Companies all over the world are looking for ways to cut costs and make their employees happier at the same time – and one idea that keeps getting tossed around is the idea of a four-day work week.
There are studies being done, but in the meantime, what do regular people think about the idea? Let’s find out!
Life would be better.
Life would be that much better. I would have somewhere around 50 extra days a year to do all the yard work and home projects that I don’t want to spend all weekend doing.
More time to play.
Working a 5 day work week just makes life seem so much more pointless. By the time I get the other things I need to do (grocery shopping, appointments, etc.) done, its Sunday night.
A 4 day work week might give me time to play the piano I bought to combat depression.
A slam-dunk yes.
When you put it like that (~52 extra days per year), it becomes a slam dunk yes. Unfortunately I am teacher, and it won’t switch for me unless the rest of society changes to it first. Only districts that do 4 days right now tend to be rural.
We could get back some sleep.
Honestly, the lack of time is why I’m consciously killing my sleep schedule. Kiddo’s down and everything by 9, stay up til midnight or later to make sure I spend time with my wife and also have some “me” time.
And if something else comes up, I just end up staying up later to feel like I didn’t waste my entire day at work/doing chores around the house just to turn around and do it all over again.
Hello, coffee, my old friend…
People are gonna people.
They talked about this in the 70s. Yay everyone said. My dad did it. He worked 4 12+ hr days and took off Friday. Everyone else was like, if I work the 12 hrs the 4 days plus another 12, I can make even more money! Yay!
More time for self-care.
My employer gives us every other Friday off. We work 80 hours over 9 days (M-F, M-Th). It’s really helpful to have those Fridays to schedule appointments, and I have less desire to burn PTO throughout the year just to take a much-needed Friday off (through the end of October,
I had only used 2.5 PTO hours for the year, mostly for doctor’s visits). The only real downside is that on the Fridays that we do work, nobody wants to do anything.
Missing the point.
I feel like people are missing the point, which is that we need to shorten the work week/amount of time spent at work. When people say we should switch to 4 day work weeks, they don’t mean 4 tens or 4 twelves.
We need to WORK LESS, meaning 4 day weeks that are still 8 hour days (or less, because most people could get the same amount of work done in 4 five or six hour days as they do spreading it out over 5 eights and procrastinating at work as much as they can).
With adding in commuting time, and any time outside of work spent thinking about work, answering texts or emails, etc., the average adult spends way too much time on work.
They all love it.
My company switched to 4 10 hour days. We are diesel technicians and work 7-5:30. Half of us work Monday through Thursday and the other half work Tuesday through Friday. We have did this for over two years and we all love it. It is so nice to have a three day weekend every week. Another thing about it that is nice is if you doctors appointment or something I can make it on a Monday and don’t have to miss any work.
Plus I forgot to mention having a two month this helps out a ton. More time for me to be with my wife and daughter. And if there is a lot to do I can just come in on Monday and boom 10 hours of overtime.
A husk of a person.
I’ll take the drop in salary. My biggest complain…probably in general, is that there is no way to take extra time off. I can only take 2.5 weeks a year and that is just stupid. Life becomes slaving away constantly without leaving the same 10 mile radius. That goes on for decades. Leads to extreme depression.
We only get one life and we make a sick joke out of it because there is no other way to survive. And then it degrades your morale even more until you are a helpless husk of a person who can’t find a way out.
It makes too much sense.
I work in public works for a city in Minnesota and we’re trying to go from 5 8’s to 4 10’s during the summer.
People are fighting it because “But that’s two more hours a day I have to work! I won’t be getting off at 330 but rather 4:30 if we start at 6am (instead of 7) or 5:30 if we still start at 7!”
Yeah but you get that ENTIRE day off. 24 full hours to spend doing house/yard work. 24 full hours to spend with your family. 24 hours to do nothing compared to that measly 2 hours a day. You’d EASILY catch up on the stuff you’re missing out on by working 2 extra hours a day.
24 hours off is more than 10 hours off.
That adds up to WEEKS (4 days off a month for 5 months would be 20 days off….just short of 3 weeks) off during the summer instead of 4-5 days adding up that two hours a day.
Then you think about the money you’re saving by not driving…..I drive 60 miles a day. I get 20 to the gallon. That’s 3 gallons of gas per day. 15 gallons a week. Say a gallon of gas is about $3….that’s $45/week. Trim that to 12 gallons a week…$36. That’s $9 saved a week over 20 weeks….$180 saved over 5 months. That’s an extra $18 an hour on top of your regular $25/hour.
Then you’re saving PTO/Sick/Comp time by not using those days to get an extended weekend. That’s even MORE money saved and MORE time off.
It makes too much sense NOT to do it.
Health insurance or other benefits.
My biggest concern is that health insurance, retirement benefits, etc., are tied to employment in the United States. I’d happily work fewer hours for less pay if I could also maintain healthcare coverage and other benefits.
Health insurance and retirement benefits shouldn’t be tied to employment. It hamstrings employees, effectively retracting our freedom to move on to other employment or start our own businesses.
Less than 40 hours would be better.
it confuses me how everyone considers the alternate of 5×8 to be 4×10 rather than just 4×8.
what people are missing out on from these studies is that our 40 hour work week is no longer efficient, and in many cases working less is more efficient, and provides multitudes of other additional benefits (mental wellbeing being one of them)
i think it largely stems from something along the lines of how the relationship between an employee and their work is cultivated having a significant impact on work efficiency coupled with people don’t work or do things in the same ways that they used to.
in other words, it’s time to let go of the old ways and move forward
The biggest downside.
I work four 9-hour days and then half-day Fridays. The Fridays themselves are awesome because even though it’s a “half day”, with the proximity to the weekend and how many people take those days off they’re barely work days at all. Not stressful at all. This is awesome too because you can get a 3 day weekend by only taking a half-vacation day.
The biggest downside that people don’t realize is how much working a 9 hour (or 10 hour, usually I’m here from 8-6) day really sucks. You arrive when it’s dark, you leave when it’s dark, and by the time you get home it’s 6:30/7 and you can do 1 thing before needing to go to bed. Working out, cooking, cleaning, all become a lot harder when you’re home at that hour instead of home at 5/5:30 every day.
The half day Fridays themselves can be a lot of fun in summer when there are things to do, but you know what happens in winter? I go home at 12 and sleep for a couple hours to make up for sleep deprivation earlier in the week lol. It all evens out in the end.
Making society better.
While having the option to do 4 10 hour days would be nice (people could decide if it would improve their lives), it’s a terrible plan from the perspective of societal benefit. No matter how much idiot workaholics claim otherwise, productivity is not steady across an 8 hour day. Most people can do, in a 6 hour day, the same level of productivity they could in an 8. Maybe 10% less. MAYBE.
If we want to make society better people should work closer in line to school. 9-3 (30 hour week) makes a lot more sense and then most of us wouldn’t need a 4 day week to get stuff done. There’d still be time to get stuff done during the week.
And those without kids? Give them the option of 4 8 hour days. Most of them would probably prefer the day off.
Promise.
I think a lot of employers would insist on a 20% pay cut if you suddenly worked 20% fewer hours.
Personally I think people waste a lot of time at work and changing to a 32 hour 4 day workweek would not significantly impact productivity.
Making that argument is awkward tho “hey boss I actually waste like 8 hours a week currently so like if you switch me to a 32 hour workweek I’ll do the same amount of work. promise.”
I think it’s worth a shot, for sure.
I mean, we’ve tried more work, how about less?
