Another benefit to well-being, respondents noted, was the reduction of commutes. The standard full-time workweek for Americans is eight hours per day, five days a week. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Beyond current-day discontent, there’s also the future to consider — Steinman believes four-day workweeks should be integrated into an economy increasingly relying on AI and automation in the workplace. Question. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. Last month, one of us (Ben) worked with colleagues at Henley Business School to survey 505 business leaders and more than 2,000 employees in the UK to better understand the impact of the four-day week on Britain’s modern workforce. The results show a mixed bag of benefits and costs. Ultimately the 4-Day Week campaign goal is to bring an eight-hour work day for four days a week within the realm of possibility. Netherlands Work Week. How have most firms implemented a shorter week? All rights reserved. Company executives said the shorter working week resulted in additional benefits. Copyright © 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing. While in office in that position, Marin advocated for shorter work weeks to improve employee rapport and productivity. Two-thirds (67%) of Gen Z respondents said a four-day workweek influences who they want to work for. Since the Wellcome Trust backtracking, business groups including the Confederation of British Industry have warned that mandating shorter workweeks weakens industry while hurting employment by increasing the cost of labor. Since then it has spread and become common employment practice, with the option offered to workers in all sectors of the economy. Four-Day Workweek . In organizations in which a shorter workweek has been implemented, nearly two-thirds (64%) of leaders reported increases in staff productivity and work quality due to a reduction of sick days and overall increased well-being. Dutch laws promote a work-life balance and protect part-time workers. However, a four-day week can also be a fixed work schedu… The practice is judged particularly attractive by 75% of the Gen Z and Gen X people we surveyed — and rather than relaxing, they’re using their additional time to upskill, volunteer, and build side hustles. About 86% of employed mothers worked 34 hours or less each week … Many organizations in Europe are cutting workweeks, though not wages, from 36 hours (five days) to 28 hours (four days) to reduce burnout and make workers happier, more productive, and more committed to their employers. Proponents of a 4-day workweek argue that 30- or 32-hour week leads to productivity rise and brings job satisfaction, without harming overall work results. The company monitored the effects a three-day weekend would have on workers' performance. The country normally has a four-day work week, particularly with working mothers. Among fathers, about 12% also worked a shortened workweek. Many organizations in Europe are cutting workweeks, though not wages, from 36 hours (five days) to 28 hours (four days) to reduce burnout and make workers happier, more productive, and more committed to their employers. In Germany, a 2018 report from the OECD put the average working week for both full-time and part-time workers at 34 hours a week, in contrast to France's 36 and the UK's 37 (The Netherlands has the lowest figure for Europe, with employees on an average of 29 hours a week). A 4-day work week in the United States is usually defined as a schedule where ten hours of work must occur during the day. The four-day workweek is not a new idea: France implemented a reduction of working hours (les 35 heures) almost 20 years ago to create better work-life balance for the nation. All these elements make it unlikely, from our point of view, that the practice will spread en masse in the near future. Despite this, Britons work more hours a week on average than they did in 2011 – and research shows two-thirds would like to reduce the amount of time they spend in the office. Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The answer is no, it will be too expensive.”. Privacy Policy. However, while you turn to a four-day work week, you still work 40 hours, but you figure 10 hours in step with a day. Critics filed a motion that called on the city council to kill the plan, arguing it was unfair to continue investing taxpayers’ money in a scheme that was not economically sustainable. A four day work week isn’t a compressed work schedule, but rather reduced hours. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. better understand the impact of the four-day week on Britain’s modern workforce. In 2019 the London-based Wellcome Trust, the world’s second-biggest research donor, ended a four-day week for its 800 head office staff; it was “too operationally complex to implement.” In the U.S., Treehouse, a large tech HR firm, implemented a four-day week in 2016, but as the firm failed to keep up with competition, it reverted to a five-day week. A four-day work week might be exactly what the U.S. — and its economy — needs right now ... author of "The 4 Day Week" and co-founder of the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global. The Reading / Listening - 4-Day Work Week - Level 6 The technology company Microsoft has said it successfully trialed a four-day working week in Japan, which saw improvements in workers' productivity and job satisfaction. The usual complete-time work week for people is eight hours in step with the day, five days every week. Then, in exchange for the two extra hours above the regular full-time shift, the employee receives an extra day off each week. