IS YOUR WORK WEEK ABOUT TO GET SHORTER? The 40-hour workweek has been the standard in the United States for more than 80 years. Now some members of Congress, led by good ol Bernie Sanders, are fighting to give hourly workers an extra day off. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would shorten the threshold for mandatory overtime pay from 40+ hours in a week to 32+ hours in a week. He cited advancements in AI, automation, and robotics to argue that companies can afford to give their employees an extra day off without reducing their pay or benefits. Bernie actually makes some good points! Some experts expect the implementation of AI in the workplace to boost productivity by up to 50%. A 2022 study by a team of university researchers and the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global found that 71% of workers were less burned out and roughly 50% were more satisfied with their jobs overall when they only worked 4 days/week. Who doesn’t love 3-day weekends?!? 80% of companies from the study reported revenue growth attributed to the change in hours worked. Critics say mandating a shorter week would force companies to hire more workers and lose money, specifically in industries like manufacturing where hands-on work is required. Sanders says the regulations would be phased in over 4 years, giving companies plenty of time to adapt and reorganize. So what do you all think? Is reducing the standard workweek to 32 hours a good idea?
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The 8-hour day is from the 1900s when a majority of the workforce was a direct labor force and 8 hours meant absolute effort for eight straight hours. https://lnkd.in/gFbpQPYy. A century later Ford would introduce the 5-day work week https://lnkd.in/g5HN_MfC a 4-day work week barely crosses the 50% well-being threshold, where is the 5-day work week is just below it. https://lnkd.in/gK62zDdq. Did you ever wonder what would happen if you adopted a 4-day work week, and worked until stuff was done? Not 8 hours a day but less? If you want return to office to work, keep all the performance benefits of work from home, get rid of any overtime and reduce hours to less than eight with the stipulation that when your work is done you're free to go. Obviously meetings would interfere with this (workplace is strategically placed meetings sometimes specifically to interview with anyone leaving early even though they've completed their work), but all meetings should be held at the beginning of the day and they should be limited substantially. "What if all your work is meetings?" Set up a meeting with HR. Keeping people busy shouldn't be part of leadership, getting work done is all that should matter. That's supposed to be the difference between salary and hourly.
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The debate wasn’t about how long the work week should be (70/60/50/40). It’s should and will always be about how productive those hours actually are. You see, no knowledge worker puts out more than 2.5 to 5 hours of real work in a day. That’s 12.5 to 25 hours of productive work in a week. The rest? It’s just meetings, updates and moving things around. Five-day work weeks? If you’re measuring by butts in seats, sure. But if you’re looking at actual output, it’s a joke. We need to obsess over productive time, not clocking hours. The attendance/week hours mindset is a pseudo-metric killing the workforce, making us focus on quantity over quality. Think about it: As a knowledge worker - your days are filled with meetings, status updates, and email threads. How much of that is real, impactful work? Very little. We’re stuck in busyness, mistaking it for productivity. But then again, if orgs obsess on outcomes only, employees will call them out: 'You don’t see my effort to go from A to Z, you don’t acknowledge it.' Hence, orgs measure you by hours. And for those thinking, 'Pay me by hours, overtime factored in' – great on paper, but useless for knowledge workers. IMHO, we are way more more comfortable measuring by hours than outcomes. We rave about deep work, about focus hours, but in reality we laude how long someone stays logged in. Weird isn't it. #recruitment #recruiting #productivity #workhours #workweek #recruiters #hiring #employment #employers #employees #managers
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Health Insurance specialist with WPA Healthcare Practice Plc. Offering healthcare plans for individuals, families, businesses and the self-employed.
