{"id":55521,"date":"2022-02-15T08:38:36","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T16:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/?p=55521"},"modified":"2022-02-15T08:38:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T16:38:36","slug":"is-it-time-for-a-4-day-work-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/blog\/is-it-time-for-a-4-day-work-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Time for a 4-Day Work Week?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEight Days a Week,\u201d sang The Beatles, to express the amount of affection they had for their lady love. Was this a mathematical error? No, the standard seven days simply was \u201cnot enough to show I care.\u201d <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, there\u2019s a new refrain gaining steam in the business world \u2014 but rather than adding days into the week, companies and workers are thinking about removing them. The idea of a four-day workweek is making news today. Regardless of its ultimate trajectory, one thing is for sure \u2014 the standard five days is under scrutiny.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIs the <\/span>Four-Day Workweek<\/span><\/a> Finally Within Our Grasp?\u201d The New York Times poses this question in its \u201clatest DealBook special report on trends that will shape the coming decades.\u201d This article likens the concept to the approach to the overall increased flexibility many office workers have gained during the pandemic. First came working from home. Is the four-day workweek far off?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some companies have gone this route already. The online retailer <\/span>Primary<\/span><\/a> adopted this schedule to help protect its staff from COVID-induced burnout. The firm simply lopped off one day, namely Friday, from the usual workweek \u2014 no overtime or pay cut required. While employees at many companies have left in droves during this challenging time, most at this business have stayed put. What\u2019s more, some staff members still voluntarily choose to work on Friday at times. In December 2021, six months after this experiment began, Primary locked in the four-day workweek. For how long? \u201cIndefinitely.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A Historical Perspective<\/h4>\n

A radical idea came to fruition in 1938. That\u2019s when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the <\/span>Fair Labor Standards Act<\/span><\/a>. This law laid the groundwork for the minimum wage, overtime, and \u2014 ta-da! \u2014 the five-day workweek.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some years later, the notion of the four-day workweek began surfacing. In 1956, Vice President Nixon gave a speech in which he posited that the four-day workweek would arise in the \u201c<\/span>not too distant future<\/span><\/a>.\u201d During the oil crisis in 1977, President Jimmy Carter said he \u201cmay <\/span>urge industries<\/span><\/a> to go on a four-day work week\u201d to cut energy use. A year later, The Washington Post featured an article on \u201c<\/span>Pushing for a Shorter Work Week<\/span><\/a>.\u201d It noted that \u201cEver since the beginning of the 1970s, the 4-day work week has seemed to be just around the corner, but this time it looks for real.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what happened? The New York Times offers some reasons why the movement stalled. It puts them into several buckets, leading with the nation\u2019s economic travails for the subsequent 20 years. Corporate priorities is another factors, as are \u201cglobalization and the diminishing power of labor.\u201d That\u2019s quite a heavy load. Ergo sticking with the status quo ruled the day. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving to the present time, momentum has returned. So have grassroots activities on the legislative front. In 2021, Representative Mark Takano <\/span>submitted a bill<\/span><\/a> to decrease the workweek from 40 to 32 hours. It\u2019s backed by 13 colleagues.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the Future<\/h4>\n

COVID-19 landed in a big way during the first quarter of 2020. It disrupted life and work as we know it. How could businesses manage through the pandemic? They strategized and acted. Wherever and whenever possible, they designed work-from home-provisions. As the crisis permutated and prolonged, employers focused on a wide range of additional ways to keep going in troubled times. Some eyes pored over pilots of four-day workweeks to draw upon these experiences. The nation of Iceland is a case in point.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An early adopter, Iceland started down this path in 2015 at the behest of trade union and civil rights organizations. Two trials ultimately involved 2,500 workers; that equated to more than 1% of the workforce. But that was just the beginning. \u201c<\/span>Going public: Iceland\u2019s journey to a shorter working week<\/span><\/a>\u201d explains the progress of the initiative in full. The intent was manifold. It aimed to help workers without sacrificing pay. At the same time, it sought to benefit businesses.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n