Four day work week - yippee!

I had lunch with a former employee who recently changed jobs. She loves her new company for a lot of reasons. We lunched on a Friday and she had the day off. She has every other Friday off and I could tell by her smile and energy that she loved it. What a great idea! She works 9 hour days Monday - Thursday to make up for having every other Friday off. But most people work 9 hours anyway, right?

I think this is a splendid idea and thought I would pass it along. I think you should do these kinds of things to help people recharge whenever possible.

What can you do at your workplace to help your employees enjoy their time off more, thereby making them happier at work?

When I worked at Intel, I had a 4 day week and worked 10 hour days as the OD consultant. I had a colleague that worked the same schedule and we overlapped on one day per week. I worked Sunday - Wednesday and she worked Wed-Saturday. Worked well and I always had 3 day weekends (well sometimes I had to come in for a meeting, but not too often). Having 3 day weekends in New Mexico was wonderful because there's so much to explore.

You know what? I think I am going to institute a 4 day work week after I get back from my 6-week bike trip. I work for myself so I should be able to do this, right? You betcha. It will be tough, I tell ya, because I have an extra gene called the RUA-workaholic gene. I bet many of you have this gene too.

Hmmm... Very intriguing.....I'm going to think on that one and figure out how to do that.....

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Work schedules with four ten-hour days are fairly common and very popular in police departments. I surveyed several of them a few years back as part of work for a client. Officers loved the schedule. It gave them time to decompress (1 day), do errands etc (1 day) and rest/recreate (1 day). We could find no evidence of loss of productivity by working 10 hours instead of 8. Over ten hours, at especially at 12 hours, fatigue seemed to kick in, but productivity was high at 10.

[Mark Shead]

I went to a highschool that was on a four day week growing up. It was very nice and worked out quite well.

I think most people could get the same amount done in 4 days as they do in 5 if they were able to get rid of procrastination and things that waste their time.

If there was a way to measure everyone based on their actual output, and you could leave for the week once you finished your "quota" I think a lot of people would be getting their work done around noon on Thursday.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Great examples, thanks. I wish my school had been on a 4 day week!

[Craig]

About a year ago, I changed my contracts to only work a four day week. It is once of the best things I have ever done.

That extra day gives me so much extra time to get MY things done.

[git r nakid]

eveybody should have a 4 day workweek!!!!!

[git r nakid]

also have a 4 day school week!!!!

[Doug McColl]

Lets forget about doing 5 days work in 4 days! Knock the hours back too so you're only working 4 days over 4 days (32 hours). Now your talking! And that extra day can be made up by a new part time employee, or perhaps, better yet, a new 32 hour a week full-time employee to make up for every 4 employees converting down to a four day week! Check out another blog on this at http://dougsplace.wordpress.com/ .

[tommy]

i have a question about vacation time when you work a 4 day week. what are some of the options available? do you get paid for the 40 hours plus 8 holiday/vaction time?

[Doug McColl]

About working a 32 hour, 4 day week instead of 40 hours in 5. You would be paid for 32 hours and vacation time would be based on working a 32 hour week. For vacation time you would be paid based on a your 32 hour week wage. BUT...now that your wage is 1/5 lower you would perhaps be in a lower income tax bracket, therefore you would not see your take home pay (after tax) drop by 1/5. Your time however is your most precious commodity...just ask any elderly person. If you utterly love your job and it totally enriches your life and health...then you should be looking for an 80 hour 7 day work week. More likely though, if you think your job fulfils everything tahts important, you should seek therapy.