4 day week? Really... how close is it? And with that extra time, will we become "healthier" or not? Will it be a temptation to use the time on socials, tv and sedentary pursuits? Last week in Vermont, USA, Bernie Sanders, the far-left independent, introduced a bill that would shorten to 32 hours the amount of time many Americans can work each week before they’re owed overtime. Given advances in automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, Sanders says U.S. companies can afford to give employees more time off without cutting their pay and benefits. But critics say a mandated shorter week would force many companies to hire additional workers or lose productivity. 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭? A study here in the UK of companies that agreed to adopt a 32-hour workweek concluded that employees came to work less stressed and more focused while revenues remained steady or increased. 🙂 In 2022, a team of university researchers and the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global enlisted 61 companies to reduce working hours for six months without cutting wages. Afterward, 71% of the 2,900 workers said they were less burned out and nearly half reported being more satisfied with their jobs. Meanwhile, 24 of the participating companies reported revenue growth of more than 34% over the prior six months. Nearly two dozen others saw a smaller increase. What's your view, and if we go to 4 days, what's the step after that? #HealthAtWork #EmployeeBenefits #HealthTrends
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Senior Executive Partner at Gartner | Strategic Advisor & Network Builder | Innovation & Transformation Leader | Security & Resilience Expert |
The #COVID19 #pandemic taught us that new and different work patterns can be a viable option for many organizations. This has spurred a resurgence in interest in the 4-day work week which involves reducing the total time spent working without decreasing pay. While there are concerns about the negative impact that this could have, particularly on productivity, as my Gartner research colleagues who looked into the 4 day work week point out in the article below, "Worker stress decreased, and most employees found it easier to balance work and caregiving commitments. There are benefits for businesses, too: Talent retention improved with a 57% reduction in attrition, and revenue improved by 1.4% on average." In a labor market where specialist talent is still in high demand, "the 4-day work week is a compelling employee benefit that may differentiate organizations in the talent marketplace. In fact, 63% of candidates rated a 4-day work week with the same pay as the top innovative benefit that would attract them to a job. It’s an option that offers flexibility for the frontline workforce who cannot work in a hybrid setup, and it provides a potential solution to burnout for location-agnostic workers." Would your organization be interested in experimenting with a #4dayworkweek? #HR #FoW #futureofwork
The 4-Day Work Week, Explained
gartner.com
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Does the 32-hour workweek make sense? Absolutely! And autoworkers have been pushing for fewer hours in the workweek for 80 years. When we consider the #FutureOfWork, we examine the 40-hour work week (traditionally, eight hours a day for five days a week) and the impact that has on employee productivity, engagement, retention, and other factors. Many companies are already testing the 4-day workweek and have reported that it is "a proven strategy to increase productivity and profitability, and to work in a sustainable fashion.” Thoughts? Is your company considering the 4-day workweek? #HumanizingHumanCapital #HumanResources Dr. Solange Charas, Morning Brew
Could auto workers make a 32-hour workweek the new normal?
morningbrew.com
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7 x Strategic Board Advisor | Chair at Tyler Grange | Purpose-Driven Leadership | Co-Host: The Bouncebackability Podcast
We’re going back to the 1920’s in a greek time machine. 🇬🇷 Against all evidence to the contrary the greek government is trying to boost productivity by enabling a 6 day week. Henry Ford introduced the 5 day week in 1926 (He also predicted the 4 day week as even more productive). The 5 day week turned out to be so much more productive than the 6 day week that everyone else followed suit. Why did he do this? Because he had massive turnover of employees, recruitment problems, and absenteeism. His research all pointed to a reduction in working hours was more than compensated by an increase in productivity. Data backs this up. The third most productive country per person in the world also has the shortest working week. Denmark. They work close to a 4.5 day week. https://lnkd.in/eXAvpUM4 At Tyler Grange | B Corp™ we’ve seen a 30% rise in productivity over the last 2 years by implementing a 4dayweek. we’ve also seen absenteeism reduced by 66% This doesn’t mean you must do a 4 day week, but you probably should look at how you can support your employees with a method of working that gets the most out of them. Its likely that reduced hours will help. One thing I can say with a degree of certainty, anyone putting in a 6 day week is going to see productivity slump, absenteeism rise, and who the heck is going to work for these organisations. The issue with productivity is not with employees its with organisations that refuse to help them, and in some cases make their lives worse. https://lnkd.in/esk2ZEWB
Greece starts six-day working week for some industries
bbc.co.uk
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Make culture your competitive advantage. Increase employee engagement and happiness. Let me help you create a workplace where people feel valued, where they understand your "who" and your "why" and deliver excellence.
