81% of young people say 4-day workweek would boost productivity, survey reports

As semi-automated worker owner, I have a 2 day work week.

My productivity would be zero if I had more work, since I'd burn out.

But of course my goal is to improve my automation until I can support myself on near zero labor.

There is a small trend among private companies, specifically in the tech sector, in moving to a 4 day week (the real 4 day week, 4x8hrs schedule) as they recognize the benefits for both sides, especially around retained productivity and better well-being, which then translates to better talent retention.

Advocates such as 4 Day Week Global consult companies on this topic and coordinate trials for them to test the waters or share results of surveys (available online) done with companies that already undertook such a trial. I've been watching this space for some time now and it's all definitely worth the attention.

Btw. I list 4 day week companies https://okjob.io/companies/ so if you know any business operating shorter weeks let me know.

I'm not sure that I totally buy it. In my opinion, shorter work days, depending on the industry, would have a far more positive effect on the ratio of productivity to company money spent. Obviously there are many industries where this couldn't work, and perhaps 4 day work weeks would be more practical in those cases.

Productivity aside, we should be striving to do less of the work we don't want to do so we have time to do more meaningful things.

As always when this comes up, I ask about schools. Every single school system that has tried 4 day school weeks has had poor outcomes across the board. Children do worst academically and they fair worst socially, since that one less day is one less day that at risk children have access to either safety or food in some cases.

We can't ask teachers to work 5 days when the rest of the world doesn't. I'd also be interested in how much of the value some people are pulling from 4 day work weeks is just having a kid-free day to accomplish things. Would the value for care takers (who would make up a significant amount of young people) the same if their children accompanied them?

I don't really have an opinion on the 4 day work week, but I do think it's important to consider impact from all angles. I just never see the question of children come up in this conversation, although we know from covid that anything that impacts how children do anything in a systematic way has huge impact good or bad.

The problem with 4 day work week is it leaves workers with energy they can spend on other things. Good for the workers, bad for those exploiting those workers.

Still not sure if I get it. I have several "hourly" contract jobs, so it's 10 hours a day/4 days a week, instead of 8 hours/5 days a week?

I'd think I'd burnout quicker with the longer hours