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Four-Day Workweek: The Future of Employment?
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March 15, 2023The COVID lockdowns forced many businesses around the world to rethink how they got work done under unprecedented constraints. American businesses were no exception. As the economy returns to normal, many workplace practices that were in place before and after the lockdowns are being analyzed, and likely will be for some time. Traditional employment is being reimagined in some quarters. A recent study from the United Kingdom reported that a trial of a four-day workweek by over 40 companies was a success. Could a shortened workweek be the next British Invasion?
A significant trial of a four-day workweek in the United Kingdom helps shed light on the issue. As The Wall Street Journal reported,
In one of the largest trials of a four-day week to date, 61 British businesses ranging from banks to fast-food restaurants to marketing agencies gave their 2,900 workers a paid day off a week to see whether they could get just as much done while working less, but more effectively. More than 90% said they would continue testing the shorter week, while 18 planned to make it permanent, according to a new report from the study’s organizers.That is a significant data set to examine the value of a four-day workweek. Not every business is the same, and the comparison of British to American businesses isn’t precisely apples to apples. But there are lessons to be learned from the results. Lot’s more data and analysis to read in the article and the linked report.
Is a four-day workweek without any drawbacks? Certainly not. Boston University’s BU Today spoke with BU business school lecturer Constance Hadley, who identified some potential issues with a four-day workweek, which include:
Some key issues to define and consider are (a) how much time it takes to achieve productivity, and whether there are any time savings by compressing the workweek, and (b) how much work is dependent upon collaborative work that requires coordinating schedules across individuals on one less day a week.I worry a lot about creating even longer, more hectic days, with spillover effects on the three days off, like you spend the first half of that fifth day just recuperating and cleaning up your inbox. There will also be knock-on effects on the rest of the team if everyone is just shifting their meeting times to one less day a week, or worse, if people are taking different days off from each other. It could mean longer stretches of meetings on those four days, which are also a cause of burnout and dissatisfaction.If you want to try a four day workweek at your business, Harvard Business Review has A Guide to Implementing the 4-Day Workweek that has six steps you can take to make a four-day workweek a reality for your employees. As the author explained, “[w]hile no change comes easily, leaders willing to embrace models like the four-day workweek will find the experimentation well worth the effort.”
Decisions we make as business leaders can always benefit from being rooted in the Magisterium. Obviously, the Church doesn’t enter the debate on a four day workweek, but she does have insights on labor. In his encyclical letter, Laborem Exercens, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote,The word of God's revelation is profoundly marked by the fundamental truth that man, created in the image of God, shares by his work in the activity of the Creator and that, within the limits of his own human capabilities, man in a sense continues to develop that activity, and perfects it as he advances further and further in the discovery of the resources and values contained in the whole of creation.
This understanding of work can help guide our decisions when addressing work schedules. Ideally, our work can bring us closer to God, further develop the virtues in us, and enhance our sense of community. Whether or not our work occupies four or more days a week, our journey toward sanctifying our labor and relationships with our employees and coworkers should not be restricted to a calendar.
