04/03/2024

Work Less, Achieve More

Examining the four-day workweek debate

The call for working less has put enormous pressure on today's organizations. What happened to work ethics, morals and self-discipline? The global lockdown has highlighted numerous tensions, among which the concept of the four-day workweek has become a particularly heated topic. Currently, it garners significant attention from both researchers and practitioners. While it has received support from various quarters, there are also many skeptics. These skeptics doubt the feasibility of the four-day workweek for four main reasons, as listed below:

1 – The organization

From an organizational perspective, if employees were to suddenly flag that they could bring down the work they had been doing for years from five days to four days, one could argue – fine, but then their role should be reduced to 80 percent. To regain 100 percent, they would need to prove an increase in both output and performance. This would also imply that the same employee has been overpaid for years – being paid for five days' work – while the work was merely worth four days.

2 – The human

Human behaviour is somewhat predictable, and, by exploring behavioral patterns, two distinct themes emerge.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Boardroom.