The 4 day Week.
By Andrew Barnes
with Stephanie Jones
How the flexible work revolution can increase productivity, profitability and well-being, and create a sustainable future.
In my years in a shared office environment we experimented with many different techniques and approaches to reduce distractions, and increase productivity - with varying, and almost always positive results. This book provides a viable outline for how to bring more balance and well-being to the lives of employees, whilst increasing their job satisfaction and daily performance, and maintaining (or even increasing) company profitability. As leaders we should always be receptive to new ways of working, and the employee-focused approach in this book is what sets up a formula for success. I found myself wishing for a larger company to try it on, and have satisfied myself instead with applying the principles on a smaller scale in my own business, and family. I admire Andrew Barnes – rather than identifying this concept as a way to drive more productivity from staff out of the time that they work, he identified the opportunity to lessen their work hours (thus enhancing their balance and well-being) in order to still maintain (and even slightly improve) levels of productivity, as well as commitment and job satisfaction, which can only serve to enhance the customer experience.
Introduction
The author read an article in the Economist that contained research that found that employees were productive for 1.5 to 2.5 hours of a typical workday. His theory after reading that: If each of his own employees were productive for 2.5 hours per day, then her only needed to add another 40 more productive minutes each day to get the same output from his staff in a four-day week.
Thus began the inception of his 4 Day week trial idea based on:
· 100% contractual compensation
· 80% of the time
· 100% delivery of the agreed productivity
Andrew became certain that the five-day week is a 19th century construct that is not fit for purpose in the 21st century. There have been significant technological improvements, but no corresponding advances in overall productivity, with work related stress swelling to epidemic proportions. He realized a need to change the way work to get the best out of people and at the same time relieve the strain on ourselves and the planet. Andrew Barnes trialed this concept first in March 2018 with his own Company (Perpetual Guardian) of 240 employees.
Chapter 1: The World of Work as it is Today
A state of perma-working, with employees connected to work communication outside of traditional office hours, and a perceived need to be online and available.
This results in an intrusion of work into downtime, which should be for thinking relaxing, recharging and family time.
An “always on” culture results in a mind that never rests and a body that never recovers. Women especially walk a tightrope between home and work.
Employers are unsure how to accurately measure output and so the gauge an employee’s value by the number of hours that they spend at their desk.
There are increasing levels of workplace depression and anxiety as a result of:
o Poor communication
o Poor management practices
o Low levels of support
o Inflexibility
o Unclear tasks
o Unclear organization objectives
o Low control over individual areas of work
o Unrelenting workloads
o Hyper-connectedness
Chapter 2: The Workers Response
The collision of technology and performance is expanding the role of work in our lives.
Overwork, stress and busy-ness have almost become fashionable – a “hustle culture”.
Buzzwords like ‘agile, lean, nimble, adaptable’ have become exhausting for employees.
There is a culture of expectation – Elon Musk “Nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”
A plethora of self-management tips, techniques and hacks available on the internet (books/podcasts/blogs/apps) – and no time to use them.
Workers are getting sicker as they keep trying to “tough it out”.
Chapter 3: The Corporate Response
The 4-day week is a flexibility model which retains worker protections (in health care, leave, sick leave and pensions).
The “Gig Economy” is the freelance economy, in which workers support themselves with a variety of part time jobs that do not provide traditional benefits. (The employer has no obligation, and the worker has very little leverage.)
Gig workers receive income and flexibility but no benefits or protection.
It is easy to become “stuck” as a temporary worker. Companies using temps have no incentive to invest in them, and without new skills they cannot advance.
A big caution: what is sold as flexibility is actually perma-availability i.e. on call as much as possible.
Steve Denning was quoted in Forbes as saying: “Thy to success is not to do more work faster. The key ius to be smarter by generating more value from less work, and delivering it sooner.”
In the 4-day work week, the search for efficiency is designed to protect jobs; to boost productivity/profitability; and offer workers more (in terms of better job security).
Chapter 4: The Purpose of the 4-day work week
In the trial, the 4-day week was not pitched as a weekly long weekend or a free day off.
It was positioned as a gift in exchange for delivering productivity and meeting customer service standards, as well as individual and team goals.
The theory tested: Greater efficiency comes as a result of improved staff focus and motivation.
It is not just about improving processes and procedures, but about managing time better.
Very important: A large part of the structure of the 4-day week must be generated by staff who must design it according to individual and team workloads and performance objectives, as well as personal schedule preferences. Important to keep on asking staff for their views and input.
Simply the idea to employees was: Do more in the office, for more time away from it.
Areas/pockets of failure result due to lack of groundwork, and too much of a top-down approach.
Managers and staff need a sound understanding of:
o What staff are doing on a daily basis.
o What they can do better.
o What they want to change
Roadblocks to productivity can be deeply entrenched in the business, but people can find better ways to do things in order to free up their day off.
By putting productivity first, and incentivizing staff to do the same. The value ripples beyond the business, to the home and personal lives of workers.
The importance of engaging experts from outside to monitor the trial and its outcomes, and generate useful data.
Objectives must be explicit, so that success and milestones can be measured accurately
Chapter 5: The Data
What gets measured, gets managed.
Some of the conclusions reported by Employees from the trial:
o Felt that the Company cared about their wellbeing.
o Their teams had grown together and strengthened through the trial, and performed better together.
o Greater work-life balance and lower work demands.
o Significant increase in positive attitudes towards their work.
o Enhanced wellbeing (life, health, leisure, community, stress levels)
o No dips in job performance as a result of less time.
