Four-day work week reduces burnout and improves job satisfaction – study.
Maybe the PoO work week will be trimmed from six days to five. Then again, maybe not.
The report beneath the headline fleshed out the key findings of new workplace research in the first few sentences:
Working a four day week reduces burnout and improves job satisfaction, a new study has found.
The research out of Boston College in the United States tested the effect of reducing employees hours to a four-day week with no reduction in pay.
The study held six-month trials reducing the working hours for 2896 employees across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and the USA.
The outcomes of the trials were then compared with 12 control companies that did not transition to the shorter work week.
The researchers found that employees with a reduction of eight hours or more per work week self-reported experiencing larger reductions in burnout and improvements in job satisfaction and mental health, as compared with those at companies that maintained a five-day work week.
Oh – and “a small change in physical health” was also seen.
But the researchers said they expected this was less significant because changes in physical health take time to manifest.
According to an earlier OneNews report, we know that A four-day week can work – but there are challenges.
This report – originally published in The Conversation – was written by Miriam Marra, an Associate Professor of Finance at the ICMA Centre and Co-Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Henley Business School, University of Reading.
She said recent four-day working week trials in Britain had shown different outcomes.
Results from the biggest trial in the UK (involving more than 60 companies and nearly 3,000 employees) showed that 89% of participating companies are still implementing the four-day week, and 51% have decided to make it permanent. The study reveals a drop in employees’ burnout and fewer people leaving jobs, which is consistent with other studies.
A few days ago, the UK supermarket chain Asda concluded its own experiment with a four-day working week, deciding not to continue with it.
But at the same time, South Cambridgeshire Council has declared its trial, involving 450 desk staff and refuse collectors, as successful. It claims a boost in productivity, a 39% reduction in staff turnover and estimated savings of £371,500 ($788,000), mostly in staff agency costs, in what was the biggest-ever public sector trial in the UK.
Marra said it was important to distinguish between different types of experiments conducted by organisations.
The South Cambridgeshire Council’s trial was based on a work schedule where staff received 100% of their pay for 80% of their time, with a target of completing 100% of their work.
A similar working-time reduction was central to the larger UK four-day week experiment, where participating companies from a range of sectors and sizes were given the choice of implementing different solutions, maintaining 100% pay with a meaningful reduction in work time.
Asda’s four-day working week trial required squeezing 44 hours into four days rather than five, for the same pay.
Employees were asked to work a daily 11-hour shift, and some found this was too physically demanding and exhausting. It was also difficult for those with care responsibilities or those who relied on public transport.
Asda decided not to continue the experiment – but it announced that the trial of a flexible 39-hour week (over five days) would continue until the end of the year.
Marra wrote:
Flexible work solutions do not stop at the four-day working week, if organisations are willing to explore them.
But how will the idea go down with New Zealanders?
OneNews came up with the answer to that question in a report in May 2023:
Most New Zealanders are in favour of a shift to a four-day working week, the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll shows.
A majority polled, 63%, said they supported the “introduction of a four-day working week for New Zealand”. Only 22% of people polled opposed the notion, while 15% are unsure or refused to answer.
About 50 companies in New Zealand already had a four-day work week at that time.
PoO supposes the three-day week is not too far off.
If a four-day work week reduces burnout and improves job satisfaction, a three-day week surely must reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction even further…
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
Obviously and of course it is popular with desk workers who can easily still complete their tasks for the same pay and less hours (and from my experience in the public sector this is easy for the majority). But not so for those who get paid for the time that they labour (ie eg by the hour) for what they can produce in the hour. This is the difference between asking a labourer to, say, move as much dirt as they can for an hour, as opposed to move a ton of dirt for $65. I bet the labourer will find a way to move the ton of dirt in less than an hour. Now try telling the labourer that they are only going to work 32 hours and only get paid for 32 hours work because that is all they can output. Or are you going to pay them for another 8hrs just for existing and not having to do anything for it? Tell that to the business owner that they will get 80% of the effort for 100% of the cost. Not sure anyone would like to hear that from the builder/consultant they are trying to engage. Yet councils, government and companies that can hold the customer hostage (think banks and insurance companies) are all onboard.
We all know that working is actually a terrible thing no matter how many days a week.
It a necessary evil of modern life.
Unless you have been shrewd enough to gradually build passive streams of income.
Why work at all? Just receive the guaranteed " government" income and survive. No regard for productivity, tax revenue etc . Just " my easy life" guaranteed . (But I will still have complaints....)
The agenda 2030 plan. Public sector employent. Kill entrepreneurship.
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