4-Day Week. Why not?

The company I was working for at that time used to maintain monthly results meetings. They were short meetings with a simple structure: The Director presented the numbers and opened for an anonymous Q&A.

Someone asked a question that grabbed everyone’s attention:

A study showed that a 4-day week is more productive than a 5-day week. Will our company implement it?

The Director’s answer:

I heard about that study. But I think we can still be productive working 5 days a week.

Applause for him. No matter whether you are in favor or against the 4-day week, he assumed the responsibility and honestly answered the question.

To make my position clear, I haven’t bought it yet. I want to buy it, so I checked some sources in favor, but they didn’t convince me.

In this article, I’ll summarize the arguments I found for both positions and a strategy for making it work for you or your team.

Arguments in favor of 4-day week

The arguments the supporters expose are related to productivity and personal/professional life balance:

• More productivity
• Less cost and better results for the company
• Less stress, absenteeism, and turnover
• Higher workers’ satisfaction
• Better Professional/Personal Life balance
• Workers’ health improvement

The idea is that the workers will improve their personal/professional life balance, making them happier and more satisfied with their jobs. With an extra day to rest, they will also have less stress and more time to dedicate to a healthy life, resulting in less absenteeism, burnout, and turnover. And they will start the following week more energized.

Consequently, they will increase their productivity, bringing better results for the company.

And finally, by avoiding working 1 day per week, the companies and workers will reduce their costs, also contributing to the results.

Arguments against 4-day week

In the same way, people who are against it have their arguments based on more production, equality, and mostly, questioning the validity of the statements in favor:

• More volume (production)
• Not suitable for every company
• Lower prices
• If it is so good, why aren’t more companies implementing it?
• Lack of a single position in favor

They sustain that a worker will produce more over 5 days than over 4, generating more revenue for the company.

This model will highly impact the companies or segments that depend on functioning time, generating a disadvantage for the sector.

To keep their doors open every day, these companies should hire more people, which will increase their costs and their prices.

The main question they ask is: Why wasn’t it adopted by every company if the results of the pilots were so positive and this would benefit every party?

Another argument is the divergency among the supporters. Some want it for every company as a law, but others would like it for specific teams that guarantee the same results as the 5-day work week.

So it’s unclear whether this should be a right or subject to achieving weekly goals.

My Point of View

As mentioned earlier, I haven't bought it.

The main reason is that I don’t think we will be more productive, happier, or healthier, but precisely the opposite.

Our productivity reduces when working longer hours, but this proposal doesn’t attack that (I could understand 6-hour days better than 4-day weeks). Even considering a productivity decrease, we do more in 5 days than in 4.

We may be happier the first few months after it was implemented. Once we are used to it, the effect disappears. To improve our happiness, we’d better create a more pleasing workplace instead of working fewer days.

The health argument is a tricky one. We are healthier during the week than on the weekends. We eat better and have better habits. More extended weekends mean longer periods of self-destruction. From a stress perspective, less time to achieve the same goals will only worsen things. The shift to a healthier life begins in our philosophy about our jobs and lives.

I don’t see that changing our working weeks from 5 days to 4 will bring us the expected benefits. We should work on improving the quality of those days.

4-Day week Implementation

If you are convinced that it is the way to go, or you just want to give it a try. How would you do it?

Let’s divide it into 2 classes, depending on if you want to implement it for yourself or your team.

Individual

This is the easy way. Become a freelancer and find a company that agrees to have your services for 4 days a week. If you charge 100 your hour, charge 125, and that's it.

If you prefer to be an employee, the best option would be to find a company that already works in that model. It’s harder to have different agreements with specific collaborators or to change the Company's mindset.

Collective

Here is where the challenge comes… Your team will love it at first. But you need to be clear on the objectives.

Define some metrics and start collecting them before making any changes or communication. They will guide you and give you relevant feedback.

Define your goals and act accordingly:

• Is it a test? Communicate clear and objective metrics. No one wants to hear that they must return to the 5-day model.
• Do you charge your clients per hour? Plan how you will raise your rates.
• If you have direct contact with clients, you may need to organize your team to deliver the proper service.

In both cases, for this model to work, you should be more efficient:

• Avoid interruptions.
• Cancel unnecessary meetings and communications. Remove non-required participants from them.
• Leave any personal activity for the day off.
• Improve processes and maximize the synergy in your team.

Conclusion

The 4-day week idea is gaining followers.

Its preponderant arguments are happiness, productivity, and health.

I don’t see that it is the way to achieve any of them, but we’d better change how we work and live.

You’ll face many challenges if you want to implement it. The only way is by doing and adjusting it.

Thank you for reading… Have a nice 2-day weekend.