Pros realized through qualitative research of the trial:
o Planning discussions stimulated employee’s intellectual engagement.
o Planning phase resulted in many employees designing and implementing initiatives to work in a more productive and efficient manner.
o More intensive/focused work; reduction/elimination of distractions. “Heads down”.
o Increased collaboration and teamwork, and greater information sharing and delegation.
o Feeling more challenged and stimulated.
o Shared commitment and motivation to the purpose of the trial.
There were some Cons:
o Some employees felt increased stress and pressure.
o Soke increased their daily hours.
o Some managers specifically felt more pressure.
The additional time enabled individuals to:
o More time to accomplish tasks in their personal lives.
o Having more time t0o participate in family life.
o Having more time to restore, relax and connect.
o Having more time to learn and contribute.
o Having more time to explore and imagine.
The Profit Motive: Engagement, satisfaction and well-being are the defining model of the future of work; but profitability needs to be affected positively for it to work.
It’s also about identifying time wasting habits that can be eliminated.
If staff are more productive and healthier, then profitability will rise.
The onus rests evenly on managers and workers – it needs both to work.
A constant review of work practices is required, and a companywide commitment.
Chapter 6: How it is Done
PREPARE THE GROUND
1. First, build trust: This is an employee-led process, and they must feel safe to speak freely.
2. Don’t overthink it: Hand the challenge over to staff and try it – the employees have to own the policy. The day off is a gift, provided that they reach the productivity targets agreed with their manager.
3. Run a trial. Or don’t: A trial is a great way to tease out the information you will need; but too much prior planning can also kill the initiative.
4. Embrace time as the scarce resource: The four-day work week makes time the scarce resource by posing the productivity challenge to the staff – how can they reduce the time they devote to unproductive work, or work avoidant activities?
5. Do your homework: Make sure you have done the staff surveys before announcing the trial, and also be clear on the variables you will be measuring for success.
6. Consult your lawyers: In orders to stay within the law, ensure that benefits and contracts remain the same – this is a “trial” and the productivity reward is a “gift”.
GO TIME
1. Do not disturb: Disruption must come down for productivity to go up. Environment affects output – set up your space, and then let your workflow. Some ideas to decrease disruptions:
a. Remove or block notifications.
b. Use the Do Not Disturb mode in apps.
c. Special focused work rooms/spaces.
d. Remote working allowance.
e. Scheduled “heads down” time.
f. Deflecting others verbally.
g. The “flag” system, nor traffic lights, or headphones.
h. Turning off emails for set periods.
2. Harness the power of concentration to put productivity first: Make productivity, not work-life balance, the point of concentration.
3. Experiment with the 52/17 ratio: Evidence shows that structured short breaks after areas of focused work correlate to higher productivity. 52 minutes of work followed by 17 minutes of downtime ( a walk, a conversation) seems optimal and is worth experimenting with.
4. Let the people lead: This must be a collaborative rather than a prescriptive process, and the key ingredient for success is your people.
5. Make sure you know your people: There are 4 kinds of workers in terms of how they respond to unexpected change: the adaptive enthusiast, the doubter, the refusenik and the non-compromiser. It’s about having empathy, and knowing how to best work with each. There are also three kinds of leaders who may struggle to adapt: the denier, the ostrich and the bad salesman; and there are approaches to handle each of these too.
6. Watch out for the habits of ‘highly productive’ people: Some employees will believe that they can be no more productive – in this case you need to review each task to see whether it is necessary, improvable and indeed productive.
7. Be willing to withdraw: Be clear upfront that failure to maintain productivity of agreed levels results in the loss of the 4-day week.
8. Allow people to opt in: In the long term, staff should have the choice to participate – it may not suit all staff, and that is okay.
I’ve given brief bullet points from Chapter 7 to 10, and focused this summary primarily on the “how to” aspect (Chapters 1 to 6)of Andrews book, which is well worth the read for the full and practical details.
Chapter 7: The Broader Benefits
Decreased traffic volumes result in a reduction in carbon emissions.
Less lost productivity due to less commuting.
More free time to direct attention towards community enhancing activities i.e. charities and donating time.
An employee is likely to want to give extra effort (at work and at home) as a result of the perceived value of work flexibility.
An opportunity to boost Moms in their careers, and Dads at home.
Less stress-related illnesses.
Chapter 8: The Importance of being Flexible
Better outputs a s a consequence of having a more engaged, less stressed, loyal workforce.
People work better when they are empowered, engaged, stimulated, acknowledged for their abilities, and treated with respect.
Sets up people to succeed not only at work but in the rest of their lives.
Chapter 9: The Obstacles
The ‘opt in’ model treats the 4-day week as an employee gift which may be withdrawn if the employee does not deliver the agreed productivity outcomes – important to get legal advice per country and approach in the correct manner.
Legislative change needed with flexibility clauses.
Ethics and respect are vital components for this model to be sustainable in the future.
Chapter 10: Inside the Business Walls
Intellectual resistance from management and leaders is the largest internal obstacle.
It is a myth that only long hours lead to increases in productivity and profitability – in fact the opposite is true.
A flexibility or productivity policy is a test of leadership.
A mistranslation is a ‘three-day weekend’. The fifth day is a gift as a result of a productivity achievement.
Open plan offices are the enemy of productivity – very hard to foster consistently high productivity. Requires staff collaboration on a no-noise, no-interruption plan.
This book shines a bright light on the ways that we choose to work, and the power that we have to make positive change, whilst enhancing both productivity and satisfaction.
These words from Chapter 8 summarize the tone of this book best, for me:
“But we did this little experiment, and everything got brighter in our little corner of the planet.”