#Flextime pros and cons install#
#Flextime pros and cons full#

#Flextime pros and cons install#

Employees opted to install lockers for their phones, soundproof meeting spaces, and shorten meetings. Here’s what supporters of the four-day work week say are some of the biggest advantages of the concept:įewer Distractions at Work: Andrew Barnes, the owner of New Zealand law firm Perpetual Guardian, launched a four-day work week in 2018. The optimal amount of intense cognitive work time is no more than four hours each day, research shows.

In fact, when employees feel their employer cares about them, 94% of employees have a positive sense of wellbeing, research shows. People who work a four-day week say they’re healthier, happier, and less time-pressured, according to a report in The Atlantic – and their employers say their employees are much more focused and efficient. It was an impressive collection of executives, all of them boasting extensive technical knowledge and years of experience. In the middle of the pandemic, I got a call from a C-level leader who was concerned about the dynamics of a team of senior leaders he brought together just before workplaces were locked down. That was certainly the realization one of my clients came to recently. Read what the proponents and opponents of the four-day work week say about the concept. The debate over the four-day work week is just one part of trending discussions about the future of work. Some have shifted to permanently remote way of working – while others have opted for flexible schedules. Companies have begun questioning the value of their physical office space as the world prepares for a post-pandemic reality. The discussion over reducing time spent at work has come at a crucial time when businesses have begun to seriously debate the future of work.

#Flextime pros and cons full#

The company launched the experiment on a whim and may never return to a full five-day work week. When the pandemic started, social media scheduling company Buffer launched their own four-day work week, giving employees an extra day off each week without reducing their pay. In 2022, the fundraising company Kickstarter will begin testing out the four-day work week with their employees. In March, Spain became one of the first countries in the world to test a four-day working week in a pilot project featuring several dozen companies. In New Zealand, consumer-goods corporation Unilever is halfway through its 12-month test run of a shorter work week. “They are simple projections of the gains we have made.”Īcross the world, companies both large and small are experimenting with the idea of a four-day work week. “These are not dreams or idle boasts,” he said. Vice President Richard Nixon said he expected a transition to a four-day week soon.

Though the four-day work week has been trending in recent months, the idea is not new: in 1930, renowned British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that people would work as few as 15 hours in 100 years (by 2030). Support remains high for managers and employees as well. In that same group, 74% of executives or C-level managers say that employers should revisit the length of the working week and the number of hours that employers are expected to work. Seventy six percent of executive or C-level managers said that employee contracts should focus more on meeting the needs of the business rather than hours worked. In our 2020 Resetting Normal research, there was overwhelming support for a more flexible working schedule in the future. That same study found that 85% of respondents reported lower levels of well-being and 62% said they had experienced burnout during the pandemic. In a 2021 Harvard Business Review global survey, 89% of respondents said that their work life was getting worse. But there’s no denying this trend is starting to gain traction: from New Zealand to Spain to the U.S., the idea of a four-day work week has been increasing in popularity, especially when technology is increasing productivity and efficiency, and many employees feel burned out and exhausted. Several years ago, the idea of giving employees an extra day off each week for the same pay may have sounded impossible.