It's time for a four-day working week revolution

We haven't had a major change to our work week structure since, and yet the world of work has altered to be almost unrecognisable in that time.

So, after 76 years isn't it time we had the next work week revolution?

The five-day week "front up and work your hours" mindset still exists in most workplaces though there is a growing push for the four-day work week.

What does this look like? The current models being evaluated mean you are paid a full-time wage; you deliver 100 per cent of the agreed outcomes as you would have if you worked five days, but you only work over four days.

Leaving an extra day to enjoy activities outside of work.

The results from one of the largest pilot programs ever undertaken into the four-day week were recently released by researchers from Boston College, Autonomy and University of Cambridge. The pilot's purpose was to examine the lifestyle and health benefits of the four-day week and enlisted 61 companies, mostly in the UK, and summarised the experiences of around 3000 employees over a six-month period.

The results showed 40 per cent of employees had improved mental health. Forty per cent said their physical health and sleep had improved, and a resounding 96 per cent of employees said they preferred the four-day schedule.

Employers too noticed benefits, with revenue increasing by an average of 35 per cent (compared to the previous six months), lower employee turnover (down 57 per cent) and improved absenteeism (down 65 per cent). Almost all the businesses involved in the pilot said they expected to continue with the four-day week experiment, and in some cases, continue indefinitely.

But even with mounting evidence of success there are still the naysayers. I have read many articles and opinions negating this initiative as impossible. They say workers will just take advantage - have more time off and deliver less.

That is not the reality of the concept and the results from four-day week trials bear this out incontrovertibly.

Perhaps opponents of the four-day week could look to history for some inspiration, and consider the factory owners in post-industrial revolution times who saw an increase in productivity and well-being in their teams when they allowed their employees an extra day off?

It is not about delivering less, it is about being more productive. Cutting out unnecessary meetings, emails and conversations while maximising our efficiency.

In my experience, if I have eight hours to write a report, I can make it last eight hours.

Equally, if I only have two hours to write the exact same report, I can knock it out with four times the efficiency and no less quality.

Since the COVID pandemic we've seen several clear signs that workers are increasingly disaffected. First it was the great resignation where people were leaving jobs to look for a more fulfilling life and to have greater control of their work life journey.

Recently, "quiet quitting" became a term to describe those who don't quit, but mentally disengage from their job and do the bare minimum.

Businesses and employers who ignore these very clear signs, and dismiss concepts like the four-day week, are very likely to not only lose valued staff but will find it difficult to attract the best and brightest.

The increasing rates of mental ill health and death by suicide show we need to think differently about how we live our lives. As work currently takes up almost a third of our life, we need to ensure we have a healthy, fulfilled, and energised workforce.

The evidence is growing that the four-day work week may well be part of the answer. We just need our organisational leaders to embrace this innovative concept and accept that we can't continue to impose workplace conventions from the 20^th century on a 21^st century workforce.

It's time for a once in a generation workplace revolution.