Is Working 32 Hours a Week Normal? What You Should Know
A standard work week in today’s reality is a full five days with two days off. These can happen at any time throughout the week, either in shifts or as a typical 9 to 5 job – usually, this type of work week results in approximately forty hours of paid labor. Some employers, however, have adopted the 32-hour work week, and you may find yourself wondering whether this is normal or manageable in today’s economy.
Working 32 hours a week is normal for companies that have adopted the four-day workweek. It is split into four shifts throughout the week, eight hours in length. Many companies are shifting their employment conditions to four work days since trials have shown higher employee morale and productivity.
Companies in Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, the UK, Canada, Iceland, and Germany have already made the four-day workweek transition, to name a few – and many more countries are in the process of trying it. The remainder of this article will discuss the proven benefits of a 32-hour workweek and how working less boosts employee productivity and morale.
What Are the Benefits of Working 32 Hours a Week?
There is a growing body of evidence that highlights the various benefits of a 32-hour workweek. Increased productivity and higher morale are the most prominent ones, but the extended weekend, reduced commute, and lowered working and daycare costs are a few more appealing aspects.
Henley Business School, for example, had nearly three thousand of its employees surveyed in 2019. The study showed that over three-quarters of employees reported having a better quality of life, increased staff productivity, and the company saved nearly 100 billion pounds in just one year!
Let’s take an in-depth look at the benefits of a 32-hour workweek in the workplace, such as increased productivity, higher morale, and better quality of life.
Higher Employee Morale
I have worked many jobs in which the staff morale was teetering on the precipice of disaster. It can be incredibly discouraging to start a work shift surrounded by negativity, and even more so when management seems to disregard the experience of the workers. When morale is low, there are a number of unpleasant consequences for the individual and their employer.
High rates of absenteeism are reported among those workers experiencing low morale. Staff conflict can also occur much easier, workers can become disorganized, and decreased productivity is a common challenge in these circumstances. When morale is low, both the employer and the employee suffer.
The shortened work week and subsequently longer weekends have proven to boost morale among workers. In Oregon, various elementary schools adopted the four-day workweek in the eighties and have yet to go back even fifty years later, citing heightened morale for teachers and students.
According to the Oregon study, higher morale could be correlated with a few different variables. Some of these variables include:
Increased parental involvement in children’s lives
More time for staff development and family time
Increased learning time
Increased attendance for both students and staff
Reduced transportation costs
These benefits have been reproduced in several studies and literature reviews, as well. Overall, higher morale among staff could be related to the better work-life balance and various other benefits that are being achieved through working 32 hours a week.
How To Combat Low Morale
The practice of compartmentalization is valuable when attempting to battle low morale in the workplace. Upon entering work, try to leave your home life in the background. Similarly, when you leave work for the day, don’t bring the stresses of employment with you. Practice gratitude, patience, and appropriate communication to make your work day more manageable.
Increased Employee Productivity
Corporate companies want to maximize productivity in the workplace. Adopting the four-day workweek means reducing hours, which seems counterproductive on the surface. After all, how can working less make the company more?
Increased productivity is a byproduct of the four-day workweek; in fact, many studies claim the increase in productivity is a result of higher morale among employees. Different corporations will decide how they want to schedule their workers, but many will work on a rotating schedule of Monday to Thursday shifts and Tuesday to Friday the following week.
Interestingly, another reason that increased productivity is a result of the shortened workweek is due to the improvements in technology. When employees can use better technology to complete their work, they can successfully be more productive in and out of the office.
Overall, many of the trials and studies done on the four-day workweek show gains in productivity. In 2019, Microsoft Japan ran a four-day workweek trial that saw productivity rise by forty percent. Naturally, this is something that companies strive for on a regular basis.
Evidence has shown that it could be achieved on a larger scale through the implementation of a shortened workweek. In fact, the most productive countries in the world are the ones that work less, according to the European Financial Review. Some of these countries are Germany, France, and Iceland, as mentioned previously.
How To Maintain Adequate Productivity in the Workplace
Discipline is vital to maintain a solid level of productivity. It can be all too easy to slack off at work or spend a day getting less done than you might prefer. In order to develop discipline, incorporate some way to hold yourself accountable for the work that does (or doesn’t) get done. Perhaps you can organize tasks into different sections of the day or follow a to-do list.
Reduced Burnout
Burnout is a severe career challenge that so many people have faced over the years, especially amidst the pandemic when having to juggle multiple complexities at once. It refers to the state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that results from extended periods of stress.
When an individual is suffering from career burnout, they are physically and mentally incapable of performing their job tasks at a satisfactory rate. It can lead to symptoms very similar to depression – disturbed sleep, pervasive feelings of failure and helplessness, loss of appetite, and withdrawn or absent behavior, to name a few. These symptoms inevitably and negatively affect job performance.
