focusing on the work itself.
Our current paradigm of work is that we work 40 hours (or more for many) per week. It is not focused on the purpose of our work, the outcomes we achieve, or the impact we make.
If all we do is shift the time to 4 days versus 5, the focus continues to be on time – just 32 hours instead of 40 (and that assumes you’re not making people work 40 hours in 4 days – don’t even get me started on that!).
By the way, if you’re not changing the expectations or responsibilities of the job, and yet, people are able to work 32 hours versus 40 and get all their work done, you’ve proven Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands to fill the time allotted.”
This is why we believe so strongly in being clear about the work, and letting people decide when and how to get it done.
When we focus on time, the work will fill it.
When people have full control over their schedules and are clear about what needs to be done, they can manage work around their life and still be super-productive.
2. One-Size Fits All does not Make Work Awesome
People have different needs.
Sam may appreciate starting later, ending earlier and working 5 days so that they can spend time with their kids and handle drop off and pick up without guilt.
Gurpreet may have an ailing parent and a schedule that requires them to be available to care for them mid-week but not on weekends, and they’d appreciate taking Wed off and working on Saturday.
Carla may have her son through the week and prefer working through the weekend so she can be fully focused on him.
We live in a world where we can customize a pair of jeans, get a stuffy made in the likeness of our pet, and, for most of us, get work done from anywhere. So how about giving people the freedom to customize their work hours so that they can get their best work done?
3. It’s still a “Superior” Leader deciding how “Subordinates” should work
Doug Kirkpatrick, a Future of Work expert, often talks about how adults are entrusted with important decisions in all aspects of their lives – what house to buy, who to marry, how to raise children. Yet, when we come to work, we’re told what to do and how by someone who holds power over us.
What if, instead of perpetuating the myth that those at the top need to wield control over others, we treated the adults we hire as fully capable humans who can make decisions about when and where to work for themselves?
If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that people can be trusted to get work done in all kinds of circumstances. We saw people homeschooling while working, logging in from bedroom closets, using new technologies – and still performing effectively.
Rather then creating and mandating a 4-day work week, share it as one example of how someone may choose to manage their work around their life, and let people determine what schedule works best for them versus forcing the same schedule for everyone.
4. The 4-day Work Week Will be a Myth if your Culture Doesn’t Support it – and chances are, it doesn’t!
Culture is created by Actions, not Intentions.
Your 4-day work week policy is likely being built on great intentions. But if the actions of leaders in your company don’t support people working fewer hours, it will fall flat.
Here are a few examples of Actions that don’t support a more balanced work schedule:
- At a manager’s retirement party, the CEO celebrates him by sharing stories of working through family gatherings many times over the years to help the company
- When someone doesn’t complete work up to your expectation, you ask about time, tell them they need to be online or at work during certain hours, or otherwise discuss how they spent their time
- Inflluencers in the company regularly boast about how many hours they put in, or how difficult it is to be able to take vacation
- When recognizing people, managers mention the extra time put in to complete things rather than recognizing the way people thought about solving the problem, the collaborative behaviours they demonstrated, or the outcomes they achieved.
We’ve seen all of these in organizations.
If your culture doesn’t support people actually working 32 hours per week, your policy won’t make it so. You’ll see people working longer days or over their 3 day weekend, etc.
Unfortunately, in North America, workers are used to working longer hours than our counterparts in Europe, where the 4-day work week has seen great success. The OECD shows that workers in the US and Canada regularly work at least 200 ore hours per year than those in France, Germany, the UK or Iceland
Is the 4-Day Work Week better than a 5-day Work Week?
YES, resoundingly so.
But if you’re looking for ways to reinvent work, I implore you to go beyond managing people’s time and investigate a transformative way of managing work by giving people far more freedom, making work more meaningful, and instilling and reinforcing personal responsibility and accountability – for the work, not the time spent.
By the way, we love sharing “Culture Intel” about how innovative companies are reinventing work and how anyone can Make Work Awesome, so join our community to get the latest delivered to your mailbox!
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