Workers at companies that tested out a 4-day workweek are happier and more efficient — and firms made more money. One lawmaker says it's 'here to stay.'
Workers at companies that tested out a 4-day workweek are happier and more efficient — and firms made more money. One lawmaker says it's 'here to stay.'
The latest data shows that workers and companies prosper under a four-day workweek. Rep. Mark Takano wants to make it law.
Workers at companies that tested out a 4-day workweek are happier and more efficient — and firms made more money. One lawmaker says it's 'here to stay.'::The latest data shows that workers and companies prosper under a four-day workweek. Rep. Mark Takano wants to make it law.
I’ll believe the “it’s here to stay” shit when I see it. From where I sit I only see managers that want people in cubicles again 5-6 days a week while they can work remotely or hybrid.
Yeah. It's like trying to convince a toddler to eat less sugar for their own health.
Perfect analogy. Gonna start using this
There are some good ones out there. Where I work, they believe me to be irreplaceable. The truth is that I'm sure there are thousands of competent engineers that could replace me, just not for my salary, and certainly not also willing to move to a small town. They don't want to pay full market rate for what I do, but they convince me to stay on by letting me work my own hours, full-remote, great vacation and benefits, etc. Ive been so productive since leaving office work that the entire organization now has remote work policies.
They've figured out that it's cheaper to just make your employees not hate their lives and I'm absolutely here for it.
It's not here to stay until it's put into law
Up next: companies continue 5-day workweeks anyway, because they’re not even rational in their mandates. (See also: forced RTO).
This. I’ve been at my job for a year as a remote out of state employee. All of the sudden, they decided we needed weekly team meetings and virtual team building when we had none before. My job is not collaborative, everyone on the team has a different role and most things can be handled over email/teams. I like my coworkers, but we’ve been working great together without all this crap. Even my manager doesn’t like it but it’s being forced on her from higher up, half the time she doesn’t have anything to share at the team meeting that couldn’t have been a one sentence email.
Edit to add: oh and these weekly team meetings have cameras on required, when before any of the few meetings we had never required this. Seems like one of the higher up read some article about ‘building virtual teams’ and went to town without actually stopping to think whether it fits.
Tons of places like this are having issues finding workers now or even good talent. Seems like some companies got the memo and other run by middle managers and IBM CEOs from the 1980s didn't.
I'm hoping my CEO wants to try this out, as we're one of the few companies in my area that's permanently WFH. However it might be quite difficult as we're a project based shop so having 4 day workweek might present some difficulty because we still need to match our clients work hours T_T
The major problem is to overcome the "More work hours = more production" mindset. In subdeveloped worlds, this is so engraved in society that news like that seems "communist propaganda"
The problem is separating out the work that does rely on hours worked vs ones that don't.
Running a stamping machine? Yeah, your run time is going to be pretty much proportional to your output.
Working a desk job doing research and generating reports? The better you are at it, the more you can do, and eventually you just outrun the workload. Then you shit twiddling your thumbs for no reason.
This. It almost only applies to desk jobs. Production workers can’t just work a day less and keep the same output, and if they can’t do it, people like me who are responsible for keeping the production running as part of their job(electrician in my case) also can’t work a day less.
If companies wanted to do this, they’d have to hire more workers to give everyone a 4 day week. But all this would do is create more costs for the company
And not even all desk jobs. My job is supporting a manufacturing client with their imports. Until both them and the courier/shipping lines decide to change to a four day work week, I’m going to need to be ready to field urgent HTS and document requests, even though I work a remote desk job.
In the IT world, if you really count the actual hours we do actual work, you'd probably end up with 2 or 3 days worth of work. This will help both companies and employees. But I'm not gonna hold my breath.
Depends at what level in IT. Definitely lessens as you go up. I remember being a grunt and working 50 hour weeks and being oncall, scared to leave my house for fear I would get called. Now after 20 years of experience I only get called in when stuff is REALLY broken and have a lot more free time to better myself. I use down time to learn new skills or work in my homelab.
As everything can be implemented in a good or bad way. As a worker, I may prefer to have my weekly activities "distributed" in more days because making everything fit into a shorter amount of time does not allow me to deal with interruptions or unforeseen accidents. Having less time would give me more anxiety, rather than less. Instead of imposing schedules by law, allowing everyone to choose would be better. Plus, why is everything so politicized?
"more free time for the smelly peasants? never!"
- some rich capitalist
I used to work 4x10. It was pretty good, but if I could live off 4x8 that would be better. But still, 3 day weekends are more impactful. After 15 years having 3 day weekends to be forced to working 5 days a week... I'm tired and burned out all the time. I asked my management chain if I could switch back and was denied. All that means is we both suffer. I used to be very productive.
Let me paint a picture. I used to get a1 hour workout in before work, while at work I got all my work done, and worked on side projects. I got weekend projects completed regularly and had ample time for rest. Had time for friends, family, study, whatever.
Now... I crawl into work exhausted. By the end of my work day, I just want to sleep. House projects have come to a screeching halt. Just when one work week is done, I'm just getting ready for the next. Choosing to do anything on Saturday means all other things are pushed back another week (again). I never feel rested anymore.
So yes I'm in office more but now every day I get far less done per day. Honestly, I feel like if something doesn't change I'm probably going to jump into on coming traffic at some point.
Please bring the 4-day workweek, life will be so much better.
Please ignore my negative initial vote score, as I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post https://lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.
I have noticed the bot downvoting on other users as well. Something should really be done about it.
fitter, happier, more productive
Need this in Australia ASAP.