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“We are regimented in our routine and if anything upsets the order of things [such as someone falling sick] everything gets a lot harder,” she says.
Modern working conditions due for an update?
Swinburne University associate professor of management John Hopkins believes modern working conditions are again due for an update, including the possibility of working fewer hours.
Henry Ford pioneered the five-day work week in his US factories almost 100 years ago. Source: Getty / PhotoQuest
While the concept of a four-day work week has been discussed for more than 50 years, in the past decade, there has been a noticeable uptick in demand for more flexible work arrangements.
Hopkins says technology has even led to people working longer hours because it allows them to check emails or be available after work.
We’ve had this intensification of work over the last 100 years where we’re doing a lot more work in those eight hours per day than we were ever doing before … and our brains are becoming overloaded.
“We need more time to rest [and] recover.”
The benefits of working less
In April, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government introduced a flexible work system that allows its employees to take three days off per week while maintaining the same total working hours over a four-week period.
Hopkins says his research has found significant benefits to allowing workers to reduce their work hours — with no drop in salary — including a reduction in sick days, staff turnover, burnout and work-related stress.
Japan has announced measures to ease the pressures of working life as it attempts to improve its low birth rate. Source: Getty / Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
As part of Hopkins’ recent research project in Australia, 10 senior managers were interviewed about their experiences with introducing the four-day work week.
Workers found they had time to complete life admin tasks, take weekends away (including visiting family) and invest in self-care activities, such as exercise, massages and doctor visits. They also had more time to participate in hobbies.
The four-day work week is just one of several flexible work arrangements that are becoming increasingly popular, including hybrid work, remote work, unlimited leave, gender-neutral parental leave and flexible public holidays.
‘You need time to rest and recover’
Hopkins says one of the reasons Henry Ford dropped the number of work days from six to five was because he realised productivity didn’t drop.
To perform at your best, to be the most productive, most efficient, you need time to rest and you need time to recover.
“If they were to play twice a week or three times a week, what would happen? They’d start to get more injuries, their performance would drop off.”
Just as athletes can get physical injuries if they push themselves too hard, other workers are susceptible to burnout. Source: Getty / Morgan Hancock
He says some of the people interviewed for the four-day week survey said they no longer experienced the “Sunday scaries” before the start of the working week, when they would usually feel scared or apprehensive.
“So it is about striking that right balance between work and rest and recovery to optimise performance.”
Young and middle-aged workers are feeling exhausted
The study looked at data from 1,400 Australian workers and found prime-aged workers (between 18 and 54 years old) were also twice as likely to feel like they didn’t have enough time to do everything they needed to do compared to older workers.
More than half of the workers without access to flexible work surveyed reported feeling exhausted (55 per cent) compared to 45 workers who had access to flexible conditions. They also felt less motivated while at work.
Unions push for four-day work week
“The best and most logical way to fairly share the gains of productivity is for workers to not have to work as many hours, and to move to a shorter working week,” he says.
Productivity cannot be at the expense of the wellbeing of workers.
“In the absence of a growing productivity dividend, the dream of a more balanced life … risks slipping out of reach for many Australians,” it says.
ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler says the union believes shorter working weeks will promote gender equality because it will allow caring responsibilities to be more easily shared between partners, as noted in a 2023 report by the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler says the union supports shorter working hours. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
“By changing the definition of ‘full-time’ work and encouraging a culture shift away from a focus on hours to that of productivity and work quality, the reduced hour model may lead to the removal of some of the barriers to women’s professional advancement,” the committee’s report says.
Butler says shorter working weeks would have a positive effect on women’s workforce participation, increase the number of hours workers have to balance their well-being and care responsibilities, and ultimately improve retention.
Could a four-day week be backed by government?
“[It’s] a better way to work and one that puts the health and happiness of workers first, while allowing the productivity of businesses to soar,” Greens spokesperson for jobs and employment, Senator Barbara Pocock, says.
It’s a win for workers and a win for workplaces.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told The Australian newspaper this week he would support practical measures from the productivity roundtable that had broad support from business, unions and civil society.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he is looking for productivity measures that have broad support. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
The Coalition, which walked back a proposal to force Canberra public servants back into the office five days a week during the federal election campaign, appeared non-committal when asked whether it supported the four-day work week.
This includes overcoming scepticism about its potential to increase productivity, making changes to roster systems so that staff can maintain services over five days, and the management of part-time workers.
Hopkins says moving to a four-day work week is not easy; it takes planning and piloting, but the businesses that have introduced the policy have stuck with it and seen the benefits, including being better able to attract and retain talented staff.
Families have changed since the 1950s
“When it comes to unpaid household work, men are not doing their fair share, and that’s not the fault of men, that’s how we’ve been conditioned,” she says.
Our tax system, our workplace system, all manner of things, are trapping us in this 1950s model of the perfect family.
“We lack the vision to do something different.”
People want a share of the time saved by AI
Hopkins says only about a third of jobs are remote-capable.
[Some] people feel like they’ve been left behind. Their white collar colleagues have all of a sudden gained all this flexibility and ability to work from home over the last few years and they haven’t gained anything.
AI may help employees work faster and Hopkins says “people want a share in the time that’s saved”.
Workers want a share of the time saved by new technology such as AI. Source: Getty / Oscar Wong
“They don’t want to be working the same number of hours that people were working 100 years ago.”
But he says this will ultimately come down to the management of technology and business owners.
‘A miserable feeling’
“I worry that, over time, that could have an impact on [the kids].”
Anna Dadic says she is exhausted due to juggling the demands of full-time work and being a mother to two children. Source: Supplied
Dadic’s aware of how lucky she is and how much worse things could be, but worries she’s not living life to the fullest because she’s constantly stressed and running on empty.
