By OLIVIA WEDDINGTON
Sheridan High School Student
This column is brought to readers by Sheridan High School dual-credit program students and Human Services teacher Abby Williams.
Iceland was the first country to start the four-day work week, making it 35 to 36 hours instead of 40. According to de Croo, around 2,500 people took place in the first test phase. More companies and schools should switch to a four-day work week.
According to CNBC, an environmental consultancy based in the UK went to a four-day work week as a test and has decided to keep it. Since they have transferred to a four-day work week, productivity has gone up 22 percent, the number of job applications have increased by 88 percent, and the amount of time people are absent went down by 66 percent. They have also noticed that their carbon footprint has gone down since people don’t have to drive an extra day anymore.
According to Time Magazine, based on of a study done by Brendan Burchell, a social sciences professor at U.K.’s University of Cambridge, 40 percent of the participants experienced less work-related stress, 71 percent said they felt less burnt out, and more than 40 percent of the employees said that their mental health had improved. Furthermore, almost 40 percent said that their physical health also improved. At the end of the study, 96 percent of the employees said that they preferred a four-day work week.
According to HR Dive, more and more countries are beginning trial periods for the four-day work week; even some U.S. states are. Massachusetts legislators are currently debating installing a two-year pilot period. Businesses that participate would receive tax credits. Employees would work 32 hours a week and not get a cut in their paycheck. Other states have already started implementing the four-day work week, such as: California, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Some school districts in Colorado and Missouri have also switched to a four-day work week.
According to peopleHum, a four-day work week can be unfavorable to some, because it could mean more meetings and work to be done in one day. After more time doing the four-day work week, the benefits that appeared in the beginning dwindled. While most people in the study mentioned earlier reported feeling less stress and burnout, others said that they felt more stress and burnout. According to The Hill, Japan tried to reduce the work week before, from 1988 to 1996. They reported that the economic output fell by 20 percent. In fact, it costs more for the companies, because they have to hire more people to get the same amount of work done. While this is a valid argument, it can be solved by not expecting employees to do so much work in a little amount of time.
In spite of some of the downsides, more companies and schools should switch to a four-day work week. There have been multiple studies that prove that it assists with less stress and helps improve employees’ mental health.