what are the benefits of a 4 day work week

Benefits of a four-day workweek

• Extra time for appointments. Employees who work a four-day workweek can take their day off to go to appointments, run errands or travel without having to use their accrued paid ...
• Reduced stress. ...
• Happier employees. ...
• Increased productivity. ...
• Less commute time. ...

Full Answer

What companies offer 4 day work week?

• Companies from Microsoft to Shake Shack have experimented with a four-day workweek to improve productivity and work-life balance.
• Some of these companies have said the shorter week has made it easier to focus on important tasks.
• Others, like educational coding startup Treehouse, found that it made it challenging to uphold a solid work ethic.

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What are the advantages of a 4 day work week?

• 24% more employees felt they could successfully balance their work and personal lives.
• Stress decreased by 7% among everyone involved.
• Overall work satisfaction increased by 5%.

What are reasons for a 4 day work week?

With this influx in cash, the owner could expand benefits, so now adding to the feeling of stability are perks including life insurance, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability insurance, 401K and paid time off (PTO). All Play, No Work. Bella is the best salon to work for. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.

Why 4 day work weeks are good?

What are the Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week?

• Increased Productivity. An in-depth examination of the relationship and productivity conducted by Sanford University revealed a clear correlation between the two factors.
• An Equal Workplace. ...
• Better Employee Engagement. ...
• A Smaller Carbon Footprint. ...

Why a four-day work week is better?

The idea behind a four-day workweek is to achieve the same results in fewer hours so people have more time to pursue other interests, spend time with loved ones, and manage their lives. Companies could benefit through increased sales, decreased worker burnout, and lower turnover, among other positives.

What are the pros and cons of a 4 day work week?

Pros of a 4-day workweek can include cost savings, increased productivity, and employee retention. Some disadvantages, however, can include scheduling challenges, reduced producivity, and added stress.

Does a 4 day work week save money?

Reducing Expenditures Many businesses have found a four-day work week reduces variable expenses and overhead. By offering a four-day work week, you can potentially adjust the pay each week. If employees work fewer hours, employers will pay one full day's wage less.

Are 4 10 hour days better?

Working four 10-hour days each week, resulting in an extra day off, is the most common approach....Pros and cons associated with a 4-day schedule.BenefitsDisadvantagesAn extra day off each week, with no reduction in pay.Powering through longer workdays may not be as easy as you anticipate.2 more rows•Jan 12, 2022

Is a four-day week the future of work?

Advocates have long suggested that having employees work four days instead of five increases productivity, and the supporting evidence is indeed overwhelmingly positive. For example, last year in Iceland, researchers found that a four-day workweek without a pay cut improved workers' well-being and productivity.

How do you negotiate a 4 day work week?

Here are some ways to make your new schedule easy for everyone involved to work around.Make your day off the same day every week.Block out your day off on your viewable calendar.If you get an offer to attend a meeting or function on your day off, make a counteroffer.Remember that your four-day workweek is a privilege.

Why working less hours is better?

The productivity boost derived from shorter working hours is about more than streamlining processes and incentivising employees with days off, however. A key factor, say experts, is that working fewer hours leads to happier, healthier, more engaged workforces. We know that working long hours takes a toll on wellbeing.

What country has a 4 day work week?

Iceland: One of the leaders in the four-day working week Between 2015 to 2019, Iceland conducted the world's largest pilot of a 35 to 36-hour workweek (cut down from the traditional 40 hours) without any calls for a commensurate cut in pay. Some 2,500 people took part in the test phase.

What are the benefits of a four day workweek?

But the employee isn’t the only one who could benefit from a shortened workweek. Several studies show various benefits such as reduced stress, increased productivity, ...

How many hours do you work in a 4 day week?

Four-Day Workweek. The standard full-time workweek for Americans is eight hours per day, five days a week. When you switch to a four-day workweek, you still work 40 hours, but you work 10 hours per day for four days.

How many hours can an employee work in a week to get overtime?

In most of the United States, an employee is eligible for overtime if she works more than 40 hours in a single week. The paycheck for an employee who works five eight-hour days would be identical to the paycheck for an employee who works four ...

How many weeks of vacation do you get for 10 hour days?

That way, it’s clear that a person working four 10 hour days gets two weeks of vacation, just like an employee on a flexible schedule. Otherwise, your employee could claim they are owed 100 hours of vacation.

What time does a daycare open?

Many daycares and after-school care programs function around the idea that a parent works on an 8 am to 5 pm type schedule. They don’t open at 6 am or stay open until 8 pm to accommodate a parent’s unusual schedule.

Does 4 days a week work?

First, the four-day workweek doesn’t work for every business and certainly not for every employee. If your customers expect to find people who are available five days a week, then an employee who is unavailable every Friday could cause problems. A four-day workweek can also make childcare more difficult.

Is there a pay problem with a shortened workweek?

If an employee is salaried exempt and is not eligible for overtime pay, then there is no pay problem associated with a shortened workweek. The employee receives the same amount of pay every week, regardless of the number of hours worked or the number of days worked.

Improved productivity

Jamie Hickey, founder of Coffee Semantics, explained that his company instituted a four-day workweek after quarantine was over, and he initially planned to only run it through the summer. However, Jamie said, “I think I would have a mutiny if I stopped,” and not just because of lifestyle benefits: “our productivity has increased as well.”

Other workweek alternatives

Not every business owner agrees with working fewer hours for the same amount of weekly pay. Even though a shorter workweek can save on costs, many business owners believe that a four-day workweek should come within certain limits like establishing a different schedule but still working 40 hours per week.