6 day work week? It's now a regulation for some businesses in Greece. If you're an entrepreneur, your response might be, "that's it? I'd love to only work 6 days a week," but there has been a push lately for a shorter week in the US and EU. A bill was introduced in Maryland last year to pilot a 4 day work week (government employees predictably want to work fewer hours for the same pay, which should surprise no one). Thankfully the bill didn't pass, but it we surely haven't heard the last of it. The hard working Greeks, however, are going in the other direction. Greek employees work an average of 1,886 hours a year - more than the 1,811 average in the US and waaaay more than the 1,571 average in the rest of the EU. Some businesses in Greece will have the option of having employees work an extra 2 hours a day or an extra 8 hour shift. 48 hours in a week instead of 40. So it could be a longer 5 day work schedule, or actually a 6 day workweek. When people talk about the "4 day" workweek, they might not be describing a 32 hour week vs a 40 hour week. Some are asking for a compressed schedule of four 10 hour days (40 hours over 4 days), while others are asking for four 8 hour days (32 hours in 4 days) with no reduction in pay. So when you see an article touting the benefits of a 4 day workweek, look for the details of the hours worked to find out if they're describing a compressed schedule or a reduced hour schedule. They're very different concepts. My prediction? the usual suspects in the US will push for shorter workweeks for the same pay (government employee unions will lead the charge). But we are heading into a recession and will see government budgets tighten, so the only 4 day workweek they might see is one with reduced pay to save their jobs. https://lnkd.in/e5sqABcA
Greece becomes first EU country to introduce a six-day working week
cnbc.com
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Another installment of Feel Good Friday. An example of a company that was able to take their workforce to a 4-day workweek. I have others I’ve worked with that have found success (surprising success for many of them who were of the “old school” manufacturing mind.) This one is different in that they took the hours down too – most that I have worked with have implemented 4 10-hour shifts, then used the 5th day for overtime as needed. There are many considerations: potential reductions in productivity (if you have good baseline metrics, this can be easily avoided), increased safety risk as people work longer hours, days off have a higher impact, etc. But if you’re looking for ways to keep employees happy (so you can focus on hiring for new needs, not replacing due to turnover) schedule flexibility is one way that seems to work wonders. #feelgood #happyfriday #manufacturing #supplychain #america #jobs #skilledlabor #4dayweek
A manufacturer tried the 4-day workweek for 5 days' pay and won't go back
npr.org
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Freelance Advisor for Mining, Supply Chain, International Leadership. Finding sustainable solutions in complex environments through listening, challenging the status-quo, experience and a wide network.
100 % performance - 80% working hours - 100% salary. In other words, work 4 days a week with same performance and full salary. This hypothesis is being tested since Feb by 45 companies in Germany for a duration of 6 months and will be scientifically evaluated. A similar study with 61 companies and 2900 employees in the UK has shown multiple benefits linked to increased revenues (1,4%), less turn-over (57% less quitting), less sick leave (66% reduced) and reduced mental health problems. Other studies show an increase in employee satisfaction and productivity. 56 of the 61 companies opted for keeping the 4-day workweek after the trial ended. Many employers are still reluctant citing shortage of manpower, that this model is applicable to service industries only, a general distrust in the representativity of these studies, etc. and even ask for an increase in work hours. Labor shortage is indeed high in Germany, with more than 600 k positions for qualified people remaining unoccupied, mainly in the areas of health and social, education as well as in the areas of construction and handyman in general. The companies participating in the German project are mostly SMEs and come from areas such as industrial production, trade, entertainment, energy supply and IT. Some of them take benefit of this change, to implement simplified processes, better support systems, etc to ensure workload gets reduced. Maybe a solution really could be to do something counter-intuitive and reduce working hours to get more people onboard, get higher productivity and better results? Do you have experience with this or another alternative model? What is your view? #change #goodlife #sustainability #ecogood #4dayworkweek
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Empowering Busy Accountants to “Break Free” from overwork and underpay so they can “Work Less. Get Paid More!™️” | Change Agent | Certified Business Consultant | LinkedIn Top 1%
Here’s Proof "WORK LESS" is a real! "WORK LESS" is a real thing and if you're not ready for it, you're going against the grain! The world of work as we know it is changing right before our eyes! Have you seen the shift? Here's further proof I'm not the only proponent of working less. It's being reported Senator Bernie Sanders is introducing legislation that would change working hours for millions of Americans. He recently announced plans to establish a 32-hour workweek as the standard across the United States, while mandating that workers don't lose pay. During a press release, Sanders argued fewer working hours is necessary to "benefit the working class, not just the wealthy." I say right on! According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, productivity increased by 2.7 percent in 2023 and is skyrocketing thanks to new technologies. "Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change," Sanders said in a press release. Sanders is pushing for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay. He says, "It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life.” Overwork not only causes stress. It also causes burnout, which has been recently recognized by the WHO as a disease. I couldn't agree more with supporters of the 32-hour workweek. That's why I'm on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to work less and get paid more. And if you're ready to BREAK FREE from overwork and underpay take the BREAK FREE readiness test using the link in my featured section. PS - Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see a national law to enforce 32 hour work week without a reduction in pay. Yay or nay?
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