The Four Day Work Week

Thinking about implementing a four-day work week? It’s easier than you think.

In this episode, Joe O’Connor of 4DayWeek.com joined me to discuss implementing a four-day week and why CEOs and HR managers should consider trying it. We also discussed the global momentum around the shift in thinking amongst companies.

Offering flexible working or remote working used to be a competitive advantage. It’s not anymore. It’s now a standard expectation.–Joe O’Connor, 13:53

And part of the beauty around this is the quid pro quo. You know, it is the idea that this is for many leaders that have done this. They’ve described it as the cheapest, most efficient process improvement strategy we have ever deployed.–Joe O’Connor, 34:44

We’re going to be trying the four-day work week, and we’re going to be sharing how it’s worked for us. Just like we’ve been sharing things like being a digital-first company that has always been a virtual workplace.–Loren Baker, 40:32

[00:00] – A little about Joe and the four-day workweek.
[04:01] – Is a 3-day weekend a great incentivizing force?
[06:15] – Does it level the playing ground with gender equality?
[13:10] – Why is the four-day work week suddenly taking off?
[17:00] – How does it differ amongst countries?
[21:35] – Recommended tools for outdated ways of working.
[25:21] – How do you make the most of someone’s natural productivity.
[26:40] – Misconceptions about shutting down the company on a Friday or a Monday.
[31:53] – Learn from a study from a company that moved to a four-day work week.

People said their output, expectations, and responsibilities are the same as before we took reduced work time. And they’re the same as our five-day colleagues. So what does that tell us? It tells us two things. First, we’ve got a gender equality problem in the workplace. Secondly, Parkinson’s Law is the idea that the length of time that you’ve got available to complete a task that a task will expand to fill the time available for its completion. And that’s something that drives the philosophy behind the four-day workweek movement.–Joe O’Connor, 05:20

It seemed like the first one, and last one out was that indicator of who was working the hardest, and not necessarily the indicator of who was working the smartest.–Loren Baker, 15:15

People’s priorities have changed. For many people, the pandemic has forced them to realign how they value different things within their lives and what they think constitutes a reasonable life-work balance.–Joe O’Connor, 20:12

Resources mentioned:
https://www.4dayweek.com/

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Connect with Joe O’Connor:

Joe O’Connor is a driven and dynamic campaigner with extensive leadership experience in campaign work and organizational transitions. His passion lies with social justice issues that pertain to economic empowerment for all people globally – he’s 4 Day Week Global CEO!

Right now, Joe is leading 4 Day Week Global’s pilot program, with 150 companies launching six-month coordinated trials of the four-day week in the first half of 2022 alone. These trials involve 7,000 employees from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

​​Connect with Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-o-connor-81704287/
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/joeoc99

Connect with Loren Baker, Founder of Search Engine Journal:

Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/lorenbaker
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenbaker