Should We Switch To a Four-day Work Week?
Everybody's working for the weekend, so why not make the weekend a little longer?
According to The Guardian, a shorter work week might be just what we all need.
New Zealand financial services company's trial four-day work week "resulted in a 20% rise in productivity, appeared to have helped increase profits and improved staff well being". The work week switch up also showed reduced stress and increased staff engagement.
Sounds great, right? So, why isn't every company switching to a four-day work week?
A branch manager during the trial run says the biggest issue with a compressed work week is complacency.
“The biggest concern from an employer point of view is ensuring that the full-time introduction of the policy doesn’t lead to complacency, with the risk that people’s productivity will slip back. To guard against this happening we’ve spent a lot of time making sure every person in every team has their own plan as to how they’re going to maintain and even improve their productivity.”
-- Tammy Barker, branch manager
Tammy also chimed in saying that she found working a shorter week increased her focus on tasks, because she was actually accomplishing tasks before moving on to the next thing instead of multitasking everything.
Would you want to switch to a four-day work week?