LaDonna Speiser has been working four days a week since February. She said she wasn’t ready to give it up yet.
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LaDonna Speiser has been working four days a week since February. She said she wasn’t ready to give it up yet.
Kyle Green for NPR
On a recent summer Friday, LaDonna Speiser, 59, took her grandson to the pool and helped her mother-in-law with errands. She went to see an ophthalmologist and made an appointment with a physiotherapist. She even spends her time reading books on the patio. She’s able to do all of this because her employer, a company called Healthwise, gives her a four-day workweek.
With the pandemic and “Great resignation“making it harder for companies to attract and retain talent, more and more white-collar employers like Healthwise are exploring new avenues to make working life more engaging. that – four-day work week – consider if the employee really need to work 40 hours a week. As part of the “Working Life” series, NPR’s Morning version look at what this is like in practice.
Speiser’s company began experimenting with a four-day workweek last year. Based in Boise, Idaho, the company produces health education materials for hospitals and health programs. It recently completed a pilot test run by the non-profit organization 4 days a week globallyhelp organizations transition away from the traditional five-day workweek.
LaDonna Speiser is pictured outside her company, Healthwise, on June 29. The Idaho-based company tested the four-day workweek last year and made it permanent in February.
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For some companies, the benefits are clear
For Healthwise, the cut to four business days is actually good for Business.
Chief Executive Officer Adam Husney said: “Our revenue this year has grown more than we expected. “We delivered the product on time or before we did. I would say the things we were able to measure were positive.”
Furthermore, these positives are tied to one of the goals of the experiment – to find out how a four-day workweek can help employees break out of burnout.
“A lot of people are spending more time in the office than they need to,” said Juliet Schor, an economist and professor of sociology at Boston University. Schor is the author of the book Americans are overworkedand lead research at the Global 4 Days Week.
“If work was more organized,” she said, “[employees] can get work done in a shorter amount of time, come home and have a better life. “
Participating companies pilot program was asked to test a four-day workweek for six months. The requirement to participate is no pay reduction but a substantial reduction in hours worked. The majority of participants spent four days with 32 hours of work, with Friday being the most popular holiday. To date, 22 companies in the US and 70 in England. signed up for a trial class this year. Companies in Australia, Canada and New Zealand are also participating.
Depending on the job, it may not be a realistic option
Juliet Schor, an economist and professor of sociology, poses for a portrait in her office at Boston College on June 27, 2022.
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To be sure, testing is not for everyone.
“If you look at the pioneers of the four-day week, technology is at the forefront a lot,” says Schor. Kickstarter, with about 100 employees, was a notable company in the test. “White-collar jobs are the dominant type of job at the moment,” she notes.
Indeed, it may seem easier to try a four-day work week in an office setting, where there is often more schedule flexibility, than in other industries. When NPR called a manufacturing plant in the northeast that specialized in steel products, a floor manager answered the phone saying he didn’t have time to meet his supervisor to talk about the lake. profile. Before hanging up, he said the factory was closed because of supply chain shortages and backlogs of orders, to the point where there was no way they could make it through a four-day workweek.
But when it comes to white-collar work, one of Schor’s goals is to see if reducing working hours is actually possible. She gave a test with health care workers in Sweden, where nurses are given six hours a day instead of their usual eight to combat stress.
“A lot of people are spending more time in the office than they need to,” says economist Juliet Schor. “If work was more organized,” she said, “[employees] can get work done in a shorter amount of time, come home and have a better life. ”
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“What these experiments show is that nurses who get six hours a day are, as we expected… happier,” says Schor. “But care facilities had to hire people to do those extra hours. And what they found was that despite the small increase in costs, most of that extra pay was offset by the cost of care. lower health care and lower unemployment rates for their existing workforce.”
Ultimately, Schor says that the four-day workweek is less expensive for employers — not only in terms of revenue, but also in terms of productivity.
“And of course, patient outcomes improved,” Schor said of the Swedish trial. “So I think we’re going to start seeing more of this in healthcare precisely because they’re suffering from a lot of burnout. Of course, it’s different in healthcare. When you have tired and stressed employees, you’re more likely to make mistakes.”
Some HR professionals see downsides
Some experts say there are obvious downsides to the four-day workweek that are worth considering. While Healthwise gives employees the day off on Friday, some HR experts say that could create a scheduling challenge.
David Lewis, CEO of human resource consulting firm OperationsInc, said the post-COVID-19 workplace has made it difficult for employees to unplug.
“I’m hearing more and more often,” says Lewis, “I work from home” or “I live at work”. “People don’t turn off their laptops, they don’t disconnect their phones.”
For Lewis, fundamental aspects of work-life balance are crucial. In a recent studyResearchers in New Zealand found that while employees were attracted to the four-day work week, in fact several aspects of their work were enhanced after the change, including pressure from managers around things like performance.
“Exactly how would you move people in the exact opposite direction to think about three days versus two disconnected days when [they’re] Struggling to disconnect for even a few hours over the course of a seven-day week? “
Similarly, for Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO of a marketing technology company called Casted, Fridays off is a fun sticker of an idea but it doesn’t necessarily make her employees’ lives. it’s better.
Casted CEO and co-founder Lindsay Tjepkema leads a senior leadership meeting at the Casted office building in Indianapolis on June 29.
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“Real flexibility is being able to say, ‘Hey, I want to start the workday late,’ or ‘I want to leave early on Wednesday for kids, friends, personal reasons,’” says Tjepkema. , for pet reasons.” “So if I ask for that flexibility at our company that means you have Friday off, that’s not flexibility. It’s mandatory a day off.”
Condensed CEO Lindsay Tjepkema said the four-day workweek may not offer as much flexibility for employees as some think.
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The tests that Schor is helping lead are still ongoing, so there isn’t enough final data to draw conclusions about how much companies can save or employee performance and satisfaction. how much better employees because a work week lasts four days. And of course, all of this is happening in a tough economy. Inflation is hurting companies and workers. Interest rates are one of the rising trends, causing many business leaders to prepare for a recession. Even so, Schor believes the four-day workweek has irreversible momentum.
“If you think about things like … every Friday off, Friday off in the summer, no Friday meetings…” And one of the things we know is once people have something, Schor said. like this, it’s hard to take it away.”
LaDonna Speiser is living this. She has been working steadily four days a week since February. When we asked her if she would be willing to give up that job for another job somewhere else, she laughed and said her life has changed with this new schedule. Now she has more and she is not ready to give it up.
