![]() ![]() Of course, some types of jobs or workplaces don’t easily lend themselves to four-day workweeks. “Often, it isn’t that employers don’t want to offer four-day workweeks, it’s that they’re not sure what’s in it for them,” Horn says. ![]() ![]() Four-day workweeks add complexity to managers’ jobs. “It’s much easier to say to everyone, ‘Come in at the same time every day and work long hours,’” she says. ![]() Strong organizational norms on who gets ahead at work. DeGroot says managers tend to promote staffers who “put work first,” which typically means showing up every weekday.Ģ. “I don’t believe the majority of workplaces are supportive of four-day workweeks,” says Jessica DeGroot, founder of the Third Path Institute, a Philadelphia-based group that aims to help employees lead “integrated” lives.ġ. Only 7% allow all or most staffers to do their jobs this way. Yet just 36% of employers permit at least some employees to have four-day workweeks, says Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute. There’s been a 31% increase in running errands since 2011, the study says. Employers often don't like it when staffers head out for these reasons.Īccording to the Captivate Network’s recent Homing From Work survey of 4,000 white collar workers, 45% leave work for doctor and dentist appointments and 52% go out to buy gifts, greeting cards and flowers. Today, harried five-day-a-week workers must routinely, and sometimes furtively, scoot out for doctor’s appointments, errands and elder care duties for their parents – and they’re doing so more often. And don’t get me started on best-selling author Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek notion.) So why are employers with four-day workweeks so hard to find in America, especially when there seems to be such a demand for this benefit? (Never mind that the average workweek is far shorter than 40 hours in many parts of the world: 29 hours in the Netherlands and 33 hours in Norway and Denmark, for example. that this employee perk “is an amazing draw in the age of recruiting the best talent to your team” and leads to soaring retention rates. Jay Love, the former chief executive of Indianapolis search engine optimization consultant Slingshot SEO, which has a four-day workweek told Inc. ( MORE: How Long Will You Need to Keep Working?) “A four-day workweek allows you to continue to contribute on the job while gaining the time to pursue a long-neglected avocation, to help care for the grandchildren or to simply enjoy the other parts of life,” says Cali Williams Yost, chief executive and founder of Flex+Strategy Group in Madison, N.J.īrooke Dixon, co-founder and chief executive of, a site that matches job-seekers with employers, says “well above half our users are looking for something other than a traditional workweek.” No matter how you structure a four-day workweek, though, your job needs to get done – either by you or by you and someone working the fifth day.Ĭompressed workweeks – the delightful term human resources people use for putting in 40 hours in fewer than five days – are “a great way to provide employees the flexibility to meet the demands of work and life outside of work,” says Lisa Horn, co-leader of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Workplace Flexibility Initiative and partnership with the Families and Work Institute. You might even keep your benefits by working 30 to 40 hours, though you’ll likely take a proportional pay cut. If you put in 40 hours during your four days, you generally get full pay and benefits. ![]()
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