The Four-day Work Week: Implementation and its results

Barath Manohar
School of Management, Sri Krishna College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641 042, India.
ABSTRACT

“A Four-day Work Week or Compressed Work Schedule, is a new work schedule to bring out in
many countries. After the rise of Covid, this 4day Work Week process has made a great impact among global
companies. This change in the arrangement of Workforce mainly notices the “performance, satisfaction and
Work-life Balance of an individual”. Even though, many experts say ‘NO’ to this implementation, surprisingly
India is at the tail end, that it would enforce the new labour codes in no time. Several reviews and analysis
show that this compressed schedule format will be more effective, efficient and also resource-saving collating
with the previous one (5day or 6day workweek). Moreover, the trails and end results taken by many
international firms and governments suggest that now or sooner we should adopt to it.”
Keywords---Productivity, life satisfaction, compressed work schedule, four-day work, leisure.

INTRODUCTION

After the long pandemic, a new cause faced by the whole earth, which leads people and professionals to raise
a question, “why are we working in the same way for many decades?” We have made many changes in
lifestyle, culture, technology, laws and policies, but our working pattern has not changed yet, why? The reason
for the question takes us thousands of years ago, when the Babylonians created the seven-day week by the
reference of seven planets in the universe. The Romans followed 10-day week whereas people in Egypt
followed 8-day week calendar. One revolution of earth around the sun denotes a year. One rotation of earth
through its axis forms one day but considering a week, is there any universal reason behind it? The answer is
‘NO’. Before 100 years, workers often worked for 7-day per week. In those days, the average working time
is 10 to 14 hours. Practitioners of Christianity took Sundays off, as they believed that day as the Christian day
of rest. Islamic countries provided Friday leave for their worship. Most of the employees in Germany and US
are Jewish and took Saturday off for their religious reverence. So, the owners of the firms in order to give
respect for the religious belief, provided two days off. This pattern was distributed across the nations and later
some labor unions are also ready to implement it. These incidents have made it possible in Second Industrial
Revolution ending in 1914. The gains of five-day work week have benefitted completely. We are people in
post-pandemic period. We should know how we want to work in smarter and time-consuming ways.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The enthusiasm for this new method has been motivated often by two main beliefs. First, it is argued that
shorter working weeks will give productivity a peak (Coote et al, 2020). Second, lesser working days can be
associated with higher levels of satisfaction and improved work-life balance (Gash et al, 2018). More recently,
shorter working days have also proved to produce high employment in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic
(Frey et al, 2020).

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OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTION

The main objective of this research paper is to show the several reasons behind the enactment of four-day
work week with many positive results. The focus of the paper is to look at the outcomes of trials and
experiments done by global companies and see how the positive results overweighs the negative reviews.
Some industrialists say that this arrangement in workforce may not be applicable for manufacturing,
consulting and shift-based companies. Therefore, the research question for this paper would be, “Even though
four-day work week will be implemented in coming days, whether it’s application works only in specific
selected companies?”

VARIABLES TO FORECAST:

A) PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY---Labors are considered as the greatest asset in a company.

Labor productivity is an important element which affects the profit of the organization and performance
of an individual. Still, many of us remains unknown about the effect of working hours on productivity.
There are two possibilities in their relation. On the one hand, longer working hours increases productivity
if the working condition for the labor is good with fixed set-up which leads to production of higher output.
On the other hand, longer work results in fatigue, then the workers after reaching their limit, the
productivity falls comparatively. If neither of these choices happen, there is also another possibility, in
which the marginal productivity does not vary with working. All the organizations those have made
experiments in compressed work week results with the second choice i.e., decrease in working days
increases performance. Many evidence proves the negative relationship between hours and productivity,
but the correlation value remains constant. It was first recognized by George Elton Mayo by his experiment
called ‘Hawthorne Experiment’ (in late 1920s), in which the labors are subjected to four different working
conditions. As a result, it concludes that workers who work with homogenous mind with lesser time
increases productivity. So, these factors are calculated by using regression and correlation analysis.

(Figure 1: Descriptive Analysis of productivity and working hours)

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The regression equation may be: 𝒚=𝜶+𝜷𝒙+𝝐

where y is the dependent variable of productivity measured by the value of working time. The
positive and negative values of regression indicate the direct and indirect proportionality of the variables.

