Are 4-day workweeks and flexi-hours the future of full-time? | personal financing

A bill introduced by the California legislature earlier this year proposed a regular pay rate of 32 hours worked per week, with overtime starting after that. The procedure has stalled in the committee due to a lack of broad support, but it may reappear in 2023.

Meanwhile, 4 Day Week Global, a non-profit affiliated with the University of Oxford, is piloting six months of a four-day working week “with no loss of employee pay”. More than thirty companies in the United States and Canada are participating in the experiment, with a total of 150 organizations and 7,000 employees participating worldwide.

Of the more than 1,000 US adult employees surveyed by research firm Qualtrics in January, 92% said they would support their employer going into the four-day work week; 79% of them said it would help their mental health, and 82% said it would make them more productive.

Will more employers accept the change?

“I’ve always been curious about burnout. It really affects those who should thrive,” says Lisa Belanger, CEO of ConsciousWorks in Canmore, Alberta. She consults with companies about well-being in the workplace. In her quest to find ‘what work should be like’, she decides to explore a four-day work week on her own.

She says the results have been mixed at best.

“I think I’ve failed so far in my personal experience,” Bellanger says. Business travel plans or other work-related responsibilities often cut into her fifth day.

“One of the reasons why it’s so difficult for me, and most people, to do a four-day work week is because other people are working that fifth day, so you get email and they’re drawn to you,” Bellanger says.

“People are realizing that although this is an interesting or interesting idea, there are likely to be some trade-offs,” says Benjamin Granger, head of employee experience advisory services at Qualtrics. He says the company’s research points to concerns about customer frustration if personnel changes have an impact on response time.

He adds that widespread adoption must reach critical mass, as companies believe they have to adopt a shorter work week to compete in the workforce. Consumer behaviour, expectations and services will have to be reshaped.

“We haven’t been close to that yet,” he says.

Granger says that if the work week isn’t four days long, there are other factors to check out when it comes to flexibility in the workplace.

These could include perks that make the job more attractive, such as choosing the hours you want to work instead of the usual 9-5, or being able to run errands during the workday.

Less than 4 in 10 (37%) of employees surveyed by Qualtrics would be willing to take 5% or more of their wages for four work days a week. But nearly three-quarters (72%) of those surveyed said four working days a week meant they would have to work longer days.

However, 10-hour days are often inappropriate for childcare. And if the company offers to pay for only four days of eight hours each, this may indicate that the shorter work week may be the result of the company’s attempt to reduce expenses.

“I think there’s a lot of work and research that the organization has to do before you pull the trigger,” Granger says.

A four-day work week — or other flexibility in the workplace — might begin with a series of discussions. If there is interest on both sides of the payroll, Granger suggests a trade-off analysis: “Look statistically at what factors people would be willing to trade off for, and would it be worth it to them?” If interest remains strong, the organization can run a pilot program with a small group of employees before rolling it out more broadly.

If a four-day work week isn’t in the near future, Belanger offers these ideas for employees to look for—and employers should consider:

• Occasionally extended into the weekend. Bellanger says this allows for time away without feeling “a build-up of stressful work while I’m away” during long vacations.
• A Friday without meetings or reducing the number of meetings in general.
• Email, instant messaging, or text interruptions. “Remote pressure” — forcing a quick response to work-related messages of any kind — is real, Bellanger says.

“You need two hours every day where you’re not working completely – 100% not working,” she adds, for Mental Health.

Article Are 4-day workweeks and flexi-hours the future of full-time? Originally appeared on NerdWallet.