The takeaway

Nowadays, the four-day workweek really seems possible. With technology at the forefront of our new working life, it’s possible to rein in meetings and set aside time for focused work—two key components of the four-day workweek.

If the same results can be achieved in fewer days, why keep a 5-day workweek?

Amy Fontinelle has more than 15 years of experience covering personal finance—insurance, home ownership, retirement planning, financial aid, budgeting, and credit cards—as well corporate finance and accounting, economics, and investing.

What Is a Four-Day Workweek?

A four-day workweek is, ideally, a 32-hour workweek with no loss in productivity, pay, or benefits. 2 Depending on the company and the industry, everyone might work Monday through Thursday and have Fridays off.

The Origins of Working Less

The idea of getting more work done in less time to increase time off is not new. We all have Ford Motor Co. (and the Industrial Revolution) to thank for our current five-day workweek instead of six days. What began as an experiment at some plants in July 1926 became company policy by September that same year. 5

How Many Hours Are We Really Working?

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average annual hours worked by employed people in 2020 were lowest in Germany at 1,332 (25.6 per week). Americans work an average of 1,767 hours (34 per week), while Canadians work 1,664 hours (32 per week).

Benefits of a Four-Day Workweek

The fundamental goal of a four-day workweek is to improve workers’ quality of life. By working fewer hours overall and having three full days off, people have more time for personal priorities like these:

Challenges of a Four-Day Workweek

A four-day workweek doesn’t always mean that employees maintain their pay and benefits. Some organizations, including the Los Angeles Times and Stanley Black & Decker, have reportedly used a four-day week as a cost-saving measure and have cut employees’ pay by 20%.

A Four-Day Workweek Myth

You may have read that Iceland has successfully adopted a four-day workweek.

Is a four-day week achievable for every business?

Any business that can focus on productivity can deliver a four-day week. The concept works well within teams charged with delivering solutions to working smarter, not harder.

Is it possible to work a four-day week and earn the same income as a five-day (or more) week?

Because the four-day week is a model of work that is fit for the 21st century — using the 100-80-100 rule — there is no compromise on compensation attached to a four-day week. If output remains consistent with that of the five-day week, compensation likewise remains the same.

What are some practical tips to help businesses implement a four-day work week?

How you approach it is important. A bottom-up re-engineering process organized by staff, rather than a top-down process dictated by management, was crucial to Perpetual Guardian’s successful trial.

As a business owner, what can I expect by implementing a four-day week?

We found that people are more motivated to simply get on with their work when asked to meet the productivity challenge.

Why doesn't 4 days mean less work?

Why 4 days doesn’t mean less work. It’s not difficult to understand employers’ resistance to a shorter workweek. After all, less time in the office (or working from home) logically should mean that less gets done. But as the above examples demonstrate, that’s not what happens when many businesses switch to shorter weeks.

Why do you get extra time off each week?

As well, an extra day off each week gives employees more time to recharge, so they’ll have more energy and motivation when they are on the job. 2.

How does eliminating low value tasks help employers?

By eliminating low-value tasks, employers can quickly gain back valuable time. And these gains add up to much more than just minutes and hours.

How many jobs offer a condensed work week in 2020?

In 2020, just 69 out of every 10,000 job listings offered a condensed work week as a perk. But just as the pandemic alleviated any reservations about remote work productivity, so too did it prove the case for the four-day workweek.

Who doesn't love a three day weekend?

Who doesn’t love a three-day weekend? For a majority of people, taking a long weekend every single week is a dream come true, with 66% of workers saying they’d like to work a shortened workweek. Employers, meanwhile, are less enthusiastic. Even as the coronavirus pandemic upends many aspects of work-life, the traditional five-day workweek continues ...

Does a shortened week affect productivity?

Not only did the shortened week not result in lower productivity, but work output actually surged. Compared with the same time period a year earlier, productivity actually increased by a whopping 40%. (If you’re doing the math, that’s the equivalent of two extra workdays each week.)

Is 4 day work week outliers?

The 4-day work week in action. Though companies with four- day workweek policies are indeed still outliers, a closer look at the performance of those that have this perk is an exercise in busting misconceptions.

Employee Well-Being

One of the biggest arguments for a four-day work week is that employees get an extra day back in their schedules. That’s time they can invest in themselves, their families, and their communities.

Increased Productivity

In pilot studies conducted by governments and businesses in countries such as Iceland, New Zealand, Spain, and Japan, workers reported a 25 to 40 % increase in productivity when they shifted to a four-day work week.

A Reduction in Environmental Impact

Shorter working hours can help lower energy consumption, carbon emissions, and commuting time. A report published by the 4 Day Week Campaign in the U.K. shows that shifting to a four-day work week could reduce the entire country’s carbon footprint by 21.3% per year — or the equivalent of taking nearly every car off the road.

An Opportunity to Redesign How You Work

In an article for TED, author Alex Soojung-Kim Pang describes how companies successfully shifted to a four-day work week. He notes they didn’t just lop a day off their calendar but instead meaningfully redesigned how they worked.

Four-Day Workweek

Pay For A Four-Day Workweek

Vacation For A Four-Day Workweek

Advantages of The Four-Day Workweek

• The employee advantages are pretty clear: having another day with no work and no commute can free up personal time in a big way. But the employee isn’t the only one who could benefit from a shortened workweek. Several studies show various benefits such as reduced stress, increased productivity, and happier more engaged employees. Giving up on havin...

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Disadvantages of The Four-Day Workweek

Should You Implement A Four-Day Workweek?