One of the biggest game changers I have experienced while abroad is the 4-day work week benefit. Being Mexican, it was not unusual for me to work 5 days per week or even 5.5 (yes! That means once upon a time I worked half shift every Saturday too!)
I started to work in the Netherlands 6 months after graduating with my Master’s degree. Initially, I had a 5-day work week with a 40-hour-per-week contract. However, six months after my contract started our board decided to do a 3-month pilot test for a 4-day work week, everyone was very excited about the decision. We suddenly were working 4 days and 38 hours per week, Fridays were now free.
I remember the first Friday off, I felt so strange! I still woke up before the alarm clock and had an anxious feeling of “having to do something” when all there was to do was not to work and figure out what to do with that newly available time. It was quite a strange and unreal feeling. I did not know if I should sleep a bit more, read a book, or have my coffee as usual. Not even Saturday errands or Sunday cleaning came to mind because I was so wired to the routine. The excitement, shock, and options were many.
With now more than 3 years going with this successful implementation I would like to share the multidimensional impact of the 4 day work week for employees, companies, society, and the environment.
How can employees benefit from the 4-day work week?
Everyone can benefit in different ways depending on their family life, interests, and daily life commitments. However working a day less has proven to reduce mental and physical stress, resulting in a reduction of burnout and improved mental health. From a personal experience, having an extra day to rest my mind permits me to unwind and make the best out of the rest of my free time.
Allowing the mind to be more available for our interests outside of our job responsibilities results in a better life quality, leaving space for more mental capacity, and energy for procuring our well-being, taking care of our health, and spending time with our loved ones.
Having a weekday off also allows us to reduce personal life stress. For example, remember that day you had to take your car to the garage but had to request a leave at work to reach the garage open? Not anymore! A shorter work week permits that personal time is also used for our responsibilities and must-dos. A free weekday is useful in that way, allowing the weekends to have more relaxation time available. Overall an extra free day allows for life restructuring. It also generates professional satisfaction and a sense of appreciation for our jobs.
How can companies and employers benefit from working one day less? Is it possible? YES IT IS!
One of the main benefits is the reduction of employee turnover and an increase in self-motivated applicants.
I am sure many of us have gone through the challenge of bringing someone on board. For someone to understand his/her responsibilities in a new role can easily take up to 6 months. Imagine having fewer onboarding processes. A benefit of working less can allow that.
Having fewer job quits and more consistent teams provides opportunities for rethinking the way of working, having reduced and better-planned meetings, fewer phone calls, and more time-saving.
Also, an available and overall more rested workforce takes fewer sick leaves, makes fewer mistakes, and can input the productivity of 5 days into 4, making every minute more productive.
Happy employees are willing to have more high-tempo days in exchange for more days of downtime, which produces more happy employees. It’s a possible positive cycle.
What is the social impact of having an additional day off per week?
One of our consultants in Colombia told me once that a permanent extra free day per week is considered an emotional salary.
There are many countries in which there still is salary disparity due to discrimination based on gender, race, or class (e.g. educational level and University of precedence). There can easily be a misconception that free time is a privilege only available to the better-off segments of society. The gift of time is an emotional income that should be available for everyone.
In my case, my Fridays off have become the day on which I go to do my groceries at the local market. It is amazing to observe that most people attending are the elderly, retired men and women, or students. Why do we have to have free time only before we start working or after our work life is over? It is simply insane to live life like that. Societies need to benefit from a balanced work life, working a day less per week is equivalent to working only half the month (16 days in most cases). How does that sound? For me, it has become available time for personal projects for example writing and creating this blog.
Is working a day less environmentally friendly?
Having a workforce commuting one day less per week to go to the office will result in less CO2 emissions per person, independent of the way of transportation that is used.
Companies that reduce their operations for one day also cut their energy and services consumption, ending in a reduction of expenses, and less consumption of gas water, and electricity.
Is it possible to have an extra day off for everyone?
Yes, all industries can implement the 4-day work week, but this does not necessarily mean that all companies can stop operating for a full day, For example, a hospital or a firefighter station. What is possible is to have staff rotation so that all employees have an additional free day per week. This also means that not necessarily the day off established will be Friday. For example, a good friend of mine negotiated a contract where she is off every Wednesday. It is not Friday, but trust me, she is still very happy with her permanent extra day off.
Some last thoughts…
So there you have it, this is my take on the 4-day workweek. I consider we all have a right to a work-life balance. Too often my friends share they also wish to work less, and to tell you the truth, I cannot picture myself going back to work on Fridays. w
They say… choose a good mattress because if you sleep 8 hours daily, you will sleep 1-third of your life on it. Here now I tell you, let’s make efforts to impulse working 4 days instead of 5. Because working 5 days per week means spending close to another third of your life at work.
It’s time to start delivering this message so that employers and governmental systems let free time become a basic human right and allow everybody to access this universal wealth.
With love,
Sofía