A) JOB SATISFACTION---A four-day work week can make employees more satisfied and committed to
the company. Extra one day off will make them free and they can relax by omitting all the burn outs. There
is another advantage for both the company and the employee i.e., three-day weekend will reduce the sick
leaves. Many researches have proven that by reducing the work days in a week, employees’ satisfaction
and life satisfaction has risen. For example, an experiment in Sweden highlighted those nurses who
worked for shorter time in a week resulted less sick and better wellbeing. During the study, most of the
nurses have improved their skills and seen more than 80% increase in caring the patients.

Actively Actively Thriving Feel burned out

Engaged disengaged wellbeing Often
% % % %
Typically work 4-day per week 38 17 63 23
Typically work 5-day per week 38 12 57 26
Typically work 6-days per week 36 17 56 38

(Figure 2: Willingness of workers in three different work schedules)

B) WORK-LIFE BALANCE---“Live to work, work to live?” Many asks whether we are working for our
life? For many people, their work is over at the end of the day. But for other few, it can eat their evening
and weekend. Comparing the past, nowadays the work and processes we are doing consumes very less
time, because of amalgamation of technologies and IT revolution. Employees working in corporate feel
themselves difficult to find balance between work and daily life. Their families are especially affected
more. The ability and capability of an individual to integrate all factors of his/her life like profession,
commitments and personal activities is very important for well-being. Though management is encouraging
with many supportive working practices (like flexible work schedule) and providing numerous provisions
(like health insurance, Vacation, long-term paid leave), workers still found difficult in balancing the life.

(Figure 3: Number of suicides in Japan after omitting Karoshi and Starting 4day work week)

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Seeing the other side, trend workers are expecting more in life balance. Life is not the weekends, when you
are off work, it happens 24x7. Several experts’ advices the workers and employees to adopt themselves to the
working culture and flexibility in work. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos recently advised all employees to stop
making efforts in achieving work-life balance, instead to embrace a more holistic relationship between work
and home life. Japan government has requested companies to begin a four-day work week to improve the
nation’s wellbeing. It would also give an end to the country’s notorious intense working culture named
‘Karoshi’, which means ‘over-work death’.

TRIALS AND OUTCOMES

[1] MICROSOFT JAPAN---As we know, Japan has a strong culture of hard work and high dedication in
profession. Microsoft in Japan conducted a new experiment called “Work-Life Choice Challenge 2019
Summer”. They implemented this trial in month of August and announced its entire workforce which had
2,300 employees to take Friday off in a row of five continuous weeks with no change in pay and independent
workstyle. This increased the morale which leads high performance and productivity. Microsoft started this
pilot program to find whether the employees could provide the same result with 20% fewer week hours. As a
part of the experiment, they announced the plan of subsidizing family vacations for employees up to 920$,
which boosted them. Surprisingly, at the end, the productivity increased 40% and 92% of the employees said
they preferred this compressed work schedule and can continue it. Addition to it, other benefits are: employees
printed 59% fewer pages, 23% reduction in electricity bill, increased creativity. The company also minimized
the time spent on meetings for 30-minutes and encouraged remote communication. Microsoft also ended that
it will conduct another experiment later at the end of the year.

[2] NEW ZEALAND---One of the New Zealand’s trust companies named Perpetual Guardian announced in
Feb-18 that it would start-up a 4-day work trial in March. The testing held for two months and attracted
international media attention. At the end of march, the founder of the company, Andrew Barnes, noticed that
wellbeing of the staff’s personal life is increasing. The trail monitored by University of Auckland Business
School and Auckland University of Technology was resulted as a success. As an outcome, there is increased
productivity, satisfaction level, work-life balance and reduced stress. Even though the revenue and profit does
not fluctuate more, the costs declined and only less power used. The trial becomes talkative worldwide and
many global companies noted it.

[3] ICELAND---In Iceland, a long-term experiment was undertaken by Reykjavik Council and the national
Government which made to participate more than 2,500 members, which equals 1% if the Iceland’s working
population. This trial took held between the years 2015 and 2019, with same salary and bonus. Vast workforce
took place of it, including offices, social service, schools and hospitals. As a result, unions decided to
renegotiate working format and at present more than 86% of Iceland’s workforce have moved to shorter days.

