Schmooze Why a four-day week could be good for the Jews

Voices from the community

Afascinating pilot programme is taking place in workplaces around England over the next six months. Seventy companies and more than 3,000 workers are trialling a four-day week. It will be based on what is known as the 100:80:100 model — where staff receive 100 per cent of their pay while working 80 per cent of their previous hours, in exchange for a commitment to 100 per cent productivity.

Once just a utopian dream, a four-day week is now becoming more of a reality — and similar trials are happening in Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Japan and New Zealand. The benefits to employees are obvious — an improved work/life balance, more personal time, an improvement in mental health and a decrease in stress and burnout.

But until now, what has often been missing in the discussion is the benefit a four-day week can also bring to employers. It sounds counterintuitive but from the results of previous trials, it seems output over the four-day weeks can exceed performance during the standard five days.

Staff at New Zealand financial services firm Perpetual Guardian were 20 per cent more productive working four days instead of five, entirely offsetting the loss of a working day. And at Microsoft Japan, productivity increased by a staggering 40 per cent, meaning even more was being done in the shorter time.

Another study conducted in 2019 by the University of Reading found that businesses swapping to a four-day week reported improvements in productivity and more contented employees, who took less time off sick. And two thirds of participating firms reported that it was easier to recruit and retain staff. A lengthy trial in Iceland bore similar results and now 86 per cent of its workforce do shorter hours or have the right to.

There is also a strong argument that a four-day week benefits the environment, with less pollution, reduced congestion and decreases in energy consumption and paper usage.

But what about the benefits to our own Jewish community? Well, they could be significant.

In general, Fridays have always been considered a quieter day with productivity already less than for the rest of the working week. And for the more observant in the community, Friday working has presented obvious challenges, especially in the winter when Shabbat comes in very early.

Indeed, for six months a year, many communal employers only open their offices for half-a-day on Fridays, so the precedent for condensing the week for them is already in place.

Is our community really going to turn its back on all the potential benefits a four-day week could bring for the sake of a few hours?

Of course, there are some negatives as well. Businesses, especially the start-ups and small firms we at Work Avenue deal with, worry about growth and costs. In these situations, can they really afford to pay people 100 per cent of their salary for 80 per cent of their time?

Workforce planning would also be an issue. It can be hard enough for firms to juggle staffing around holidays and sick days without throwing everyone having a day off a week into the mix.

For external-facing organisations, making sure they have sufficient coverage for clients and customers could be a significant issue. Especially when, as is likely in our community, it would be the same day most people want to take off. However, these are hurdles that can be overcome.

The most interesting argument against the four-day week is what if the novelty and enthusiasm wear off ? If four-day working becomes the norm, would productivity simply slide back to what it was before? But ultimately, the only way to find out for sure is to put the theory to the test.

Many once controversial working practices — shared parental leave or working from home — are today considered very much the norm, bringing positive benefits to both employers and employees. So might now be the time to consider whether a four-day week could actually work?