Now, look who needs a four-day workweek: the United Auto Workers (UAW).The union is negotiating a brand new collective bargaining settlement between the Big Three Detroit automakers and the UAW’s 150,000 members and voted Friday to authorize a strike if mandatory. Among the “audacious” proposals UAW President Shawn Fain has proposed are a 46% pay elevate, a return to conventional pensions — and a 32-hour, four-day workweek.“Our members’ expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high,” Fain mentioned in an announcement. “The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year…. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts.”A four-day workweek won’t be as unreasonable an ask as it will have been even 5 years in the past. A brand new survey of greater than 1,000 US employees discovered that just about 9 out of 10 US workers have an interest within the thought.A survey by enterprise consultancy Morning Consult confirmed 87% of employed US adults had been very or considerably concerned about a four-day workweek, and a virtually equal share (82%) mentioned they assume the widespread adoption of it within the United States would achieve success. (The survey was performed May 9-11, 2023 and concerned a pattern of 1,047 employed US adults.)Millennials had been most excited on the prospect of a shorter workweek. Nearly all millennials (93%) reported curiosity within the idea, with two-thirds “very interested,” and 85% mentioned they imagine its adoption would achieve success, the examine discovered. Morning ConsultThe survey additionally indicasted, nonetheless, that distant work insurance policies might have an effect on a four-day workweek’s attraction. While 75% of employed US adults reported curiosity within the truncated method if distant work is allowed “all or nearly all of the time,” that determine dropped to 51% when respondents got the choice of “no remote work at all.”More broadly, US employees in recent times have proven rising curiosity in decrease affect existence. The survey requested, for instance, whether or not American firms ought to undertake work norms seen in Europe, and enormous majorities backed each examined coverage — with assist strongest for prolonged trip durations and lunch breaks. “Henry Ford was one of the first prominent leaders to introduce a 40-hour week almost 100 years ago,” said Dale Whelehan, CEO at 4 Day Week Global, the organization that conducts international studies on reducing worker hours. “He proved then that the sector was capable of cultural innovation, and the same is true today. A four-day week would undoubtably lead to commercial prosperity for these companies, but it’s also time the workers whose dedication has propelled the industry to its present success enjoy the benefits.”Both employees and employers are interested in exploring a shorter workweek, according to research firm Gartner. In a recent survey of job candidates, two-thirds said a four-day week at current pay levels would be the top new and innovative benefit drawing them to a job.In another recent Gartner survey of human resource leaders, one in five said they’re exploring or have already adopted a four-day workweek in some form.“The 4-day workweek study in the UK, most recently, has piqued the interest of organizations worldwide, and many US employers are beginning to recognize that a reduced workweek can be a key differentiator for them in what remains quite a competitive talent market,” mentioned Amrita Puniani, a senior principal analyst for Gartner’s HR Practice. Not all researchers agree, nonetheless.Forrester Research has chosen to not examine the thought “precisely because…it’s not genuinely a topic companies are pursuing right now from what we can tell,” in keeping with James McQuivey, a vp and analysis director for Forrester’s Future of Work.McQuivey mentioned the four-day workweek is a “common idea” whose origins may be traced again to efforts by meals manufacturing firm Kellogg’s within the 1930s. The perception, McQuivey mentioned, was that the shorter week would permit Kellogg’s to maintain folks on the payroll “during the darkness of the Great Depression.“Employees didn’t like the idea, perceiving it was an attempt to pay them less. The brief history of this example starts to reveal why this idea is hard to really tackle without thorough research — the motives can vary, the worker perception can vary, reality once implemented also varies,” McQuivey mentioned. Companies that participated in a four-day workweek trial over the previous yr, nonetheless, continued to cut back time on the clock six months after the venture ended, claiming workers are happier and simply as productive. Much of the time financial savings had been achieved by making conferences extra environment friendly, utilizing know-how extra successfully, and permitting distinct durations for focus all through the day. As such, employees had been capable of keep the identical output due to the extra break day to relaxation, in keeping with 4 Day Week Global’s Whelehan.Though some have argued that organizations could make extra environment friendly use of worker time utilizing these strategies in a five-day workweek, however that will be counterintuitive, Whelehan mentioned. “A huge factor of the four-day week’s success is a reduction in staff stress and burnout, which would be negatively impacted if companies employed these approaches with no reward for workers,” Whelehan mentioned.Gartner discovered {that a} shorter week might be an possibility for frontline employees who “are craving flexibility like their hybrid counterparts,” in accordance Gartner’s Puniani. She mentioned most really feel their organizations don’t take that desire significantly.“We also know that managers report that offering different kinds of flexibility is effective in reducing frontline worker attrition, a problem that most organizations say has had a negative impact on their business,”Puniani mentioned. “A shorter workweek is one option for enhancing flexibility, especially for frontline workers who must be on-site.”Typically, organizations level to 2 primary challenges to implementing a shorter week: The first includes operational hurdles — that the logistics of shifting from a five- to four-day week could be too onerous to tackle; the second includes considerations that managers or different leaders merely gained’t be on board for the shift, in keeping with Puniani.“While executives are often skeptical about ensuring continuity of operations or cost, managers are typically concerned about the added responsibility of managing a reduced or condensed work schedule and maintaining employee performance,” she mentioned.Another impediment organizations cite is that it’s too sophisticated to schedule and coordinate a shift from a five- to four-day default, Puniani continued. “But there are more options for exploring a reduced workweek than many organizations think,”Puniani mentioned.While the 32-hour configuration is one possibility, some firms may discover a condensed workweek — working the usual 40 hours throughout 4 days as a substitute of 5 — to be a greater match for his or her enterprise and workforce, in keeping with Puniani. Organizations might additionally think about a common break day (say, when all workers have Fridays free) or a distributed weekday off, the place workers or worker segments take off totally different days to make sure continuity.“We also know that the advantages of some form of four-day workweek are not restricted to employees. Trials in the UK showed reduced attrition in a majority of participants along with less burnout in 71% of employees,” Puniani mentioned. “Keeping employees — and employees who have the energy to do good work — is a real business benefit.“It’s true that the 40-hour workweek is deeply ingrained in many parts of the American working world, but a shortened workweek is less far-fetched than many think,” she mentioned.
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