New Hybrid Work Culture is Setting to Start- 4 Days Workweek

Have you heard, work smarter than harder? Well, in today’s new working culture, everything is getting changed. From working in an open space to working from home all together has come up to this new change in hybrid work culture.

With new technologies, no one is going to miss the opportunities to work the best.

Covid-19 has changed the corporate work culture completely, working from home to hybrid and now many of countries and coporates have already adopted four day work week, isn’t it exciting ????

Lot of debates are happing around 4 days workweek concept so let’s understand this in a bit more detail.

In recent research, it was estimated that shorter working weeks saved millions of dollars. A survey was conducted by an England-based business school- “Henry Business School” it found that 78% of the staff felt less burdened than the work schedule they had earlier, and the remaining 62% didn’t complain of being sick.

Many happily shared about upgrading their skills and learning an extra day.

Start-ups like Google, Teksavvy, Panasonic, etc are emphasizing and setting up new standards to maintain the changing work culture with better outcomes and growth.

Let me give a brief idea of the concept of 4 days working or 4 days workweek-

The idea of 4 days workweek is to allow the employees to work 4 days a week with no salary reduction.

So work 80% of the time and maintain 100% productivity- enjoy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday offs.

Isn’t it a great idea?

In this write up-, I will cover some interesting topics-

• Changing work culture.
• Impact of 4 days workweek.
• Countries only work 4 days a week.
• 4 days workweek Pros & Cons.

Let’s not make it monotonous, I will cover each one by one.

Changing Work Culture

Ever since we faced the pandemic, many companies have started changing their work culture.

The reduction in hours and output-focused has changed the working culture of many companies with an advantage over their competitors.

Even prior pandemic, as per pre-covid 2019 poll of 36000 American by YouGovAmerica the result signified two-thirds would love to work in this new culture.

Just imagine you are getting paid for a full-time job, how would be the scenario if you follow 4 days working schedule with the same salary?

Which one would you opt for? Well, I know the answer.

Believe it or not, this changing working culture is being spread quickly across prime nations from east to west covering New Zealand, Japan, UAE, UK, and USA.

When the productivity remains the same with working 4 days, why consider 5 days? Moreover, the workers are pretty much satisfied with 3 days off.

Let’s not miss the chance to share with you a strong fact and that is- the growth of data analytics and automation has triggered the rise of 4 days workweek that is helpful to both companies and employees in terms of maintaining a good healthy lifestyle.

In a country like India, a lot of companies have still to accept this new work culture. In 2021, a survey showed that around 59% of the Indian workforce was unhappy at work and had a low work-life balance.

Workplace happiness is the combination of workplace-specific factors and psychological factors, do you agree?

If the concept is done well, surely, there may be positive results in terms of better work-life balance, employee satisfaction, and workplace diversity.

Experts say many Indian companies are waiting to see the impact of the global 4-day work week schedule.

Well, the day is not far away!

Impact of 4 Days Workweek

To understand this topic, let’s look at some facts which support this work culture. These are recent developments to the 4-day workweek-

Iceland published a result of 4 days workweek program in 2021, starting from 2015-2019. The results were unbelievable- showing the workers were less exhausted, less stressed, and had a healthy lifestyle.

Another story of the impact- A small software company in Philadephia, Wildbit, experimented to implement a shorter workweek trial in 2017 and made the trial permanent.

 The company’s priority was the outcome and deep work rather than focused on volume and number of hours. Eventually got succeeded in their policy.

Try this online resource- Wildbit’s blog post series on 4-Day Workweek

If someone asks me about this changing work culture, I would not mind saying it provides positive benefits- prioritizing the workers or employees is the right approach instead of focusing on the welfare of the businesses.

Never forget- employees run the business!

How can we all forget the coronavirus deadly wave- pushed many employers to work remotely and consider 4 days workweek?

This work culture is gaining traction in many nations, pilot programs are being carried out by many nations to explore the feasibility of 4 days workweek.

Countries Only Work 4 days a Week

You might be wondering if there is any country that has done it permanently, yes, a handful of the ones have tested and accepted-willingly the 4 days working schedule.

Who are they?

Belgium- Started 4 days workweek at the start of 2022. Employees are following with ten-hour shifts four days a week. Full-time job with no salary deduction.

UAE- This country was the first who adopted the work culture of four and half day workweek in late 2021.

The good news came out in 2022 with the UAE government declaring to follow four and half day workweek to sustain a better work-life balance in UAE.

Iceland- How to forget Iceland, it conducted four years of tests and finally came across happiness and good health, and high productivity as well.

You won’t believe 86% of the Icelanders are happily working on this schedule.

Germany- Country’s largest trade union is- ‘IG Metal’ which favors the 4 days work week culture.

It is difficult to believe the reality that more than 150 companies have converted the working Schedule to 4 days workweek.

So, the overall scenario is, other countries are chasing the above ones to switch the same.

Sharing another great link to dive into countries implemented 4 days working and how’s it going so far.

4 Days Workweek Pros & Cons

As we all know every change comes with its pros and cons- 4 days workweek has certainly some effects, well, what are these- Let’s figure out:

Starting with the Pros model-

• It improves morale and leads to less exhaustion, making the employees more comfortable in carrying out their roles.
• Spending too much on electricity, eating stuff, and printers? This working schedule reduces the office amenities. Japan has reported recently- 25% lower electricity bills after trying 4 days working module.
• Many of the staff have accepted in their upskilling in the off time and benefited the company to grow. It’s an advantage in completing tasks with more productivity and high efficiency. According to Microsoft Japan, productivity has surged to 40% in the trial.
• Many companies across the world have reported a 65% of fewer sick leaves after the change in work module.

Its Cons-

• 4 Days workweek is not possible for everyone, for example, hospitals, banks, and security-related jobs- need successive concentration, and might be difficult to be a part of this schedule.
• Higher authorities controlling the positions might face problems managing the meeting schedules in only 4 days.

Pros and cons always grapple with each other- but how you manage the change depends on you and accordingly, sets the results for you.

Let’s share your thoughts on 4-days working culture & how excited are about it. share your valuable comments & don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter for more topics updates