Author Topic: 4 day workweek study  (Read 2732 times)

bacchi

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4 day workweek study
« on: November 30, 2022, 08:48:21 AM »
In no surprise to anyone, 97% of responding workers in a study said they wanted to continue the 4 day work week. More surprising is that companies rated the productivity and performance of their 4 day employees as a 9 out of 10.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/30/business/4-day-work-week-results/index.html

I'd guess that there wasn't lowered productivity because there's that much slop in a normal work week. Workers only limited to the weekend for errands carve out parts of the work day for shopping, making appointments, and investing.

chasingsnow

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2022, 06:26:36 PM »
I just started a new job where I went from a 5 day work week to a 4 day work week. Its only been 3 weeks, but its been life changing. Im more productive and care more about work, and I also feel like my life is so much more balanced, I handle stress easier, and my schedule has become so much more flexible to do the things I enjoy.

JLee

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2022, 06:41:11 PM »
I hope this catches on - it'd be a massive recruiting & retention tool as well.

GilesMM

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2022, 06:51:18 PM »
I worked a 9/80 schedule most of my career.  Fridays off were wonderful. Fridays on were pretty good as well - no meetings, just get caught up on stuff, leave early.

dang1

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2022, 10:10:12 PM »
For about 2 years now, I'm now off Sat to Mon, love it

johndoe

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2022, 07:16:52 AM »
Maybe I missed it, but for hourly (rather than salaried) employees is this a reduction in hours worked or just compressing it to 4 days?  I typically work 40hr weeks and have tried 5dayx8hr, half day Fridays, and 4dayx10hr.  Im not sure at the end of weeks it's really THAT different as my non-work productivity just shifts around too (i.e. after working 10hr I'm more tired at home and don't feel like being active)

If they're actually reducing hours worked...well that's totally different. I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).  There is no way i could reduce hours worked without proportionally reducing productivity.

RWD

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2022, 07:58:33 AM »
I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).
Your average coworker sounds extremely efficient then.

johndoe

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2022, 04:22:56 PM »
I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).
Your average coworker sounds extremely efficient then.

Lol no I think the bar is extremely low

RWD

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2022, 01:59:48 PM »
I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).
Your average coworker sounds extremely efficient then.

Lol no I think the bar is extremely low

I think your bar is way too high if you think 90% non-wasted hours is lacking a work ethic. That's an "A" grade in my book.

Villanelle

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2022, 04:23:05 PM »
I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).
Your average coworker sounds extremely efficient then.

Lol no I think the bar is extremely low

I think your bar is way too high if you think 90% non-wasted hours is lacking a work ethic. That's an "A" grade in my book.

I agree. I had a job where I almost literally begged for more work.  Multiple times.  They were always about to restructure everyone's workload, or were going to take a look at things once they hired to fill a couple vacancies (and by the time that happened, someone else had inevitably quit), or some other excuse.  I'd made it known that I was no where near capacity and clearly they didn't really care, so I stopped asking.  There were weeks where I likely worked 20 hours at my full time job, and I wasn't alone (though I was one of the only ones--if not the only one--who drew attention to it and tried to get more work. 

I think 3-4 hours per week of getting coffee and taking a long lunch and asking Bill about his grandkids when you meet at the copier and calling the DMV to make an appointment (and then taking a 2 hour lunch the following week to go to that DMV appointment) and popping online to pay your credit card bill, and etc. is probably on the low end of wasted time during a workweek.  And the longer the workweek, the more time is likely wasted.  If you are never home when the DMV is open, you can't make that call during your off time.  I think that's part of what this 4 day workweek experiment showed.

And yes, my understanding was that this was not a 4/10 schedule.  They actually cut 1/5 of the work time.  For hourly employees, I'd don't know how they handled that, but based on what I've read about the experiment, I'd guess the increased pay by 1/5 so that pay was the same.  That was kind of the point.  Everyone is paid the same, to work less (or be at work fewer hours), as an experiment, and the experiment showed that productivity didn't decrease.  Because people actually worked when they were at work, and they saved the DMV stuff for their off time.  They didn't have as much time to waste, so they didn't waste it. 

johndoe

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2022, 07:02:29 AM »
I'm a civil servant who seems to have a rare work ethic (wouldn't at all be surprised if my average coworker wastes 3-4hr / week).
Your average coworker sounds extremely efficient then.

