For Many Sectors Flexible Working Is Often More Complicated Than a 4-Day Work Week.
The status quo 5-day week model of work doesn’t fit everyone. I know this from personal experience. During the pandemic, I found myself looking for work that’d give me the flexibility and freedom to work on the topics I loved, make a living but also continue to support my family as a carer. During that time, finding work that I could fit around my life priorities was a game changer for me and my family.
So last week when the 4-day working week study results were published, I sat up and took notice. From personal experience it was interesting. As a health researcher, it was fascinating.
The study was a 6-month pilot of the 4-day week in the UK. The researchers followed 61 companies where employees were allowed to work 4 days a week not their usual 5. It was much more flexible than “take a Friday off” though. Staff could choose to spread the working hours of 4 days across the week. So, if you’re a parent wanting to finish work early to pick up kids from school you could. Or if you’re into art, you could take a Friday to focus on painting. The main idea being flexibility to allocate time during the week to other things that hugely matter like family, personal interests and just taking a breather.
Turns out that this flexibility and autonomy has had significant impacts on health of the people involved. Staff reported having improved levels of sleep health as well as mental wellbeing. There was also an overall decline in the number of sick days. This is an important finding in the UK where rising numbers are feeling unable to work due to sickness.
As it turns out, 92% of the companies involved have now extended the 4-day-a-week policy.
Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, summed it up well when he said. “The impact of the ‘great resignation’ is now proving that workers from a diverse range of industries can produce better outcomes while working shorter and smarter.”
However, as great as the results are, we should not be fooled into thinking it’s a magic bullet. For many sectors, flexible work is often more complicated than a 4-day week. I’m thinking of sectors where you can’t work remotely, you must work more in sync with other team members and those with staff shortages. It’s not easy to see why this is a challenge in sectors like healthcare, transportation and for other frontline workers. This isn’t the only problem, some sectors like the gig economy, the “insecure work and low pay” can often be masked as “flexibility”. We still have work to do when it comes to understanding how meaningful flexibility and autonomy can be better achieved in these sectors.
What the 4-day week trial has done though is show us that alternative models of work are possible, and they can have great benefits too. It also shows that flexibility and autonomy are really important for our health and wellbeing. The status quo model of work doesn’t fit everyone and now we have hard data to back it up.
