A shorter working week can boost productivity and mean a better work-life balance for staff, argues John Fitzsimons.
Many of us will have had a taste of shorter working weeks of late thanks to bank holidays, meaning a little bit of extra time at home with our loved ones, recharging our batteries.
But imagine this was a more permanent arrangement? A new trial means that, for the next six months at least, these shorter weeks will be the default for thousands of UK workers.
A trial has just started, involving around 70 British firms, which will see them adopt four-day working weeks.
The pilot scheme is being managed by academics from top universities both here and in the US, alongside the Autonomy think tank.
There are all sorts of different businesses taking part, from charities and IT firms to a local fish and chip shop.
Crucially, during the trial employees will still receive their usual salaries.
So while they will work 80% of their usual hours, there will be no corresponding drop in their incomes.
Each of the businesses taking part in the trial have received workshops and mentoring from other firms who have already successfully moved to a four-day working week, while researchers will be monitoring productivity and wellbeing metrics throughout the trial to establish whether it is successful.
Working smarter, not longer
The organisers of the trial argue that our idea of a five-day working week has been largely unchanged for a century, which means it’s time for a fresh approach.
The thinking goes that all too often workers could actually get all of their work done within four days, rather than five, but we are simply too used to our current work structure.
If we trimmed the working week, employees would not only be more focused, they would also be fresher and more motivated as they are enjoying the benefits of longer weekends.
In theory, there are benefits for everyone involved.
The staff enjoy a better work/life balance, meaning more time with loved ones, as well as freeing them up to carry out ‘life admin’ tasks in their own time rather than at work.
And employers will also be able to lower their overheads, without an impact on their sales, meaning greater profits. What’s more, offering a four-day week may also mean you appeal to a greater number of quality employees.
The rest of us should benefit too. If we are dealing with more productive firms, then we should be getting a better quality ‒ or perhaps more competitively priced ‒ goods and services. There may be positive impacts on the environment too.
My own four-day week experiences
It’s been almost six years now since I went freelance, meaning I have more say over precisely when I work.
And there have been months where I’ve set out to work a four-day week, with the idea of doing about the same amount of work as usual, but with an extra day off to top up the weekend.
When it has worked, it has been fantastic. It isn’t exactly hugely surprising that having extra time off makes a difference when it comes to recharging your batteries; I know that I was always more focused and productive following on from a longer weekend.
Of course, the tricky point there is that it didn’t always work.
When you work for yourself, your workloads can inevitably be a little more up and down ‒ there were some times when it simply wasn’t possible to fit in the work I needed to do within those four days.
However, it’s clear to me that in job roles where the workloads are a little more consistent and predictable, there’s no reason that a four-day week cannot work.
Delivering choice
Obviously, there will be some jobs where a four-day work simply isn’t an option. And businesses for whom it won’t make sense to introduce such a working structure.
But that doesn’t mean that four-day weeks are unworkable; simply that they should not necessarily be the default.
The pandemic was a really important reminder that we can adapt, we can find new ways of working when necessary.
There’s no reason to wait for what feels like the apocalypse for us to be innovative about how we work, it just takes some bosses ‒ and their staff ‒ to be a little more creative and open-minded about attempting something different.
And there are potentially some real benefits to be found from working a slimmer, more productive week.
A more motivated and energetic workforce is likely to be more productive in the office, never mind the additional benefits they may experience in their personal lives.
I really hope this trial is successful.
A four-day week isn’t going to be the answer for everyone, but it can work for some.
Workers and consumers alike will benefit from it at least being an option in those industries.