Is Shorter Better? Exploring the Pros and Cons of a 4-Day Workweek

We’ve heard a lot of different arguments about the pros and cons of a 4-day workweek. A 5-day weekend is standard for many corporate workers and 6-day workweeks are not out of the ordinary either. From the perspective of the employee, as long as pay remains constant, the benefits of a shorter work week are innumerable. Most people appreciate having an additional day to relax and attend to their other responsibilities and hobbies. 

For the employer, a 4-day workweek is a much harder sell. Many organizations have experimented with the shorter workweek to assess whether it’s a sustainable system for their organization, but their results have been insufficient to convince the entire corporate world to make the shift. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of a 4-day workweek and understand their resistance to making the switch. 

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Uncovering the Pros and Cons of a 4-Day Workweek

The work sphere has evolved considerably over the last few years, particularly due to the introduction of technology. Working from home would have seemed like a foreign concept for most professions just 10 years ago, but under the circumstances over the last few years, we’ve seen that when push comes to shove, we can make the best of any circumstance and shift situations to work in our favor. Now, despite the resistance from employers to continue in this format, many organizations have successfully made it possible for employees to work from the comfort of their homes.

A similar shift is expected towards a 4-day workweek schedule. Technological tools allow us to work faster and more efficiently. An HR professional who might have spent a week on organizing employee records a few years ago now has HRIS systems to help them speed up the process and cut it down to a day. This is just one example of how the landscape of work has evolved. 

The 5-day workweek structure evolved out of the Industrial Revolution—the 40-hour workweek was initially designed for factory workers who worked in shifts to keep the systems running constantly. Since then, the circumstances have changed, the work has changed, and the needs of the workers have also changed. With different lifestyles, home lives, social situations, and other extraneous circumstances, the 5-day workweek has begun to feel outdated.

Just like other evolving systems, the impact of a 4-day workweek could be exactly what organizations need to push their organizations one step further. The transition period will admittedly be difficult and require some trial and error, which is a major reason for the hesitation in the adoption of a 4-day workweek schedule.

What Are the Benefits of a Shorter Workweek

Breaking down the pros and cons of a 4-day workweek will give us a better understanding of the nature of the conversation surrounding the issue. A 4-day workweek schedule would mean a shift to a 32-37 hour work format and this could be followed by an organization in different ways. 

An 8-hour work day, 4 days a week is one of the most popular schedules, but there are other ways to distribute the time as well. Some have advocated for a workweek with every alternate Friday off while others have suggested adopting a system where employees only work half a day on Friday.

All of these modified options offer different formats for an organization to find the best fit, so the shift to a 4-day workweek schedule doesn’t have to have one fixed approach. Let’s look at some of the benefits of exploring these options.

• Improved employee mental health: Employees will have more time to themselves to recover from their work, reducing the possibility of burnout.
• Better work-life balance: An employee will be able to make time for their hobbies and interests when they have more time to themselves, which can improve their creativity and lateral thinking on the job as well. 
• Employees have more time to resolve other responsibilities: An employee has many other responsibilities outside of their work, but a one or two-day weekend leaves very little time to address them. More time during the weekend means they have less reason to take time off.
• Employees have more time to work on upskilling initiatives and education: The benefits of a shorter workweek extend to their professional skills as employees will have more time to work on broadening their knowledge and improving their skills.
• Employees have more energy to be productive: Employees can return to work well-rested and perform their daily tasks more effectively.
• Reduction in absenteeism: Healthier employees have fewer reasons to take a day off.
• Tighter deadlines and task completion rates: With more days to complete a task, many menial assignments are dragged out to last longer even if they don’t require as much time to complete. Both the employee and organization will look forward to finishing work more quickly and effectively.
• Better productivity and planning: With fewer hours to get the work done, employees will move from task to task more quickly in order to wrap up work before the weekend arrives and good planning will be key to making it possible.
• Improved employee engagement: Employees will be able to concentrate on work better when their personal life is better-taken care of, and they will become more capable of getting their job done. 
• Reduced operating cost for organizations: Employers who require employees to come to work every day have to keep the office open for 4 productive days only.
• Attracts top talent: Flexible work schedules are among the best benefits one can offer to candidates. Employers will be able to attract more talent and better-quality candidates as well. 
• Improves candidate diversity: More candidates may be able to find work with a 4-day workweek schedule, which will make a more diverse pool of candidates possible.
• Improved employee satisfaction and retention: Employees who feel supported by the organization will give back just as willingly.

Drawbacks of a Shorter Workweek

The impact of a 4-day workweek would be largely positive for any organization, but there is a considerable list of drawbacks as well. These need to be considered in detail before an organization makes any rash moves toward a system it cannot sustain.

• Increased workload: Employees are already overworked and their workload will only feel heavier when they have less time to get through it.
• Stressful Mondays: The 3-day weekend might give employees more time to relax, but this may also mean returning to a bigger pile of tasks on Monday that will undo any of the relaxations from the weekend.
• Organizations cannot afford to be out of reach from clients and customers: While there are ways to work in shifts and ensure that somebody is always available, it is harder to establish such a system.
• Implementation issues: After considering all the pros and cons of a 4-day workweek, making the transition to it will require extensive planning and experimentation that organizations don’t currently want to spare.
• Rushed work results: Employees will be under pressure to finish work faster in order to meet similar timelines as they did earlier, leading to a fall in the quality of work.
• Lower pay: Some organizations will only consider reducing the working hours with a parallel reduction in pay, which would greatly impact the employee and make the model unsustainable.
• Lesser time to resolve the problems within the organization: Poor work culture and other issues are not addressed as regularly as necessary and with less time, such issues may take a permanent backseat.

The list of the cons is not as extensive as the many pros of shifting to a 4-day workweek schedule, but they are enough to discourage organizations. For now, it seems most employers will require a much bigger push or a clear reason why the current system is hurting their business in order to make the shift to a shorter workweek.

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