Various companies are experimenting with a 4 day working week. There seems to be a general belief ‘in the air’ that productivity will remain the same or even increase.
I have expressed my doubts about this in the past but my real observation is that these companies seem to be forgetting that the world, more generally, is moving to a 7 day working week.
Now, I’m not suggesting that people should work 7 days a week, but to reduce the number of days does not make much sense to me. In many cases, it is office workers who are making this change to their week while others, because of the nature of their work they do, are prevented from making the change.
What do you think this does to the morale of front-line 5 day workers?
Those office and admin staff are supposed to be there to support the front line troops and probably already have lower working hours, better vacation allowance and even better pension arrangements. Now they are going to get a four day working week!
And we expect the productivity of the organisation to stay the same or improve!