Lainie Anderson: If overseas experience is any gauge, the four-day week could be a winner
A four-day working week could be a winner based on overseas experience. Is this a chance to make our post-pandemic world a better place, writes Lainie Anderson.
Opinion
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South Australia: home of the long weekend. As we blow away the cobwebs of COVID-19 and seek to emerge as a happy state of business investment and jobs growth, let’s consider trialling a four-day working week.
Let’s make every weekend a June long weekend, and see if the pros outweigh the cons for company productivity, individual wellbeing, family happiness and tourism growth.
If the experience overseas is any gauge, we could be on a winner.
In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently ignited debate by encouraging companies to consider a four-day work week to boost tourism. Her comments were music to the ears of NZ businessman Andrew Barnes, who adopted a four-day week for his financial firm in 2018. Mr Barnes, who’s since set up the 4 Day Week Global Foundation to fund research into four-day work practices, told NZ’s iHeartRADIO last month it would be a “great shame if we came out of COVID-19 without taking advantage of the opportunity to make the world a better place”.
If “making the world a better place” sounds like hyperbole, consider this: When Mr Barnes’s company Perpetual Guardian trialled the four-day week, independent researchers found productivity went up and so did engagement, job satisfaction, work-life balance and employee wellbeing. Salaries didn’t go down, though. Mr Barnes calls it the 100-80-100 model: 100 per cent productivity for 80 per cent time and 100 per cent salary.
Microsoft reaped similar benefits when it gave 2300 Japanese workers five Fridays off in a row without reducing pay, with the trial leading to more efficient meetings, happier workers and a 40 per cent boost in productivity.
Sounds to me like the perfect antidote for SA businesses and workers as we rebuild our battered economy after COVID-19. It could also boost Adelaide’s global reputation as an easy-living, boutique city.
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Premier Steven Marshall negotiated a nine-day fortnight in his family’s furniture business – and is happy to encourage flexible work arrangements. “Ultimately, employees and employers would need to come together and work on arrangements that suit both parties,” he says.
Of course, four-day weeks won’t be practical for all companies, just as you couldn’t expect every business to pay 100 per cent of a salary for 80 per cent of the time – especially now.
But the benefits could go far beyond productivity. Surveys repeatedly show four-day weeks are hugely popular among workers internationally, which would give SA businesses an edge in attracting top employees.
Regional areas wouldn’t need to wait for occasional long weekends to see bumper-to-bumper traffic and families would have more quality time together, with parents freed up to better support their children’s schooling and sports, and get their kids out of the house and away from screens. Most importantly, workers would have more time to focus on their mental health, making for happier households.
So when you wake up tomorrow, imagine a world in which you never worked Mondays again. A win for you, and a win for SA.