IS A 4-DAY WORKWEEK THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS?

Multiple studies have shown that the vast majority of an employee’s workday is unproductive due to distractions. 38% of the time an employee is actually productive for less than three hours of their eight-hour shift. The studies state that distractions at work have effects comparable to an employee losing a night’s sleep or coming to work high on marijuana.

 

As a result of these studies, The New York Times recently reported that companies from different countries decided to experiment by reducing the hours of their employees and seeing how it affected productivity. One firm in New Zealand decided to let its employee work four days while being paid for five. The result of this experiment found the change actually boosted productivity. Jarrod Haar, a human resources professor at Auckland University of Technology, said employees reported a 24 percent improvement in work-life balance, and came back to work energized after their days off. Haar shared, “Supervisors said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didn’t leave early or take long breaks. Their actual job performance didn’t change when doing it over four days instead of five.”