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 The company asked its 240 office workers to work a four-day week (at eight hours per day) instead of five days, while still being paid their usual five-day salary. And a poll conducted last year by The Workforce Institute, a think tank at Kronos, a maker of work force management software, found that 34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day … The compressed four-day work week has gained renewed attention since COVID-19 changed the way people work. For the latest business news and markets data, please visit CNN Morningstar: © 2018 a "four-ten" week. All times are ET. The measure is still heavily debated, with proponents saying it created jobs and preserves work-life balance and critics saying it reduces the competitiveness of French firms. Microsoft experimented with a 4-day workweek, and productivity jumped by 40%. One less day at work helps make the weekly commute more bearable. It sounds too good to be true, but this debate is front and center within numerous European economies, not only because of a culture shift toward accommodating flexible working but also because some evidence suggests it’s good for business. Dutch laws passed in 2000 to protect and promote work-life balance entitle all workers to fully paid vacation days and maternity and paternity leave. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Leading today’s trend is the Netherlands, ... One less day at work helps make the weekly commute more bearable. Amazon, Deloitte, Google experiment with work/time off ratio and the results happen to be promising. In … The plan was subsequently scrapped in 2017, and Daniel Bernmar, the councilor responsible for running Gothenburg’s elderly care said, “Could we do this [again]? In the Netherlands an employee can legally work a maximum of 12 hours per shift and a maximum of 60 hours per week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Netherlands was revealed to have the best work week schedule in the world. People have toyed with the idea of a 4-day workweek for over 80 years. At the cutting edge, the Netherlands has roughly a four-day work week already. ... ..in Netherlands Today, friday, 22 january, 2021 Working day : yes Week : 03 / 52 Day of the year : 22 / 365 Working day of the year : 15 / 255 Before Marin became Prime Minister she held a position as the Minister of Transport for Finland. The debate over the four-day workweek is front and center within numerous European economies, not only because of a culture shift toward accommodating flexible working but also because some evidence suggests it’s good for business. Here are 10 industrialized nations where workers have shorter hours. The four-day workweek is nearly standard in the Netherlands, especially among working moms. But the four-day workweek is not yet a silver bullet. Among workers, 77% identified a clear link between the four-day week and better quality of life. But some experts say employers should consider another type of four-day work week… As a result, job-sharing has become the norm in the health and education sectors. Should more businesses follow the same model? To make the initiative work, there has been a little give and take. While it can bring clear benefits with regards to employees’ well-being and ability to focus, implementation across organizations is made difficult by competitive and structural pressures in some sectors. I want to get people talking, make people believe that we can change a system. The results show a mixed bag of benefits and costs. Leading today’s trend is the Netherlands, where the average weekly working time (taking into account both full-time and part-time workers) is about 29 hours — the lowest of any industrialized nation, according to the OECD. During a compressed workweek, you work four days a week and have a three-day weekend. A WarnerMedia Company. Here's how the concept has evolved, from the Great Depression to Microsoft's latest successful experiment. Nearly half (45%) of those we surveyed worried that spending less time at work would make colleagues think they’re lazy. This is all determined by employee wishes and commercial enterprise desires. Responding to a recession in the early 1990s, the public sector in the Netherlands began offering a four-day week to staff to save money. But most advanced countries fall well short of that mark, never mind two-day … T he '4-Day Week Ireland' group is the homegrown leg of an international coalition of unions, business, environmental and women's groups who are promoting the benefits of a shorter working week. “A four-day workweek, a six-hour workday. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. Work four days a week, but get paid for five? Researchers surveyed 505 business leaders and more than 2,000 employees in the UK to better understand the impact of the shorter week on Britain’s modern workforce. Netherlands is among the nations with the shortest work weeks, according to CNN Money. This arrangement can be a part of flexible working hours, and is sometimes used to cut costs, as seen in the example of the so-called "4/10 work week," where employees work a normal 40 hours across four days, i.e. "Some might prefer that the day start later than earlier, that’s why we're going to talk it out with the union." It instituted shifts for an eight-hour day five days a week way back in 1926. Business. About 86% of employed mothers worked 34 hours or less each week last year, according to Dutch government statistics. