Basil Jarrett | The four-day workweek: Work smarter, not harder

One of the most enduring lessons coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic was that there is opportunity in every crisis. You just need to look where to find it. And for a crisis as massive as COVID-19 was, the opportunities it brought, ought to be equally massive and consequential.

If you’re a fan of the work-life balance that COVID-19 forced us to come to grips with, then like me you must have been jubilant when the reports of a UK-based experiment showed last week that a four-day workweek can be just as productive as a five-day one, and even more useful in helping persons to manage stress, manage sleep, manage their personal lives and manage their overall mental health.

Nearly 3,000 employees from 61 companies participated in the study, which was the largest ever four-day workweek experiment in the world. And the results are in. The majority of supervisors and employees who participated in the trial were so impressed, that they’ve decided to keep the arrangement going forward, with up to 15 per cent of employees stating that “no amount of money” could convince them to go back to a five-day, 40-hour workweek.

BETTER MENTAL HEALTH

Unsurprisingly, the employees reported that during the trial, they saw marked improvements in their sleep, lowered levels of stress, enhancements to their personal and family lives and better overall mental health. What is startling and a bit more interesting, however, is that the participating companies reported that revenue rose 35 per cent on average compared to similar periods from previous years. And if all this wasn’t impressive enough, staff turnover and resignations also declined during the period.

These impressive results led to 92 per cent of the companies that took part in the trial opting to continue with the four-day workweek arrangement after the pilot ended, with 30 per cent saying the switch will be permanent and immediate. Two of the companies are still undecided and will be extending the trial, and three say they do not plan to carry on with the arrangement. Someone just had to spoil the party.

So what can we here learn from all this? Surely, a modern, highly educated, First World society and economy like the UK’s cannot be compared to what exists here in Jamaica, so buyer beware. Consider, too, that most of the companies that took part in the study were relatively small, with over 66 per cent having 25 or fewer employees, features that would make them naturally more suited to a shortened workweek and more fluid working hours.

GREATER WORK-LIFE BALANCE

In addition, 90 per cent of the persons who took part in the study were white, with 70 per cent having at least an undergraduate degree. Here on The Rock, a more depressed economy, lowered wages and higher relative costs of living may force persons to forgo that greater work-life balance in exchange for more hours and more pay, even if it comes with more stress, more traffic and more ulcers. And I don’t know why but something in my gut tells me that once Jamaicans, who are notoriously creative and imaginative, become used to and figure out how to beat the new system, productivity and work ethic would eventually wane.

Part of the problem, too, is that employers may not yet be ready to embrace the philosophical shift in mindset that it will take to accept that you can get as much work done in four days as you can in five, and are quietly rushing to get their workers back to the pre-COVID-19 days. I feel like I just sucked the enthusiasm out of the room.

But not so fast. There may be hope. A few enterprising companies here are persisting with some of the COVID-induced workweek modifications such as hybrid work arrangements. Lowered utility bills and overhead costs, coupled with more efficient use of office space have done enough to convince them to continue to invest in their employees’ well-being and to embrace the hybrid work model, which is, to my mind, a gateway to the promised land.

As a country, there may also be larger societal and environmental benefits to be realised. Lowered healthcare costs, lowered national fuel bills and lowered emissions from reduced commutes are just the start. On a more personal level, the UK study reported that parenting time for men, especially, more than doubled during the trial. For a country like ours where so many of our sociocultural ills are deeply rooted in gaps at the family unit level, this is interesting news.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for a similar study to be done here, or at the very least, for a national review and benchmarking of the companies that are persisting with the practice, examining their results and performance. We may not want to dive head first into a four-day workweek, but certainly, there are ways to tippy-toe into it. For example, employees could be allowed to make their own hours from a range of available options. Others could also be allowed to work from home or other locations, or work longer hours over four days with the fifth off.

PROGRESSIVE START

If all this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because it is. In 2014, the Senate passed the Employment (Flexible Work Arrangements) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, paving the way for the introduction of flexible working hours and times. Not quite as adventurous as what our friends in the UK have embarked on, but a fairly progressive start. For its part, Government today has supported the legislation and promoted the use of these alternative work arrangements, in order to enhance productivity and allow workers to better balance their personal versus their professional lives. But the slow take-up of the provisions of the act shows that if laws are to have their intended effects then there needs to be a corresponding cultural shift among our citizens, in this case, in our work culture and attitude towards labour. The UK experiment, and COVID-19 before it, showed us that we have a very antiquated view of work and workdays, especially when one considers the opportunities that are now afforded by today’s technology.

And yes, I know that a four-day workweek across all industries is neither practical nor desirable. But the post-COVID-19 push from Government to have employers adopt flexible work-from-home policies, where possible, is a good sign that we may now be ready to fulfil the enormous potential and opportunity that the pandemic left us with.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management.Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com