When Bill Kowalcic first heard that his company Advanced RV was trying out a four-day workweek, he was filled with questions.
“All of us were a little nervous — like, are we going to be able to get our work done? Are we going to do OK? Is this going to hurt us?” says Kowalcic, a skilled craftsman who works in the finishing department.
A year and a half later, he has answers.
Not only has his team found shortcuts and time savers, he’s happier on the job.
“Gosh, it’s been great,” he says.
“I’ve never had a job where I’ve said this before, but at the end of the three-day weekend, I’m ready to come back in Monday morning.”
To answer my initial questions.
They are using a 32 hour work week.
They do not all seem to have the same day off, but that is not directly discussed.
There was internal resistance.
Output is close to what it was on a 40 hour work week.
It is worth the read.
Numerous studies around the world have shown better productivity with the 30ish hour week: better attitude, fewer mishaps, more focused work groups… Glad to see it done & voiced in the US (again).
Couldn’t the 4-day workweek work without issue if they just hired more people and they worked different days?
Of course, there would be less profit. But there’s already too much, so what’s the problem?
It creates jobs, stimulates the economy, and people don’t have to work as hard.
My local council here in the UK moved to a 4 day work week (with the same pay). Counterintuitively they’ve ended up saving £500k a year because they hire far fewer agency staff.
Productivity has remained the same or increased in all bar one metric and staff retention is much higher.
Of course our halfwitted government has said they’re not allowed to do that because it apparently provides poor value for the tax payer. I despair…
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Sometimes I do 3 hours, and yes, that’s embarrassing to me.
Why? If you do all you need to do, there’s nothing embarrassing about it. You shouldn’t be so beholden to a company that you feel guilt over them paying you the same amount to finish work in 3 hours as they would in 8 hours.
less profit
Here, I found the problem…
And it can be shorter still.
confused capitalist noises
Having worked a 4-10s schedule before, I also have a very strong preference for it.
Now imagine 4-8s at the same pay (and productivity because you aren’t perpetually exhausted by working 40+ hours a week in addition to all the other regular life things everyone needs to do).
This case is even better than that with 4-8s while keeping the same pay.
