Four (work)days to better health?

The best schedule that worked for me at my last job was akin to what Annie describes here: 50% office time, 50% focus time. I’d start midday to be in the “office” available to my team, but the second half of my day was after everyone else went home. It allowed me to meet their needs, be present for meetings, and still get the focused work done. I was more present, experienced less sensory overload, and ultimately more productive. It cut out a lot of the “shadow” work I was doing before and after work.

Great article in the The Wall Street Journal on the Four Day Work Week. As numerous companies experimented with adjusting schedules, workers began to average 34hrs a week of working time, with no loss in output. Yet they experienced increased mental health and well-being benefits, satisfaction and engagement. Many achieved this through reduced meeting time and more time devoted to deep work. As we reimagine work for the modern era it's time to experiment with new boundaries that serve the #futureofwork today vs shift models from 100 years ago. Give it a look!

The study suggests that the benefits from shifting to a four-day week may last and may grow stronger over time, rather than dissipating. https://lnkd.in/ezgRaG-T

AMEN. More 4-day workweek trial results are coming in hot and spicy! According to WSJ, "After six months, workers said they had less burnout, improved health and more job satisfaction, and had cut their average work time by about four hours to 34 hours a week." The 40 hour workweek may be a helpful general measure (it certain was for the factory workers stuck in 16 hour shifts), but by no means should it be universally applied to all work. Technology has really advanced since the 1940s and productivity has skyrocketed so significantly, that exponential growth has been considered normal. Which is bonkers, really - why is unsustainable growth the bar? So in short, people over profits. But if it helps, perhaps more profits can be made when people are put first. . . . . #4dayworkweek #sustainablebusiness #futureofwork

Hmm.. Some food for thought for the weekend. When I started working after graduation, I remember I worked like 7 days a week as part of my professional training. Then I worked alternate Saturdays when I moved on to another company as it was the 'norm' then to do so. Subsequently as society and/or culture demanded, the 5-day workweek became a norm. Companies who insisted on 6-day workweek found themselves least attractive in hiring new joiners. And now a 4-day workweek for work-life balance and focus? I'm not sure how there could be work-life balance if the workload remained the same on reduced working time. I for one would not want to have an official 4-day workweek and then struggle to clear my work late into the nights or on weekends. What do you think? #ccpn #post6 #worklifebalance #4dayworkweek

Turns out the benefits of those four-day workweek trials are sustainable. So suggests new research by the nonprofit organization 4 Day Week - Global, which coordinated pilot programs testing the shortened schedule at 41 companies in the US and Canada. A year after the trials were launched employees continued to report improved mental and physical health and work-life balance. “A concern we frequently hear is there’s no way the results from our six-month trials can be maintained, as the novelty eventually must wear off, but here we are a year later with benefits only continuing to grow,” Dr. Dale Whelehan, chief executive officer of 4 Day Week Global, said in the report. “This is very promising for the sustainability of this model.” Interestingly, the number of hours employees work on average continued to fall even after the trials ended, dropping to just under 33 hours after a year from about 34 hours at the six-month mark. The researchers attribute this to companies learning how to be even more efficient -- like eliminating unnecessary meetings and carving out more focus time -- rather than just trying to cram more work into less time, since employees didn't report a marked increase in work intensity. That said, workers’ job satisfaction did sink after the six-month mark (though it's still better now than before). That means that while a four-day week really can make your life outside of work better -- you get more time for your family, friends and yourself, after all -- it doesn't always necessarily make your life *at* work better. Read the full story at Bloomberg News. And let me know what you think! https://lnkd.in/d6J8CKYU #4dayworkweek #fourdayworkweek #worklifebalance #mentalhealth

The key to productivity is to free up more time to focus. In her latest piece for The Wall Street Journal, Vanessa Fuhrmans cites research showing that when teams cut out useless meetings they were able to get just as much done in 80% of the time. Before I joined Atlassian, I had to fit two workdays into every weekday: my 9am-6pm official workday and a “shadow workday” from 5-8am and 10-11:30pm. During my official workday I sat at my desk for 9 hours of back-to-back meetings and had no time to focus. It was only during my shadow workday that I was able to produce meaningful work. Now I keep 50% of my day uncommitted so that I can prioritize the most important work. And I get everything done during my one workday. What I learned — and this study shows — is that when we work smarter we achieve more, faster. And with better results.

A four-day workweek offers numerous advantages that contribute to employee satisfaction and work-life balance. By condensing the traditional five-day work week into four longer days, employees can enjoy an extra day off, providing them with more time for personal pursuits, family commitments, and rejuvenation. This increased leisure time can lead to improved well-being, reduced stress levels, and enhanced overall job satisfaction. Read more in this article: https://bit.ly/3PB8WMW #HCAMag #FourDay #WorkWeek #WorkCulture

A #report on ‘four-day #workweek #experiment’ revealed that the workers remained highly #positive about the change over the past 6 months, continuing to give the change a 9 out of 10. Self-rated physical and #mentalhealth measures have also improved since the beginning of the study in 2022, with employees also reporting better #worklifebalance . #physicalhealth #4dayweek #Globalcompanies #workschedule

Employee burnout is something I'm hearing a lot about lately, but seeing very few companies actually dig in and launch solutions for. And it's massively hurting companies’ bottom lines: In the U.S. turnover of just one employee can cost 1.5-2 times their salary, job-related stress contributes to 550 million workdays lost annually, and the WHO estimates that?$1 trillion is lost in productivity each year?as a result. And burnout Is about your workplace, not your people. 46% of U.S. employees in 2023 report major burnout - often caused by organizational factors such as high workload, toxic cultures, unrealistic goals set by management, and insufficient resources to meet those goals. In addition to taking a hard look at leadership and culture, some companies are now testing (with great success) a 4 day work week and have found that 78% of employees with 4 day weeks feel more valued, are happier and less stressed, turnover rates plummeted, companies became far more attractive to job candidates, and productivity rates at those participating companies have skyrocketed. But they are not simply cramming five days of tasks into four. Almost all companies that move to a four-day week do three big things: radically shorten and reform meetings; use technology more thoughtfully and mindfully, and; redesign the workday to build in distinct periods for focused work, meetings, and social time. The data shows that employees feel happier, more focused and productive, less micromanaged and more empowered to enjoy having a fulfilling life outside of work, which in turn, fuels their work and the company's bottom line. Everyone wins.