Should every week be a four-day week?
The five-day week, introduced 90 years ago, now seems dated. Here we talk to business leaders who argue that workplace culture needs a rethink
Work. How’s that working out for you right now? After the bank holiday weekend, many of us inevitably find ourselves critically assessing our work-life balance. What if every weekend could be a similar triple-pronged attack on job-related stress and exhaustion? Or imagine a three-day working week; time to reconnect with family and ourselves
John Maynard Keynes famously predicted that technological progress would lead us to shorter weeks and abundant leisure time; by 2030, he insisted, 15-hour work weeks would be the norm. This was then echoed in the 1960s by Herman Kahn, who confidently assured Americans they’d soon be enjoying 13 weeks of vacation and a civilised four-day working week.
What went wrong? This is the age of driverless cars, Apple Pay and scarily smart fridges that re-order groceries, yet when it comes to flexible working, many offices are stuck in the “old way” of doing things. Indeed, rather than setting us free, digital advances have simply set the expectation that we’ll be in workmode for most of our waking hours.
A recent survey revealed one in three British workers now checks emails before 6.30am, while 80 per cent of British employers consider phoning employees out of hours acceptable.
Experts are now calling for a cultural shift; some saying working until 8pm every night shouldn’t necessarily signal commitment, it may also signal poor time management or bad job design. There is mounting evidence, too, about how unrelenting working cultures have a negative impact on health. Not only has sitting down for lengthy periods been linked to an increased risk of heart attack, but earlier this year, Australian researchers found that 25 was the optimum number of working hours in a week for the middle-aged – a three-day week.
When the week went over 25 hours, cognitive performance for the test subjects decreased as “fatigue and stress” took over. Professor Colin McKenzie from Keio University, one of the study authors, says: “Work can be a double-edged sword, it can stimulate brain activity, but at the same time long working hours can cause fatigue and stress, which potentially damage cognitive functions.”
Until recently, the battle for 21stcentury flexible working has been overwhelmingly employee-driven, but now there is a swell of support from scientists and business leaders, suggesting that reducing our working week wouldn’t just improve the quality of life of employees, but could have powerful business benefits, too.
The Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, worth over $80 billion, recently called for a “radical overhaul” in our working lives, coming out in support of a three-day working week, made viable by 11-hour working days (instead of eight) and a later retirement age of 75.
“You should have more time for you during all of your life – not when you’re 65 and retired,” he stated. “You have better experience and knowledge when you are 60, 65 and 70.” Slim believes the concept would not only lead to a happier, healthier workforce, but prove positive for the economy.
In a Government-commissioned study, only 17 per cent of people in their fifties said that stopping work entirely at age 60 or 65 was the “best way” to retire. Nearly half said they would like to continue working until they were 70, preferring to work parttime or flexible hours as their career came to a close.
Sweden is already moving towards a six-hour working day across a number of sectors because of clear business benefits. A recent experiment among care workers there showed that nurses who worked six-hour days took half as much sick time as those in the control group, and were three times less likely to take time off. The nurses were also 20 per cent happier and had more energy at work and in their spare time, allowing them to do 64 per cent more activities with elderly residents, therefore increasing productivity.
Other Swedish companies are feeling the benefit of maximising productivity by minimising distractions in the office, such as not allowing staff members on social media while at work and keeping meetings to a minimum. The growing evidence is that working in excess of eight hours a day is pointless – productivity plateaus as our focus slips. Not to mention Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available for its completion – meaning that if you give yourself 12 hours to do a six-hour task, the task will increase in complexity so as to fill that entire day.
A recent study found that only half of British workers spend six hours or more productively working on an average day, with one third admitting to wasting up to three hours by being unable to concentrate or distracted by chatter.
Yet, even if a three-day working week seems like pie in the sky, the idea of redesigning our work week to allow flexible measures, such as job-shares, compressed hours and location independence, is gaining traction.
Louise Robinson, 37, is head of innovation at Diageo. “I wanted one extra day a week at home with my daughter,” she says. “But I’m ambitious, and didn’t want to limit myself to certain roles.” Staff now have a right to present a business case for working flexible hours, which Louise did, and she now works Monday to Thursday on a compressed hours basis. “I do nine to five in the office, get home, spend time with my daughter, then do a few extra hours in the evening. On Friday, I’ll be available on emails or the phone. I can use technology to remain up to speed.”
Timewise is an award winning recruitment agency campaigning to rebrand the term “flexible working”, and wants to demonstrate that it doesn’t simply mean downgraded ambition. Karen Mattison, joint CEO of the company, says: “It’s about judging people by their output, rather than their input.”
Even if we don’t see something quite as revolutionary as a three-day week, enlightened employers are finally viewing flexibility as a business opportunity rather than a concession. Professor Geraint Johnes, professor of economics at Lancaster University Management School, has observed increased interest among business owners in how flexible working can be advantageous to the firm, as well as the individual.
“For employees, options like hotdesking, working from home, job shares and compressed working hours help them to build jobs around their lives in a more favourable way,” he says. “But businesses are also starting to see the major benefits of flexible working patterns, such as reducing expenditure on office space.”
Flexible working can also slash recruitment and training costs by helping employers retain valuable employees, reduce their overheads and recruit experienced people who can use their time more effectively if they aren’t commuting to and from the office a couple of hours each day.
However, Timewise’s Flexible Jobs Index still shows that only 8.7 per cent of all quality UK jobs mention any form of flexible working options in the job ad. What this means is that, when it comes to skilled workers, at the recruitment stage, employers are alienating countless promising candidates.
When it comes to flexible hiring there is still a lot of work to be done.
You should have more ‘you’ time during all of your life – not just when you’re 65