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Tag: Four day workweek

  • Connecticut Town Trials Four-Day Workweek, Employees Love It | Entrepreneur

    Connecticut Town Trials Four-Day Workweek, Employees Love It | Entrepreneur

    The town of Canton, Connecticut, population 10,124, has been trialing a four-day workweek for its employees for nearly a month — and so far, it’s been a success.

    On September 16, the town’s non-unionized employees who work in the town hall, social services, and senior services began getting Fridays off.

    “I wanted to find a work-life balance for my employees because I think that if you can take care of your personal items at home and you’re not worried about making appointments and taking care of your kids, etc, then you’ll be more laser-focused at work,” Canton’s First Selectman Kevin Witkos told WTNH News on Monday.

    He added that town employees on the four-day schedule “love it” and “the feedback has been great” from residents.

    Related: This Country Just Implemented a 6-Day Workweek for Employees

    Town hall employees now work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and work an extra hour on Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Senior and social services employees’ new schedule is from 7:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

    Administrators in the town’s Department of Public Works and Police Department are also taking part in the four-day workweek, per Witkos. The trial period lasts four months, until January.

    Canton joins other Connecticut towns, including Plainville, Redding, and Mansfield in implementing a four-day workweek.

    Related: Samsung Makes 6-Day Workweeks Mandatory for Executives

    Meanwhile, Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor told Kevin O’Leary in July that the company implemented a 4-day workweek and they’re “very productive” within those four days.

    “I love the fact that the people at our company have interests,” Taylor said.

    Most people are willing to work more hours Monday through Thursday if they get Friday off. According to a November 2023 Gallup poll, 77% of the U.S. workforce are in favor of a 40-hour, 4-day workweek and say it would positively affect their well-being.

    The four-day workweek has also had proven outcomes. In June 2021, 70 companies in the UK experimented with it for six months. The majority found that business productivity was about the same or slightly higher than it was with a standard five-day week.

    Zoom CEO Eric Yuan told The Verge in June that AI can help cut the workweek to three or four days.

    “Why not spend more time with your family?” Yuan said. “Why not focus on some more creative things, giving you back your time, giving back to the community and society to help others, right? Today, the reason why we cannot do that is because every day is busy, five days a week. It’s boring.”

    Related: Can’t Afford a 4-day Workweek? Try a 35-hour One Instead

    Sherin Shibu

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  • 77 Percent of Employees Want a 4-Day Workweek | Entrepreneur

    77 Percent of Employees Want a 4-Day Workweek | Entrepreneur

    The five-day workweek has been the U.S. law for 80 years, but a majority of Americans want to switch over to a four-day workweek, according to a new Bentley-Gallup Business in Society Report.

    Seventy-seven percent of U.S. workers surveyed say a four-day, 40-hour workweek would have an extremely or somewhat positive effect on their well-being. Employees also said they wanted their companies to offer mental health days (74%) and limit the work they’re expected to perform outside of work hours (73%).

    Some companies, including Amazon, Basecamp, Microsoft, and Panasonic, offer four-day workweek options, but most businesses are sticking with the tried-and-true five-day model. Why? Experts say it’s a combination of lower productivity (although studies show this not to be the case), staffing issues, increased costs, and complex changes to operations.

    Plus, there’s just an overall resistance to change.

    “It’s been almost 100 years we’ve operated with the current workweek,” Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College who has researched the four-day workweek, told The Washington Post. “I don’t think we can expect it [to change] overnight.”

    A brief history of the five-day workweek

    Responding to pressure from labor unions, Henry Ford was one of the first employers to standardize a five-day, 40-hour workweek in 1926. Ford also saw that minimizing hours would lead to a prosperous middle class, the backbone of his factory workers. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, Americans worked like dogs, averaging 100 hours per week, six-days a week—something needed to change. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which made the 40-hour workweek the law of the land.

    How a 4-day workweek works

    But in recent years, many companies have adopted a four-day workweek in which employees are allowed to work 10-hour workdays, four days a week, instead of eight-hour workdays, five days a week. The pay remains the same, but the schedule changes, allowing workers to enjoy an extra free day each week.

    Four-day workweeks are popular among millennials and Gen Z, who put a strong value on work-life balance. In fact, 92% of young people say that they would work longer hours in exchange for a four-day workweek, according to a Bankrate survey.

    Last year, more than 33 companies in the UK did a four-day workweek trial run for six months. Afterward, most of the companies said they would not go back to the five-day workweek, reporting that productivity and employee happiness were up.

    Slow to adopt

    Despite the enthusiasm many employees have for a four-day workweek, their employers are not as jazzed. Only 15% of U.S. workers say their companies offer four-day weekweeks, according to a 2023 survey by ADP.

    Change is hard, especially in a volatile economy where businesses don’t want to take chances. But industry analysts say that ultimately, the more workers demand four-day workweeks the more their bosses will bend to their will. It’s all a matter of supply and demand, something companies know all about.

    “Once some companies start offering [four-day workweeks] and once many workers start to apply for those positions … it might actually end up putting more pressure on companies to introduce this non-traditional perk,” Sarah Foster, a Bankrate analyst, told CNBC.

