Four-day workweek?

[lpetrich]

Both articles are from last June, and I'm not catching up.
The day is dawning on a four-day work week

For example, when millions more Canadians started working from home, many businesses were forced to experiment with telecommuting. Interestingly, many now say they’ll continue after the pandemic passes, because it benefits employers and employees alike.

Another idea, less widely tested than telecommuting, is generating buzz: the four-day work week. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern raised the possibility of a shortened work week as a way to divvy up jobs, encourage local tourism, help with work-life balance and increase productivity.

As a sociologist who teaches about work and wrote a book about productivity, I believe she’s right.

This means working 30 (4d * 7.5h) hours a week instead of 40 hours (5d * 8h), though productivity often improves during one's working time -- one's more rested and ready for work.

A four-day work week might be exactly what the U.S. — and its economy — needs right now

Workers who clock in just four days a week report being happier and more productive, and small businesses say it gives them an edge in attracting and motivating workers. Now, the prospect of having long weekends every week is gaining traction across corporate America.

The four-day workweek got a boost when former Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang touted the concept on his social media channels recently, in response to a proposal from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that post-coronavirus economic recovery would benefit from three-day weekends.

Both articles mention
Jacinda Ardern flags four-day working week as way to rebuild New Zealand after Covid-19 | World news | The Guardian
She's the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and her party won a majority in the recent elections there, effectively re-electing her as Prime Minister.

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has suggested employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options as a way to boost tourism and help employees address persistent work/life balance issues.

In a Facebook live video Ardern said people had suggested everything from the shorter work week to more public holidays as a means to stimulate the economy and encourage domestic tourism, while the borders remain closed to foreign nationals.

 

[DBT]

Should have happened a long time ago. Not everyone wants to work their life away.

 

[Jarhyn]

I had this discussion with the CEO of my company not too long ago, not explicitly about a four day work week but about using overtime.

I stood my ground and told him point blank that I wouldn't be pushing the people in the department that I lead into overtime because doing so would yield no benefit; that if I did it for one week, we would be only a tiny bit further ahead on the problem, and that if I did it for more than that, the employees would start hating their jobs and working like shit.

The whole department was in the room at the time this went down, too.

It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but the results are palpable: after a week of doing 1-on-1 meetings in my department, the morale and work satisfaction in the department is better than any I have ever been a member of.

I regularly tell my employees that my number one concern is making sure they have an acceptable (to them) work/life balance, within the terms of their employment.

Then, I'm also ceding two thirds of my stock options to the department.

I really hope at some point to be able to leverage a shorter work week at my company, too, at some point, but I need to get some more time under my belt as the department head before I can swing it.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I worked 40 hours a week with 4 10 hour days for many years. I liked this. Not everybody likes 10 hour days, but I liked it. we worked 50 hours or more a week at certain times of the year where we were involved in project where we expected customers for support at an important trade show.

 

[Politesse]

I technically work four days a week, but as my schedule is not very regular due to the nature of my job, that's a very hypothetical state of being.

 

[southernhybrid]

In one job that I had, we experimented with a four day week, but one of the women became pregnant and long days were too much for her, so we ended the experiment.

In my last job in the Atlanta area, I told them I would stay if they would let me work 4 days a week, for a 32 hour week. I loved it and I always worked fast enough to get all of the work done in 32 hours. Too bad I only got paid for the 4 days.

I think a 32 hour work week would be good for everyone. Unfortunately, it seems as if people are now working more than 40 hours and most nurses are having to work 12 hour shifts. I could never do that, even if I had a few days off to rest. Some people like that because they have so many days off in exchange for working their asses off on the days that they work.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

I have a four day workweek usually. It's pretty nice.

 

[lpetrich]

Bernie Sanders unveils 32-hour workweek bill | The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to establish a standard four-day workweek in the United States without any reduction in pay.

The bill, over a four-year period, would lower the threshold required for overtime pay, from 40 hours to 32 hours. It would require overtime pay at a rate of 1.5 times a worker’s regular salary for workdays longer than 8 hours, and it would require overtime pay at double a worker’s regular salary for workdays longer than 12 hours.

NEWS: Sanders Introduces Legislation to Enact a 32-Hour Workweek with No Loss in Pay » Senator Bernie Sanders

“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” said Sen. Sanders. “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. The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.”

Summary of the bill
The bill itself
It hasn't shown up yet in Bernard Sanders | Congress.gov | Library of Congress however.

 

[Politesse]

i still want him for president

 

[Loren Pechtel]

And how are companies supposed to cope with a 20% reduction in productivity?

 

[bilby]

And how are companies supposed to cope with a 20% reduction in productivity?

The assumption that a reduction in working hours implies a proportional lowering in productivity is highly questionable.

It's likely true on a production line; But it's not likely to be anywhere close to true for most office jobs.

And anyway, the answer is "pay for it". It's not proposed that people be required to go home after 32 hours, just that they be paid time-and-a-half for hours beyond 32.

One option is to just pay more for Friday; Another is to employ more people, at fewer hours each.

The 40 hour week isn't a law of nature; Indeed, where I live, we already have a 38 hour week as the norm.

My workday varies considerably, and I am paid by the minute, based on five 7:36 days. If any given day is less than 7:36, I am paid the extra un-worked minutes for that day at the standard hourly rate; If a given day is longer than 7:36, I am paid 150% for any extra minutes. That could apply just as well to a 6:24 day as to a 7:36 day.

