The four day week is 'never going to work'

The first real trial of Australia's shortened-work week kicks off this week, but not everyone thinks it's a good idea.

The first real trial of Australia's shortened-work week kicks off this week, but not everyone thinks it's a good idea.

One key industry leader has launched a brutal attack on the four-day work week, ahead of Australia's first wide-spread trial, deeming it completely unfeasible and "headed in the wrong direction". 

One thousand workers across Australia and New Zealand commenced a six-month trial of the four-day work week this week, operating on a 100:80:100 model, where workers receive 100% pay for 80% of the time, but are expected to maintain 100% output.

But the chief executive of national employer association AiGroup, Innes Willox, thinks it's a terrible idea.

"Very few businesses would be in a position to implement such arrangements without a reduction in productivity and customer service," he told The Oz.

"At a time when the focus is on increasing productivity while we suffer huge labour shortages, the idea of working 20% less for the same remuneration is clearly headed in the wrong direction."

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed there were 480,100 job vacancies across the country, leaving employees spread thin and employers scrambling to fill jobs.

Willox said reducing the work week would be detrimental to some businesses. 

The four-day week has garnered plenty of attention over the past few years, with global trials returning sterling results for productivity.

Microsoft Japan tested this shortened work schedule for its 2300-person workforce over five consecutive weeks in 2019. All meetings were capped at five people, and were no longer than 30 minutes. The company reported its productivity increased by 39.9%. 

Similarly, recent trials in Iceland showed that “productivity remained the same or improved in the majority of workplaces.”

Researchers from UK think tank Autonomy concluded the Icelandic experiment was an “overwhelming success.”

“(Australia has) a culture of overwork, and situations where people aren’t able to spend much time with their families,” 4 Day Week Global founder Andrew Barnes told The Oz. “But what happens when you’ve got healthier, happier and more engaged staff, is that they’re empowered to find issues that prevent them from being productive, and they can eliminate them, to be just as productive in four days as five.” 

“Statistically we look at our emails every six minutes, and we are interrupted in open plan office once every 11 minutes. It takes us 22 minutes to get back to full productivity,” Barnes said.

“So if you have a quiet hour, where you can not be interrupted, that's actually the equivalent of three hours of normal work. That’s what people are finding when you implement the four-day work week.”

While it may seem unfeasible for some professions to adopt the shortened work week (think, teachers or nurses), Barnes said the concept "has gone from the fringe to the absolute core." 

"It's not a mad idea. It's been debated at the World Economic Forum. The Democrats put a bill into Congress to reduce the working week to 32 hours. It's been debated at the European Economic Forum," he said. "This is mainstream now."

The trial will be followed by a team of researchers at Boston College, the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney, who will work with each company to define and establish their research baseline and relevant productivity metrics for the trial. It began this week and will conclude in February.

The local companies participating in the trial include ABA Advice Beyond Accounting, Ink+Iris, Itch Group of Companies and Momentum Mental Health.