    Jonathan Small

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  • Do ‘Unplug Days’ Actually Work? Research Says They Might Be the Key to Ending Burnout. | Entrepreneur

    Do ‘Unplug Days’ Actually Work? Research Says They Might Be the Key to Ending Burnout. | Entrepreneur

    This emerging trend is designed to combat burnout and promote work-life balance, and thus boost productivity.

    Gleb Tsipursky

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  • Alternatives to Layoffs in Tech: Maintaining a Stable Workforce | Entrepreneur

    Alternatives to Layoffs in Tech: Maintaining a Stable Workforce | Entrepreneur

    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    The tech industry is volatile and subject to the whims of the market. With the recession that’s predicted to hit the global economy in late 2023, companies everywhere, from small startups to major enterprises, are already taking countermeasures to combat it. Ironically, the most commonly employed countermeasure is large-scale layoffs.

    Just recently, Microsoft announced 10,000 job cuts, impacting nearly 5% of its global workforce, as part of “workforce reduction” measures the company is taking. This was soon followed by a similar announcement from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. CEO Sundar Pichai commented on the downsizing, saying the company had “hired for a different economic reality” than what it’s up against today.

    Related: ‘Fake Work’ Was ‘Exposed’ By Layoffs At Google And Meta, Says Former PayPal Executive

    During times of economic hardship, it is important for companies to maintain a stable, employed workforce. This is why many businesses are searching for alternatives to layoffs as a method to get through these challenging times. Let’s explore what some of these potential alternatives could be.

    Reducing hiring

    A substitute for layoffs is to recruit fewer people each month in the first place. Companies might limit the pace of new recruits and concentrate on keeping their present employees. This is one of the factors that they can adapt to rather than reduce their current staff.

    Related: Ex-Google Employee Documents the Day She Was Let Go Amid Mass Layoffs: ‘A Really Bad Game of Russian Roulette’

    During the height of the pandemic, companies like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft hired and grew their employee base significantly. In contrast, Apple hired at a more modest rate compared to its peers, adding only 17,000 new recruits between 2020 and 2022. Now that uncertain times are ahead, and we see the consequences of overhiring in the form of mass layoffs. On the other hand, Apple has avoided using layoffs as a tool to deal with these dire circumstances.

    Hiring freeze

    The implementation of a hiring freeze is an additional alternative to laying off present employees. This entails putting a temporary stop to all new hiring until the business’s financial situation improves. By doing so, companies can cut expenditures while maintaining the current staff.

    Another reason why Apple is not laying off its employees like its counterparts — is that it implemented a hiring freeze in November 2022 to prepare for the turbulent times that are ahead. There’s no news on when the freeze will be lifted, with sources even saying that it could go on until September 2023.

    Reducing working hours

    Reducing the number of hours a worker works each week is one such option that can prove to be beneficial. This enables businesses to maintain their personnel while also cutting expenditures. Employees who are able to keep their jobs but with fewer hours worked may also benefit from it, freeing up more time for other activities.

    Reducing hours, not workers, is the right for forward-looking business leaders to institute today. 73 companies in the UK ran an experiment with a four-day workweek. The results showed that managers and employees generally described being more or equally productive in a shortened week. A shorter work week gives employees more time to spend with their friends and family and focuses on any hobbies or part-time ventures they wish to cultivate.

    Voluntary separation or leave

    Offering voluntary unpaid leave is another substitute for permanently laying off workers. Although this reduces the number of employees, it also gives them the option to return to their positions later. This is advantageous for the employer and employee because it lets workers take a short break while businesses save money.

    Alternatively, companies can also implement a voluntary separation program. This enables employees to willingly leave the organization in exchange for severance compensation. This may be a successful strategy for reducing the workforce while still treating the impacted workers with fairness and compassion. Coca-Cola offered voluntary separation packages to 4000 employees in North America, and it included some major incentives like at least a year’s pay plus a 20% bump.

    Focusing on employee retention

    The most optimal way to avoid layoffs is to reduce employee turnover. High turnover can lead to a constant need to fill available positions, which can be costly and time-consuming. Businesses can decrease the number of unfilled positions and the need to hire and train new employees by putting more emphasis on employee retention and taking measures to improve it. Employers can concentrate on keeping their present staff members by offering them competitive wage packages, flexible work schedules, and opportunities for career advancement.

    When to layoff employees?

    It’s crucial to remember that laying off employees should only be used as a last resort. Additionally, when layoffs are unavoidable, the business should manage the situation with transparency and empathy. It’s vital to avoid doing bad layoffs or for the wrong reasons. The recent Twitter layoffs are a prime example of a bad layoff, with employees either being informed by email that they have been laid off or finding out after discovering that they have been locked out of their work laptops or communication channels.

    Layoffs are not always the best option and can often be detrimental to the organization as a whole. Companies can keep a steady workforce while still controlling expenses and adapting to market changes by thinking about possible alternatives to layoffs. Employers should be aware of their options and carefully consider them while putting the interests of their staff first.

    ReadWrite.com

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