Is a Four-Day Week the Future of Flexible Work?

Workplace trends have an ability to catch like wildfire. Last year saw terms like quiet-quitting and The Great Resignation stoke the flames of the status quo, and it seems another is set to dominate in the first few months of 2023 – the four-day work week. Time, The Guardian, Business Insider, and countless other publications have released articles extolling the benefits of this new working structure. “By almost every measure,” reads Time, “both employers and employees overwhelmingly judged the new schedule a success.”

But is the four-day work week all it’s cracked up to be?

What the four-day week represents

I can see the immediate intention and impact – improving work-life-balance for employees, reducing stress, boosting contentment. And I can see the positives for organizations too as turnover decreases and engagement and productivity rise. It’s even an amazing talent attraction tool, signalling to prospective candidates that you’re progressive and take the future of work seriously. These are admirable goals and ones we should all absolutely be pursuing to build better workplaces. However, I’m slightly less convinced that the four-day work week is the ultimate avenue to go down to truly achieve these aims.

Employees want flexibility

The traditional five-day, 9-5 working week is a relic from a bygone era. It simply does not cater to how we operate in 2023. Life is faster, demands on our time are higher, and we’ve never been more conscious of how important it is to carve out space for mental health. And I think the four-day week only half solves these concerns. Why? Because it’s still imposing a rigid boundary around how and when we work.

We know how important flexibility is becoming for employees. A recent Gallup survey found that 94% of workers would prefer to work remotely or hybrid if their role allowed for it. While a SocialTalent poll discovered that flexibility and work-life-balance accounted for 69% of the vote on what is keeping employees engaged.

So does the four-day week really answer these needs?

The limitations of the four-day week

While a four days on / three days off structure will absolutely appeal to some, it doesn’t allow a larger breadth of true autonomy. We all operate differently, and by giving your people the opportunity to determine how they work best, you can ingrain a more lasting and malleable version of flexibility. Some employees may need to work around care schedules at home or perhaps they focus better later in the evening. Others might have medical requirements that necessitate a change or they may need an afternoon free for personal reasons. A stringent four-day work week could limit this kind of flexibility.

By focusing more on the finished product of work done, rather than the how and when, it frees employees up to create a work week that enables their best and allows time to balance life and wellbeing in a way that makes sense for them. For me, flexibility is about softening the boundaries and trusting your team to perform. A recent Gartner report even found that creating a more human-centric approach to flexibility in the workplace can lead to a 3.2x increase in retention.

There is also the fear that after the newness of a four-day work week subsides, you may be left with the same organizational issues you were contending with before. Cutting a week down by a day won’t automatically solve problems with engagement or reduce overly stressful cultures (not in the long term anyway) because it doesn’t address any root causes of dissatisfaction.

More research is needed 

While I have my reservations about the four-day week, I am pleased to see that the conversation about flexible working is front and center. Initial responses to the experiment seem really positive, and that’s certainly a step in the right direction. 

I think it’s fair to say that there is no one correct approach to flexibility, and a particular solution that may work for one company perhaps won't for another – but that's the advantage of adopting a more flexible mindset, right?! The four-day work week feels a bit prescriptive to me, but its core reasoning – to reduce hours worked in favor of increased productivity and wellbeing – is certainly the future, in whatever capacity is followed.

In the spirit of continued conversation, I want to invite you all to our next SocialTalent Live webinar on March 30 – Flex or Fail: Navigating Hybrid Work. We’ll hear from CPOs, Talent Leaders, and industry thought-leaders as they dig into what flexible and hybrid work means to them. Click the link and register your place today!

And let me know in the comments – are you a fan of the four-day week? What does flexibility mean for your organization? I’d be fascinated to hear.