Disrupting the five day week
Our nine to five, five days a week culture hasn’t really changed since it began in the US in 1908. It was begun by a New England Cotton Mill to enable Jewish workers to have the Sabbath off. In 1926, Henry Ford began shutting down his automotive factories for all of Saturday and Sunday. In the following decade, many businesses followed suit but it wasn’t until 1940 when a provision of the 1938 Fair Labour Standards Act in the US mandated a maximum 40 hour workweek, thereafter a two-day weekend was adopted across the US.
In the UK, the week-end first arose in the industrial north of Britain in the early part of the nineteenth century and was originally a voluntary arrangement between factory owners and workers allowing Saturday afternoon off from 2pm, providing that they would be back sober and refreshed on Monday morning.
So why is it that very little has changed since the beginning of the nineteenth century? Only in the last year are we really seeing the beginnings of a shift to a four day week here in the UK, though other countries like Luxembourg and Denmark have been finding it really beneficial for slightly longer.
In the UK, late 2018 and early 2019 saw a steep increase in organisations switching to four-day weeks. The companies that have made this switch have seen an increase in productivity, morale, and energy levels. They say that workers have noticed that having an extra day off has improved their work-life balance. They are able to be more involved in extracurricular activities, and have time to recover from the stress of working. A shorter work week has also provided health benefits benefiting the company by having fewer sick days. Having a shorter work week leads people to feel less overworked, and in turn lowers their levels of depression and stress.
One of the biggest studies was done at Perpetual Guardian, a finance company with 240 employees in New Zealand. After switching to a four-day work week with no decrease in pay, the company saw a 20% increase in productivity. During a similar study also monitored by the University of Auckland, stress levels decreased from 45% to 38%.
In the UK, it seems to be smaller companies that are making the move to trial a four-day week, though earlier this year, the Wellcome Trust announced that it would start a trial with its’ 800-strong workforce. Those who have made the move have found it nothing but positive, with leaders saying that productivity has increased. However in all the research and articles on the subject, there is no evidence of the financial cost of a shorter working week to the business.
We’re all for disrupting the norm and changing the way we work. It’s not been done in a very long time and if we can find ways to make work better, let’s do it!
