The 4 Day Work Week

Same pay for less work

Over the last couple of years an interesting trend has emerged in the job market. Instead of working the typical 40 hours a week, some jobs have switched to a 32 hour work week. Employees only come to work 4 days a week, so it’s pretty much a long weekend, every weekend. The pay and benefits are the same as a full 5 day work week.

There are obvious benefits to this concept. 63% of businesses found it easier to attract and retain talent with a 4 day week. And 78% of employees with 4 day weeks are happier and less stressed.

Some confuse the concept of a 4 day work week with compressed hours. Workers who are expected to still work 40 hours, but across 4 days will actually show decreased levels of productivity. It can also impact the employee’s engagement, work-life balance and overall happiness. To achieve the desired effects a 4 day work week should consist of standard 8 hour work days.

The only downside to working less is potentially lower productivity. But this naturally depends on the type of job and the supporting infrastructure. A car repair shop may lose business if it’s open less often. But a software company may see no decrease to productivity at all by cutting back work hours.

In fact, some studies have shown that when employees aren’t being overworked they actually become more productive overall. 4 days of focused work is better than 5 days of less productive work.

The future is less work

I think over the next few years the 4 day work week will be adopted by more companies and government agencies. And by 2025 roughly 1 in 5 full time jobs in developed countries will be a 4 day, or 32 hour work week.

Then eventually it will become the norm and replace the current 5 day work week standard that we have today. 😀

This seems inevitable to me because technology has made it possible for people to create more abundance with less work.

It started with the industrial revolution. Instead of toiling day and night just to survive regular people were able to grow real wealth and have leisure time like never before.

Workers became more efficient with better tools, experience, and technology. Then around the 1940s Americans adopted the 2 day weekend nationwide.

Innovation continued to progress. Now we can order pretty much anything from a mobile phone and have the item delivered to our door step.

Pretty much for every conceivable problem that humans have endured throughout history, someone, at some point, has already came up with a solution. And over time that solution has become cheaper to produce, at greater scale.

We’re basically at the point today where anyone who wants a job, can practically find one. The concept of “I don’t have enough to survive” doesn’t exist anymore, at least in developed countries. Employers have to bend over backwards to attract new workers. Even if you have no skills, you can make $50,000 a year washing dishes.

Over time the number of hours people work should decrease. This is because a lot of work that requires human labour can be replaced by automation or other technology over time. And this is a good thing. It frees up time for people to do other things.

We’re seeing this across the world. People are working less and less over the years without facing a worse standard of living.