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Moreover, after the completion of the experiment which last for not less than 4 years, the participants felt less
stressed, made time to improve their health and work-life balance.

[4] INDIA’s TRIAL by BEROE INC. ---Four years back, a global market research firm named, Beroe
Inc., informed to start a four-day week trial for the first time in India. Even though the result of other
modern countries concludes the positives, India has different workforce standards and varied factors. They
told that in order to measure the organization productivity at end of assessments, the firm has created Beroe
Performance Index. This BPI will measure Beroe’s two important outcome parameters – client deliverables
and feedback each month. The result of first month of try-out (in may) has been outstanding with BPI
exceeding both the parameters. After the accomplishment, the productivity rises hardly and Employee
satisfaction rating for the company have changed 4.3 from 3.

New Labor Codes

The upcoming labor codes in India will be the biggest transformation of labor reforms in independent India.
At present, approximately there are 50 crore workers in India. Out of it, more than 81 percent are informal
workers i.e., there work in the unorganized sector. The remaining 19 percent are formal workforce who works
in organized sectors with no security and assurance for their work. For ensuring workers benefits and their
rights, the Central has amalgamated 4 new labour codes: including 4 laws in wage codes, 9 laws in social
security, 13 laws in Occupational safety, 3 laws in Industrial relations. Through the Code of Wages, India is
having an idea to implement 4-Day Work week. What changes happens after the implementation: 1. Minimum
wages and security for informal workers, 2. Less take home salary: Basic Pay must be 50% of Total pay, 3.
Boost for ease-of-doing business.

4-DAY WORK AND LEISURE BEHAVIOUR

Several theoretical perspectives are advanced to show the relationship between work and leisure. The reason
behind increase of leisure time is nature of work. As duration of work increases, leisure time will also increase.
The below table shows the relation between each factor of change and four-day work:

Variables Perceptual change Activity change Frequency change

@All workers
1. Type of Leisure change
Perceptual ------ Positive Positive
Activity Positive ------ Positive
Frequency Positive Positive ------
2. Type of Work week
4-day Work Higher Higher Higher
5-day Work Lower Lower Lower
@Four-day Workers
1. Socio-demographic Positive Positive Positive
2. Attitudinal Positive Positive Positive

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The relationship can be viewed in three different changes. First, the 4-day worker is allowed to work
independently – measuring his participation (perceptual changes). Second, the compressed week method
would bring a change in work activities (activity changes). Third, the 4-day work would result in measure of
intervals in workers participation (Frequency changes). Varying one of these changes, the others will change
proportionally.

Statistical Report on 4-Day Workweek

 Over 15% of the Organizations offer four-day work week (Society For Human Resource Management)
 The ZipRecruiter jobs with four 4-day work is up 67% this year. (USA Today)
 Indians are ranked 5th in longer working hours. (Global Wage Report 2021)
 40% of American workers would interest in four-day week. (Workforce Institute at Kronos)
 The average rate of burnout in a job across the globe varies from 40 to 50%. (Business Insider)
 India has high Job Satisfaction rate with 89%. (Global report by Randstad workmonitor)
 Average Indian works 52-53 hours per week and 240 hours over-time work per year.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the 4-day workweek represents a new trend in the reconstructing of workforce and time. Very
few is known about its effects on the lives of workers and employees. In this paper, many issues have been
raised which require continued future research. Many of thing that whether there is need in researching 4-day
work week, but this compressed work schedule will be a revolution in workplace. So, we should embrace to
it otherwise our job is no more.

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Although this study has many statistical data about 4-day work week, but it needs to be supplemented with
future researches, based on some regression analysis of variable which directly depend upon the work
schedule, so that it will provide an accurate efficiency of productivity, wellbeing and total economy.

REFERENCE

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ii) Grosse, R. E. (2018). The four-day work week. (Routledge)
iii) Hyatt, E., & Coslor, E. (2018). Compressed lives: How “flexible” are employer-imposed compressed
work schedules? [Link]
iv) The Economist. (2021, July 8). Could a four-day working week become the norm?
v) COING Inc. (2017, September). Average working hours (statistical data 2021). Clockify.
[Link]