A movement is under way, here in the U.S. and elsewhere, to make the standard work week four days.
A non-profit called 4 Day Week Global is operating trial runs to test how a shift to 32-hour work weeks impacts employers and employees. The organization is finding that not only does the shorter week improve worker's mental health and employee retention, but workers are generally just as productive.
Juliet Schor, who gave a TED talk on the four-day work week in April, is a researcher with 4 Day Week Global and a professor at Boston College. She says workers spend more time actually working while on the clock in a four-day setting.
"There's that old adage, work expands to fill the available time," says Schor. "The other thing is that burned out workers, stressed out workers, are not as productive."
Most companies testing this out have also reduced meetings to avoid inefficient, unproductive working hours.
One local company operating on a four-day week is the clothing brand Charlie Hustle. After trying it out for a few months, the business recently opted to make the shift permanent.
Greg Moore, COO of Charlie Hustle, says his employees were ecstatic with the plan's rollout. Then, the company's leaders had to ask themselves questions about how best to move forward.
"What do we want to be here? Like, what's our company mission? It's to evoke happiness. That doesn't mean just make our customers and our partners happy. It's our internal team," says Moore.
- Juliet Schor, economist and professor of sociology at Boston College
- Greg Moore, COO of Charlie Hustle