I frequently work more than eight hours in a single day. It's called "overtime".

And as any trades union official, or any physicist, can tell you: Power is work overtime.

 

[Politesse]

And how are companies supposed to cope with a 20% reduction in productivity?

They won't need to. With a four day work week, people work less often but more efficiently, producing similar output but with better morale.

According to surveys of participants, 71 percent of respondents reported lower levels of burnout, and 39 percent reported being less stressed than when they began the test. Companies experienced 65 percent fewer sick and personal days. And the number of resignations dropped by more than half, compared with an earlier six-month period. Despite employees logging fewer work hours, companies’ revenues barely changed during the test period. In fact, they actually increased slightly, by 1.4 percent on average.

And most work is unnecessary anyway, with the technologies we now possess. We over-produce everything, and invent jobs for the sake of inventing jobs. Even if productivity were to decline, it would hardly lead to the decline of the nation.

 

[Politesse]

The 40 hour week isn't a law of nature

I think most Americans already know this? At least, they used to. Henry Ford inventing and selling America on the 40 hour work week is part of our national mythos.

 

[bilby]

The 40 hour week isn't a law of nature

I think most Americans already know this? At least, they used to. Henry Ford inventing and selling America on the 40 hour work week is part of our national mythos.

Australian unions, led by the stone masons, won an eight hour day by strike action nearly a decade prior to Ford's birth. NSW still celebrates Labour Day on October 1, in commemoration of their 1855 Victory Dinner.

The 38 hour week has been the law here since 1983, and is enshrined in the Australian National Employment Standards:

An employer must not request or require an employee to work more than the following hours of work in a week, unless the additional hours are reasonable:

• for a full-time employee, 38 hours (unless their award or enterprise agreement specifies different hours) or
• for an employee other than a full-time employee, the lesser of:
  • 38 hours
  • the employee’s agreed ordinary hours of work in a week.

The hours an employee works in a week must be taken to include any hours of leave or absence (paid or unpaid under the NES) that is authorised:

• by the employer or
• by or under a term of the employee’s employment or
• by or under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law, or an instrument in force under such a law.

An employee may refuse to work additional hours if they are unreasonable.

The NES sets the minimum entitlements for Australian employees, and many of its provisions would make US employers' heads explode.

And yet, our economy stubbornly refuses to collapse.

 

[Politesse]

Australian unions, led by the stone masons, won an eight hour day by strike action nearly a decade prior to Ford's birth. NSW still celebrates Labour Day on October 1, in commemoration of their 1855 Victory Dinner.

I meant that his invention of the 40 work week is part of our mythos, not that the story is actually as such true. He had a penchant for marketing.

 

[southernhybrid]

The 40 hour week isn't a law of nature

I think most Americans already know this? At least, they used to. Henry Ford inventing and selling America on the 40 hour work week is part of our national mythos.

Australian unions, led by the stone masons, won an eight hour day by strike action nearly a decade prior to Ford's birth. NSW still celebrates Labour Day on October 1, in commemoration of their 1855 Victory Dinner.

The 38 hour week has been the law here since 1983, and is enshrined in the Australian National Employment Standards:

An employer must not request or require an employee to work more than the following hours of work in a week, unless the additional hours are reasonable:

• for a full-time employee, 38 hours (unless their award or enterprise agreement specifies different hours) or
• for an employee other than a full-time employee, the lesser of:
  • 38 hours
  • the employee’s agreed ordinary hours of work in a week.

The hours an employee works in a week must be taken to include any hours of leave or absence (paid or unpaid under the NES) that is authorised:

• by the employer or
• by or under a term of the employee’s employment or
• by or under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law, or an instrument in force under such a law.

An employee may refuse to work additional hours if they are unreasonable.

The NES sets the minimum entitlements for Australian employees, and many of its provisions would make US employers' heads explode.

And yet, our economy stubbornly refuses to collapse.

When I worked as a public health nurse in South Carolina, we all worked a 37.5 hour work week. It was nice since we didn't have to be to work until 8:30. There was no overtime because everyone, regardless of pay or status, was salaried with excellent benefits. I doubt it's like that in SC these days.

The Republicans are already having a fit over Bernie's idea of a 32 hour work week.

 

[Ford]

I work 4 days a week. Granted, it's 4 10 hour days, but even then it's better than 5. When we switched to 4 10s (because that's what most of the workers wanted) I was put on the "donut" schedule. Two days on, one day off. Two days on, two days off. I loved it. Every other day was "Friday." When that shift went away, I was put onto "back half," working Wednesday through Saturday. It is still better than 5 days. When you're working 5 days, you get home Friday evening, wind down, you have Saturday to yourself, and then Sunday is a "school night" where you have to gear up to get back into the grind. When I get home on Saturday afternoon, I wind down. Then I have Sunday to myself. Then Monday. Then Tuesday is a "school night" where I have to set my alarm again.

But wait...there's more! In a M-F 9 to 5 world, you have to take time off to compensate for the fact that everyone else is on the same schedule. Doctor's appointments, car repairs, and other stuff that happens during those times suddenly becomes a lot easier when you're working 4 days. Monday morning meeting with my cardiologist? No problem. If I had 2 hours cut off from each day of work? I would be so much more productive.