GUEST COLUMN.
IS THE FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK IN YOUR FUTURE?
By Neil Reichenberg, former Executive Director, International Public Management Association for Human Resources
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increasing levels of stress in the public sector workforce as workers yearn for the flexibility to determine how, when, and where work is performed. One solution, based largely on the experiences in the private sector may be to convert to a four-day work week.
The timing couldn’t be better. The 2023 Work in America Survey issued by the American Psychological Association found that 77% of workers reported work-related stress in the previous month. Things appear to be even worse in the public sector. As the Council of State Governments reported, “According to the Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey conducted by Ipsos in February 2023, government employee burnout levels of 52% were higher than those in the private sector at 46%. Those levels were further elevated for women, younger workers, and lower income government workers.”
With all this in mind, it is not surprising that there is a growing movement supporting a four-day workweek with pilots being run globally by 4 Day Week Global. Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, and the lead researcher on the four-day workweek project run there, testified to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) that:
95% of workers who have participated in the pilots where they work reduced hours schedules with no loss in pay strongly endorsed the four-day workweek.
69% of employees experienced reduced burnout.
41% had lower stress.
About 40% reported better physical and mental health.
Nearly 60% believed they were better able to achieve work-family balance.
At the state level, bills proposing four-day workweeks have been introduced in California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
You might think that employers would rebel at having their employees work less hours for just as much pay. But some 91% of employers that began to use this new schedule continued with it after one year. The positive impacts reported by employers included reduced burnout among their employees leading to improvements in employee retention.
Schor reported that among the US and Canada pilot participating organizations, the resignation rate fell 22.5% and absenteeism declined 39%. Employers experienced large increases in their applicant pool when they advertised a four-day week.
The idea of a reduced workweek is not a new idea – in 1933, the US Senate passed a bill reducing the workweek to 30 hours. While the bill never became law, several years later, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted, setting 40 hours as the standard workweek, which has remained unchanged despite the technology and productivity innovations that have occurred. Currently, legislation has been introduced in both Houses of Congress amending the FLSA to create a 32-hour workweek and the Senate HELP Committee held hearings earlier this year on the Senate bill.
According to Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), chair of the HELP Committee and sponsor of the 32-hour workweek bill, this is the first time since 1955 that a Senate committee held a hearing on the topic.
Given the variety of work performed by state and local governments, the four-day workweek may provide challenges, especially where round-the-clock staffing is required. For example, a pilot undertaken by the city of Gothenburg, Sweden was cancelled despite positive results due to the increased costs experienced by the local government. Nurses at a home for senior citizens had their hours reduced from 8 per day to 6 with no reduction in pay. The results were less sick leave usage, increased productivity, and improved patient care.
But due to the need to have staff 24 hours per day, an additional 17 nurses were hired at an annual cost of $1.7 million, which the city concluded was too expensive. Additionally, due to the unfortunate negative perceptions that some have of government employees, leaders may be reluctant to support a four-day workweek.
While the focus of this guest column is on the four-day workweek, this is a component of the larger issue of organizational culture. While many organizations talk about the importance of their employees, is this only rhetoric or do their actions support their words? A Gallup survey found that fewer than one in four U.S. employees believe strongly that their organization cares about their well-being and this is the lowest percentage in nearly a decade.
I recall a meeting when I was with the International Public Management Association for Human Resources where a local government human resource director talked about how the leadership always praised employees, but when they prepared the annual budget, employees were always the last item to be considered.
By contrast, I participated in a panel with someone who worked for a local government where they established a culture of caring and she spoke about times when she had personal and family medical issues and how much support she received from the organization.
Which of these two local governments is more likely to be an employer of choice able to compete successfully in a competitive market for talent? Employees and applicants want to know that you care about them and will support them.
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