The 32-hour work week is said to reduce fatigue and overall burnout for many employees. This, in turn, improves employees’ mental health. It can be examined through the lens of having a better quality of life and higher rates of positive well-being. Those employees working on a four-day schedule in multiple studies reported less stress, less fatigue, and thus – reduced burnout.
New York clothing company Primary implemented the four-day workweek to battle burnout amidst the COVID-19 pandemic (and reduced productivity as a result of burnout) – the results were incredibly positive. Needless to say, Primary isn’t the first company to see fewer rates of burnout after the implementation of such a program.
In fact, multiple pilot programs are happening worldwide to experiment with the four-day workweek’s impact on rates of burnout, with many of them attributing higher levels of energy to the longer weekend and better work-life balance.
All in all, the four-day workweek has shown to be a generally positive experience for many employees and employers. However, its’ impact doesn’t only affect people – the shortened workweek also plays a role in taking care of the global environment. Let’s take a closer look at how working 32 hours a week helps the environment.
How To Combat Burn-Out
As many likely already know, working through burnout can be next to impossible. If you find yourself burning out at work, taking some time off is essential to restore the work-life balance that the four-day workweek seeks to sustain. Forcing yourself to continue working will be harmful to both your employment and your own well-being.
The Environmental Impact of Working 32 Hours a Week
What is becoming more and more relevant these days is how the environment works to maintain a habitable world for humans and how abuse of the environment can lead to climate catastrophes that wreak havoc on populations around the world. Read on to explore the other ways in which the 32-hour workweek benefits the environment.
Reduction in Carbon Emissions
The 32-hour workweek is said to be significantly more eco-friendly than the traditional alternative.
For example, by reducing the amount of travel one needs to do for work, carbon emissions transmitted through transportation are reduced. Carbon emissions are responsible for global temperature increases, so the reduction in emissions is essential to maintaining a healthy, habitable environment.
The reduction in transportation at the beginning of the pandemic is an excellent example of how this helps the environment. When the world was on lockdown and transportation was extremely limited, air pollution and carbon emissions both went down.
Reduction in Energy Costs and Consumption
In addition to the reduction in carbon emissions, the 4-day workweek is also said to reduce energy costs and consumption by upwards of twenty-five percent. This is because most large-scale offices consume a lot of energy (consider the electricity being used in the heating, air conditioning, or lighting of a big office building).
Long working hours also show that energy consumption is increased because of the little free time to get other necessities done – the longer you work, the less time you have for yourself, the more services you consume, and thus, more energy is used overall.
As you can see, energy consumption and carbon emissions have a direct relationship to each other, so reducing the need for companies to consume excess energy also reduces the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. However, there are cautions to the reduction in energy due to the four-day workweek.
If people are choosing to spend their time off engaging in high energy-consumption activities, the fifth day of the week might prove to be detrimental to climate change. So, the shortened week has the potential to be highly beneficial to the environment, but it also depends on many other factors.
This leads me to my next point, about how working 32 hours a week impacts the improved well-being of individuals and families.
The 32-Hour Workweek’s Self, Social and Familial Impacts
Life isn’t all about work – many have come upon this realization throughout the chaotic COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. One’s family and social circle play critical roles in the enjoyment that they get out of life, and when a nonstop work schedule impedes these areas of life, there can be several negative consequences.
The 4-day workweek is an excellent solution to balancing work with social and familial activities. With an extra day on the weekend, workers have significantly more time to spend with family, relax, get jobs done around the house, and spend leisure time with friends. This balance is key to overall well-being.
Parents and kids especially benefit from the four-day workweek. They are able to spend more time with each other, building strong bonds that translate to healthier lifestyles in the long term. Childcare costs are also reduced, which I can say from experience leads to much less financial stress on working parents.
Caregivers for vulnerable people are also more likely to benefit from a reduced work week, as they will have additional time for caregiving responsibilities. The extra time always makes room for healthier lifestyles in general – there is more time to exercise, meditate, and otherwise care for the self in a healthy, restorative way.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the four-day workweek is becoming trendier over time and is being successfully implemented in pilot programs around the world. While working 32 hours may not be standard, it is rising in popularity because of its positive benefits for employees and employers alike, such as reduced burnout, higher morale, and increased productivity.
The shortened workweek also plays a positive role in taking care of the environment and encouraging healthier lifestyles in the home. It allows for bonding time with family and time to restore and maintain work-life balance, increasing the overall well-being of one’s work and home lives.
Sources
EuroNews: Four-day workweek: Which countries have embraced it and how’s it going so far?
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University: Effectiveness of a Four-days/Eight Hour Work Week
CBSClimateClub: The 4 day work week as a trigger for more sustainability.
Washington Post: How a 4 day workweek could be better for the climate
CNBC: The 4 day workweek helped online retailer Primary cure employee burnout.