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. All Rights Reserved.Terms and/or its affiliates. © 2020 Overall, the entire workforce averages around 29 hours a week -- the lowest of any industrialized nation, according to the OECD. The idea of a four-day working week is gaining momentum. I've talked to random people on the street and they say they love the idea of a 8 hr x 4 day work week but they are not sure how it will happen and thus they don't seem to care anymore. under which this service is provided to you. Before that, railroad workers were required to work an eight-hour shift. A law passed in 2000 also gives workers the right to reduce their hours to a part-time schedule, while keeping their job, hourly pay, health care and pro-rated benefits. But she’s also advocating for something else: the 4 day work week. Such a path would help us understand under which conditions a shorter workweek might succeed and when the benefits can outweigh the costs. While it enables firms to build competitive advantages with regards to their employer brand, the survey found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of leaders cited concerns: regulations regarding work contracts, and the associated bureaucracy to implement the four-day week, as well as challenges around staffing. Productivity rose by 40 per cent and 92 per cent of employees expressed their satisfaction with the scheme. Add/substract days/working days to a date. Many UK organizations are also playing with the idea. All workers there are entitled to fully paid vacation days, maternity and paternity leave. I want to change that slowly in my province. Do Not Sell, The 5 most competitive countries in the world, You Can Still Buy This "Millionaire Maker" Stock, Bitcoin Up 30,000X -- Here's Your Backdoor In, This Stock Could Be Like Buying Amazon for $3.19. A company in New Zealand has fully adopted a 4-day work week policy, after trialling the policy to what it said was a great success.. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. Europe does it better Time and again we hear that working 40 hours a week is too much. Still, the idea requires proper consideration, and the potential benefits suggest a trial-and-error approach is the best way forward. When you switch to a four-day workweek, you still work 40 hours, but you work 10 hours per day for four days.You do not have to have everyone on the staff work a four-day week; you can decide based on employee wants and your business needs. Disclaimer. The four-day workweek is nearly standard in the Netherlands, especially among working moms. Some organizations have also scrapped efforts toward a four-day week. Americans work an average of 38 hours a week, even after factoring in part-time jobs. In addition, there are still some negative perceptions of the practice, as well as concerns among workers regarding the way they will be seen by their peers and superiors. Half of the UK business leaders we surveyed reported that they’ve enabled a four-day workweek for some or all of their full-time employees, noting that employee satisfaction has improved, employee sickness has reduced, and savings of almost £92 billion (around 2% of total turnover) are being made each year. This allows firms to meet their customers’ demands by keeping premises open all week. Calculate the number of working days, work hours and holidays between two dates in Netherlands. Take Swedish health care, for example: The city of Gothenburg needed to hire more nurses to cover hours lost when implementing a six-hour workday in 2015, costing the city $1.3 million. A four-day week, or a compressed work schedule, is an arrangement where a workplace or school has its employees or students work or attend school over the course of four days per week rather than the more customary five. Some companies require employees to still work 40 hours a week. So, the employee would work around 28 hours over four days and have a three-day weekend. The recent attempts in the UK suggest the debate around the four-day workweek is only starting. A full-pay, four-day work week was a success at this company. Cable News Network. This suggests there is a paradox in how employees perceive the practice: They want it implemented but are afraid to engage with it as first movers. Netherlands has an average of 29 working hours per week and an average annual income amounting to $47,000. Another success story from the UK, 15-strong Radioactive PR trialled the four-day work week in June 2018 but made the arrangement permanent after positive employee and client feedback. The Labour Party has included it in its 2019 electoral manifesto, and Microsoft Japan … Work-life balance will be a challenge for employees clocking 10 hours a day. A 4 day work week may seem like a radical idea, but we’ve gradually reduced the number of hours worked within a typical work week since the late 19th century. “Simple solutions like this can add up — and ultimately, free up time — if an enterprise was looking to go down to a 4-day work week,” he added. 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