Lol no I think the bar is extremely low

I think your bar is way too high if you think 90% non-wasted hours is lacking a work ethic. That's an "A" grade in my book.

As I said I've realized my outlook is rare, but i think if you're working for taxpayers you should be working the whole time you're on the clock.  If you want to use a school analogy, I'd say it's more like leaving 10% of the test questions blank.

So if Villa is right and it really is a 20% cut in time worked, that's crazy to me.  I'm no Elon musk ("if you want to work here you better be ready for 80hr week" super hardcore ) but would expect less waste than 20% (or even 10%).  Maybe I'm weird to be doing something I care about...clearly I'm the sucker as I work away in my cube and everyone else does whatever they please for twice my salary :)

Blackeagle

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2022, 06:59:44 AM »
40 hours a week may work for some jobs, but most people can only sustain 4-5 hours a day of complex knowledge work over the long term.  The rest of the time gets filled with what can charitably be called “admin work.” In many jobs is just pointless busywork that exists in service of the idea that workers should be working for 8 hours a day. 

bacchi

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2022, 02:05:20 PM »
40 hours a week may work for some jobs, but most people can only sustain 4-5 hours a day of complex knowledge work over the long term.  The rest of the time gets filled with what can charitably be called “admin work.” In many jobs is just pointless busywork that exists in service of the idea that workers should be working for 8 hours a day.

Exactly. I've worked a heads down, focused, 40/week schedule for late projects and it's exhausting. All I wanted to do when I got home was order in, watch some shitty tv, and then go to bed. Meanwhile, errands would stack up.

iris lily

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #13 on: December 27, 2022, 02:33:31 PM »
So how does this work for jobs that serve the public, the face out to the public? Is the organization just closed one more day in the week, or?

Villanelle

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #14 on: December 27, 2022, 04:00:52 PM »
40 hours a week may work for some jobs, but most people can only sustain 4-5 hours a day of complex knowledge work over the long term.  The rest of the time gets filled with what can charitably be called “admin work.” In many jobs is just pointless busywork that exists in service of the idea that workers should be working for 8 hours a day.

If we assume people waste 25% of their 4hr/5d work time, that still allows a small but of wasted time each day.  There's also the meta work that likely scales down per day.  Logging on to your computer and opening all the various systems and databases takes 10 minutes in the morning.  You don't prorate the 10 minutes for Friday when you aren't working.  A few more of those, and you are easily up to 30 minutes of slush time.

And of course there is always going to be admin work.  Even if you get rid of a lot of the busy work, there will still be forms and trackers and emails, and those give a break from the complex knowledge work. 

clarkfan1979

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #15 on: December 29, 2022, 04:00:41 AM »
I teach college and pretty much have always had a 4-day week (M-Th) with a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun). 

My wife has been working part-time since 2015, but would occasionally work on Fridays or weekends. For the past 18 months, we have been enjoying 3 day weekends (Fri-Sun). It's pretty awesome. A 3-day weekend is exponentially than a 2-day weekend.

Our son is also on a M-Th schedule with school. The entire district is on a M-Th schedule. All three of us have a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun). It's been awesome.

meadow lark

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #16 on: December 29, 2022, 01:48:06 PM »
Ooo, I wouldn’t want school to be only 4 days.  I am desperate to get my grandson back in daycare by Monday morning!

eyesonthehorizon

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Re: 4 day workweek study
« Reply #17 on: March 04, 2023, 12:37:01 PM »
Ooo, I wouldn’t want school to be only 4 days.  I am desperate to get my grandson back in daycare by Monday morning!

Kids should keep 5-day schooling but get two periods of one-hour recess per day, they'd focus better & have better health. Class rotation could allow teachers a four-day week.