Could a shorter workweek lead to better employees?

HALIFAX — Since the pandemic, the way individuals do their jobs has changed: offices have shut down, employees have moved to remote work and, in some cases, employers and even regions of the world have experimented with a shortened workweek.

In 2015, Iceland entered a trial period where employees worked a four-day workweek. The trials ran until 2019 and included a fraction of the country’s population.

Spain looked at trying something similar and, closer to home, the Municipality of Guysborough in Nova Scotia started a pilot project for nine months.

“Really, we got to where we are (a five-day workweek) as a result of the struggle for reasonable work hours during industrialization. Before and during this period, employers could make their workers work for as long as they wanted. The old saying goes ‘eight hours work, eight hours rest, and eight for what we will’,” said Dr. Karen Foster, a PHD sociologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Some of Foster’s research fields include economy, work and development.

She’s been analyzing data about shorter workweeks for many years, stemming from her interest in how people make a living and how and why businesses and individuals work the way they do.

“We know that people who feel overworked and burnt out get sick, they’re not enjoying life, and they and their employers feel like they are bad at their job. It’s why employers have been intrigued by a fourday workweek. It’s an easier argument to make than raising wages,” said Foster.

WHAT IS BURNOUT?

Burnout is a mental and physical state where an individual no longer has the capacity to take on more tasks, loses interest, and doesn’t care as much.

“Basically, you’ve reached the end of your rope,” she said.

In most cases, businesses have looked at condensed work week as the solution, where the number of hours worked stays about the same, just spread over four days instead of five. A traditional shorter workweek would mean four days of work, fewer hours, and no changes in wages.

“It’s a perk if done well in the industries where it makes sense. There have been studies that show we can be as productive and do as much in fewer hours because we are motivated and rested,” she says. “If you keep people happy and healthy, employers have a greater chance at keeper those workers, and because of the work environment, they choose to stick around. Absentee rates tend to go down. That’s one of the main sources of intrigue. Science shows there is a small window where productivity is at its peak.”

Foster said employees want it “because we’d all like time to ourselves.”

“People are happy, healthy and satisfied when they have more time to themselves because they get to decide what to do with it. Employers can give their employees a pass to the gym or support for counselling, but it’s kind of beating around the bush.”

There have been studies that have had half of a company’s employees work a shorter week, while the other half work a regular, five-day workweek. The results of those studies showed the workers who worked four days spent that extra time with their families, she said.

“The time was also spent with on housework, errands, keeping up with the household, and women, in particular, will say they spend more time on themselves.”

COULD IT WORK?

If society moves toward a four-day workweek as a whole, she said, it will mean ensuring free time isn’t commodified.

“The day can’t be turned into one where you go and spend money to keep yourself occupied. But that is one of the economic arguments for the shorter workweek.”

However, not all industries are the right fit for a four-day week.

“In the jobs where it’s not about working faster or slower, like operating a toll booth or working in retail, where you want to be open for a certain number of hours, some jobs don’t have control over the rate of output,” she adds. “Knowledge economy jobs, like journalism, academia, fall into the category where a shorter workweek might make sense. But even within one company, there are departments where it makes sense and others where it doesn’t.”