The Future of Leadership/32-Hour Workweek

On May 1, 1926, factory workers in the Ford Motor Company started working a 5-day, 40-hour workweek instead of their previous 6-day, 48-hour week, and the office staff followed the same process the following fall. Nearly 100 years later, is it possible to work 32 hours per week and be as productive as if working 40 hours? Working more than 40 hours in a workweek drops employee productivity overall, but what if there is a better balance? Burnout from the pandemic has caused a big shift in perspective, not only for hybrid work schedules but for productivity levels and work hours as well, creating a new form of compensation competition that is quality of life.

What Does a 32-hour Workweek Look Like?

The 32-hour workweek consists of employees working four 8-hour days instead of five while paying as if they were still working full-time. This arrangement essentially makes every Friday (if chosen to close the office) a paid holiday. Different companies have and are testing the feasibility of this newly proposed schedule, including a video game maker in Kentucky, Microsoft Japan, and companies across Britain, Australia, Iceland, Japan, and Spain.

Perpetual Guardian, a financial company in New Zealand, ran a 32-hour workweek pilot in April of 2018 which was so successful they implemented it by November while others claim it has the potential to become the standard. After the trial, the employees worked hard to find ways to be efficient in order to convince management to implement the 4-day workweek permanently. While the current standard in the United States is a 5-day, 40-hour workweek, many companies currently offer four 10-hour days to provide a three-day weekend while still working “full time.” However, there is a theory that technology will be a push in the 32-hour workweek with Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and automation software to increase efficiency.

Pros and Cons of a 32-hour Workweek

However, there are pros and cons for both employees and employers when decreasing the number of hours worked in a week while keeping the same workload and pay. Benefits for the company include the ability to cut some overhead costs, fewer employee absences, and more appeal to potential new hires.  Employees receive a better work/life balance, more flexibility, and reduced transportation costs. 63% of businesses also found it easier to attract and retain employees when offering a 4-day workweek. However, the cons may outweigh the benefits. There will need to be major changes, particularly with the company’s organization, including PTO calculations, the possibility that cutting hours could make finishing work more difficult, the inability in many industries due to inherent characteristics, and the additional day of closure may pose issues for customers.

If this interests a company to switch operations to a 4-day, 32-hour workweek, it would be beneficial and cost-saving to first pilot the implementation. It would allow for a non-permanent experience to determine if it would work for the company and its employees, but the employer would need to take the employees’ input into account in deciding whether the pilot is successful. There are benefits and drawbacks for both employees and the employer, but Charlotte Lockhart, a partner of Four-Day Week Global, said to those hesitant to try it, “Don’t overthink it”, insinuating that companies will need to try it to figure out if it works for them.

Will a 32-hour work week be a norm in the future? It may be popular, but with the unique characteristics and challenges each company faces, every company will have to decide as a whole what works best for them.