43THE BOTTOM LINE Although many CEOs resist the idea of cutting hours
without reducing pay, two-thirds of companies that have adopted a four-day
week say employee productivity has increased.a proposal to grant employees a day off every week to
protect their well-being. “The four-day week is picking
up momentum,” says Will Stronge, director of research
at Autonomy, a U.K. think tank. “For the large majority of
firms, reducing working hours is an entirely realistic goal.”
Laborers and even many office workers used to show
up on the job six or seven days a week, though by the late
19th century most at least had Sunday off. In 1926, Henry
Ford decided to give workers two free days every week,
arguing they would buy more cars if they had more leisure
time. They did, and by the end of the next decade most
American manufacturers had followed his lead. It took a
bit longer elsewhere, with Germany scrapping Saturday
shifts only in the 1960s, after unions ran campaigns saying
that kids need more time with their daddies. Over the
past two decades, working time in developed countries
has gradually decreased;
France led the way in
2000 with its adoption
of a 35-hour workweek.
“Many developed econo-
mies face a shortage of
skilled labor,” says Terry
Gregory, a researcher at
the German Institute of
Labor Economics. “That
gives workers more power
to demand shorter hours.”
Broad acceptance of
a four-day week may be
harder. Jack Ma, the bil-
lionaire co-founder of
Chinese e- commerce
giant Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd., frequently
hails his country’s gruel-
ing “996” work culture—9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week—
as vital for long-term success. In the U.K., the Labour Party
lost the 2019 general election even as it campaigned on a
pledge to trim the standard workweek to 32 hours within a
decade. And bosses are reluctant to reduce hours without
cutting pay, fearing output will drop. “Employees perform a
task more efficiently the more they’ve done it,” says Holger
Schäfer, a labor market analyst at the German Economic
Institute in Cologne. “I don’t believe there are really going
to be productivity gains coming from shorter working time.”
Yet as the pandemic has slowed growth and increased
inequality, there’s a new push to reengineer workplaces.
Almost two-thirds of businesses with a four-day week
report improved productivity, according to a study from
the University of Reading. A group led by former U.K.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell wrote a letter to
leaders including Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, and Angela
Merkel urging them to adopt a four-day week to save jobs,◼ SOLUTIONS Bloomberg Businessweek March 8, 2021
rethink working patterns, and reduce energy consumption.
In August, Germany’s 2.3-million- member IG Metall union
proposed a shorter workweek in response to the health
crisis and seismic changes in the auto industry, which
will need fewer manufacturing hands as it shifts to elec-
tric vehicles. French carmaker Renault SA is giving about
13,000 staff Fridays off until mid-August while it seeks to
cut costs as orders have slumped. (Workers will be paid
the same, but only because their salaries are plumped up
with state unemployment benefits.)
Awin CEO Ross says the four-day week is intended
to retain the company’s software engineers and account
managers, who help the likes of Asos, Nike, and Samsung
connect with bloggers, influencers, and publishers. There
have been some teething issues, such as deciding who
will be off when (staff can choose the day they want to
stay away or take two half-days), requiring the finance
department to stick around five days a week during
the January reporting period, and ensuring that client
requests coming in on Fridays get prompt attention. About
80 employees volunteered to work in task forces to make
the switch as smooth as possible, discussing potential
contract changes, cutting hourlong meetings in half, and
introducing software to ease collaboration.
Awin will assess the results of the trial program this
summer, but Ross says the experience has been so pos-
itive that he can’t imagine going back. The CEO has felt
the change himself: After logging weekly commutes to
Berlin from London for six years, he now enjoys a day
every week with a clear diary, allowing him to spend time
with his family or think about what’s next. Companies
used to “make provisions for people’s physical health but
never their mental health,” Ross says. “I see that chang-
ing, and we want to be a driver for it.” �Stefan Nicola,
with Carolynn Look and Jeannette NeumannAwin CEO Ross, who introduced
a four-day workweek in January
after shifting the company to 4½
days when the pandemic startedDATA: ZIPRECRUITER2016 2021603 00Jobs Offering a Four-Day Week
Per 10,000 listings
on ZipRecruiterDistribution by sector,
January 2020-February 2021Transportation and storage 7%THROUGH FEB. 24Sales
44%Other
27%Retail
12%Health care
10%