Is a 4-Day Work Week Possibly the Solution to the Burnout Crisis in America's Workforce?

The Great Resignation morphed into The Great Layoff, or from another perspective, The Great Retrenchment. And, it's not over yet.

Every week I speak with friends, referrals, and others who are out of work…they’re looking and/or trying to reinvent what they do, using all of their talents…something I have done numerous times in my career…while working (a topic for another day)…and something I have always respected and valued in others. In my view, it broadens not just the individual in question but the hiring company as well.?

I also speak with companies who are struggling with quality of work issues, culture, collaboration challenges, and more as they wonder what to do about returning to office versus working from anywhere, deadlines, competition, and shrinking budgets. I might also point out that the best learned how to get along with fewer, right people and the worst are pretending that hostility and bad vibes in their organizations comes from overload as opposed to undertrained people who are expected to deliver the same depth of expertise as their former colleagues.

Needless to say, I hear from folks who will never return to an office and others who crave to.

I’ve watched the movements of people and real estate evolve and change as Covid Nomadism has started to lose its shine and appeal.?

Finally, I speak regularly with friends in real estate and CEOs of major companies as I pay careful attention to train congestion (I take the subway to my office every day) and elevator loads…my impression is, despite the static and noise, every week more people do begin, at the very least, a hybrid Office/Anywhere schedule, and we all know that some companies have demanded such as well.

KNEE JERK ALERT…yes, some of you have never worked in an office and never will…got it…and I know that after working from wherever, others will never return to an office…I hear ya…not the point here.

What has become clear is that it's not an age issue, a generational bias, or a mere slacker ploy. There are younger folks who want to be asked to come to an office as they crave the experience to be accumulated from proximity to more seasoned and experienced people, the serendipity of learning, and the opportunity to meet and mingle and develop new relationships…an antidote to working alone or looking at the same four walls or a Starbucks counter…you get it.

Just as there are older folks who already have the friends, the experience, the self-confidence, and now the taste of working from anywhere.

And, one final point…I sit with start-ups and speak with them all day. It’s not a new versus old or fresh versus enterprise issue either…just as many companies of all sizes and shapes are demanding a return to office of some sort, others are equivocating or abdicating—scared perhaps to make demands. It’s fascinating, and time will tell who is right.

What really returned me to the topic is the debate in France over a two-year increase in retirement age that has resulted in demonstrations, damage to property, and fierce and deep anger from a good chunk of the populace. And, unfair or not, France has always been the butt of poor work ethic jokes and memes as well.?

As I am older than France’s new proposed work age, I find it hard to relate as I plan to work as long as I can…much like my mentors, the late Harold Burson and Lester Wunderman. It kept them young, cognitively and otherwise, and I’m hoping for the same effect. I also love what I do. I’m blessed with partners I love and respect, an office I love coming to, and I’m surrounded by amazing people, clients, and collaborators. The list goes on and on…

All of which leads me to the possibility of a 4-day work week in the US.

It turns out that compared to most other countries around the world, the United States is one of the few that doesn’t have a guaranteed amount of vacation time mandated for employees…French workers get up to 30 days…imagine that…leading the Center for Economic and Policy Research to call the US a “No-Vacation Nation”.

Further, a 2017 survey reported that 54% of the US workforce hadn’t used all of the vacation days coming to them…I know I was always that person.?

And yet, as we contemplate going from a 40-hour work week to a 32-hour work week, what are the ramifications? Lower salary—given fewer hours? More pressure to deliver the same as a 40-hour work week, but at a reduced salary? More office time? Whatever…

And then of course, there are the workers who can’t? call in like some of us do…even though they work in the same companies…they run warehouses, make deliveries, or hold other critical positions. There is a huge infrastructure of “have-to-be-there workers” who have no choice but to show up, and upon whom we all count…so desperately.

Bottom line, I don’t think that any of this is relevant…not Work From Office versus Work From Anywhere, vacation days, work hours, or even retirement age…it’s all and only about our total quality of life. Our health and well-being. Our friends and families. Our ability to learn and grow. Have fun. Be productive. Make a difference Add value.

And CHANGE THE WORLD…together.?

I believe that if we pivot the debate, change the conversation, and begin to address our place in the world instead of our location of work, we will accomplish more in the most profound and amazing ways.

Ready to join me? What’s your view?