The New Zealand four-day workweek pilot found that, to fit in their “real work,” employees took shorter breaks and spent less time lingering to socialize in order to resume their measurable tasks.
#Working days left in 2021 full#
For example, in the four-day workweek, is it having a full day off each week or is it working four days’ worth of hours across the week that helps? Can time-use diaries be used to show that people are actually switching off from work when disconnected from it and engaging in activities that promote well-being and meaningfulness? Are diverse groups and those with caring responsibilities equally benefitting when they cannot access their work at certain times of the day or week? Reducing hours should not increase work’s intensity On the other hand, our own research has shown that some people want to be able to check in on work and keep connected because it worries them more when they do not have oversight of what is going on, which prevents them from feeling in control.Īs organizations and governments consider four-day workweeks, it’s important that researchers ask how different types of time off translate into both well-being and performance benefits. Research shows that people with more intensive workloads tend to ruminate about work outside of working hours and are unable to switch off until their work problems have been solved. We also know that remaining connected to work out-of-hours can be stressful, but that voluntariness, personal preference, and job role can mitigate this.Ĭontemporary approaches to performance management also call into question the extent to which individuals truly have a choice when it comes to out-of-hours working.
Existing research suggests that the extent to which people like to remain connected out-of-hours is often based on individual differences and circumstances. Unfortunately, removing access to work (voluntarily or not) does not mean that the work itself is removed.
Reducing working hours does not necessarily reduce work Here’s what leaders need to understand before trying a four-day workweek. Second, time at work could become even more intense and stressful for workers, even if there are productivity benefits to be had. First, a reduction in hours must also be accompanied by a revision of or even reduction in workload. It can hardly be sustainable or reasonable to expect already frazzled employees to keep working to existing workloads with one fewer day a week, which is why, while we support four-day workweek initiatives, employers need to be aware of two important factors. Indeed, several well-regarded studies into the four-day workweek are promoted in the media on the basis that productivity should not fall (or indeed, should increase) if the change is managed well. To illustrate, in a recent study about New Zealand’s move to the four-day workweek, researchers Helen Delaney and Catherine Casey found that not only was work intensified following the change, but so too were managerial pressures around performance measurement, monitoring, and productivity. By focusing so strongly on the where and when of work, policymakers appear to have lost sight of how and how much we are working. Perhaps it is no surprise then that initiatives such as the four-day workweek, remote and hybrid working, unlimited paid time off, and right-to-disconnect have been gaining in popularity in an attempt to tackle these high-workload, always-on cultures.īut do these solutions really offer change for workers? Can they help employees and managers rebalance demands? Our work at the ESRC-funded research center UK Digital Futures at Work (Digit) Research Centre suggests that the answers to these questions are complicated and not easily answered without addressing the real problem: the issue of excessive workloads and intensification.
In 2020, 62% of people reported that they had experienced burnout “often” or “extremely often” in the previous three months, and in 2021, 67% of workers reported that stress and burnout had increased since the pandemic. Despite the gains workers have made through the Covid pandemic in increasing flexibility in where they work, bigger workloads have meant that there is little slack in the system for people to take time out and recover.
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