House liberals are lining up behind a proposal to shorten the U.S. workweek to four days, which could bring American workplace culture more closely in line with Europe’s.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus this week endorsed a measure that would shorten the official definition of a full workweek to 32 hours, triggering overtime pay for many workers who put in any additional hours.
“After a nearly two-year-long pandemic that forced millions of people to explore remote work options, it’s safe to say that we can’t — and shouldn’t — simply go back to normal, because normal wasn’t working,” Rep. Mark Takano, vice chairman of the CPC, said in a statement about the move.
Flexible work arrangements have become increasingly popular in the aftermath of the pandemic, with a growing number of companies offering remote work and other options to accommodate people who became accustomed to changes that occurred during a year or more of lockdowns.
But a four-day workweek could dramatically change the way people approach their jobs, bringing benefits and drawbacks to the dilemma it would pose to companies.
Benefits of four-day workweek
A New Zealand company launched a four-day workweek trial in 2018 that many proponents of the shift have cited as evidence that the plan can work.
Rather than lose some work due to the loss of a full workday, Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand financial company, boasted a 20% increase in productivity among its employees.
An analysis of the company’s experiment with a three-day weekend showed a reduction in employees’ stress levels, while employees unsurprisingly reported a better work-life balance.
Proponents of shortening the workweek also point to trends that show that, while Americans have put in more time on the job over the past few decades, with one study showing the average worker having added 4.5 hours of work per week between 1979 and 2007, their wages have hardly increased over that time period.
Others have cited savings on expenses, such as electricity at office facilities, associated with shutting down companies for an extra day every week.
Drawbacks of four-day workweek
Shortening the workweek would significantly shape the way many businesses operate — especially ones that offer customer service to consumers who may expect to have their inquiries answered quickly every day of the week.
A majority of business leaders raised concerns about the practice, according to a 2019 survey of British business leaders from the Harvard Business Review, including concerns about the layers of bureaucracy that the creation of a workable four-day workweek could create.
In many businesses, employers would need to create rotating schedules so that all employees could enjoy a three-day weekend without shuttering the company one additional day each week.
And while the four-day workweek has succeeded in some European countries that have encouraged it and large corporations that have tried it out, other companies have abandoned it after encountering difficulties.
Treehouse, a Portland-based education company, ended the practice of giving every employee Fridays off after the company’s CEO said productivity fell as a result of the policy.
The CEO also said he reversed the policy shortly after laying off nearly two dozen employees, noting the disconnect between allowing workers to have three-day weekends while needing financial reasons to lay off employees.
