Is the Four-Day Workweek Already Here?

The five-day workweek has been the American standard for just over a century; Monday to Friday, with weekends off for rest, relaxation, family time, et cetera. But what if it didn’t have to be?

What if there was a concrete way to work, not harder, but smarter? Perhaps this is why a shorter workweek has been debated recently in countries around the world (like Scotland and New Zealand). Proponents of the four-day workweek argue that employees who work four days instead of five each week are happier, healthier, and most importantly—and most surprisingly—bring more energy and productivity to the job.

While some employers have made the jump officially, others are more reluctant. But the irony is that this debate has already been settled; you just haven’t realized it. Among college-educated people earning $40,000 per year or more, the four-day workweek is already the norm.

This may come as a surprise. There were no laws passed, no protests, no revolutions, no movements, but it happened all the same. If you don’t believe me, let’s go through the numbers:

Let’s start by taking a look at the traditional five-day workweek. At 52 weeks, that’s equivalent 260 working days each year, assuming your employees don’t take a single day off. But the average salaried office worker earns two and a half weeks of paid vacation, or 12.5 work days. So now our total is down to 247.5 working days.

Most organizations recognize an average of 10 paid national, company, and floating holidays — adjusting for these, we now have 237.5 working days.

In 2015, salaried office workers took, on average, slightly more than five and a half leave days (e.g. sick leave, medical appointments, personal days, family emergencies, et cetera) per person per year. Now we have 232 days of work.

Thanks to new laws in eight states (including California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts), 25 percent of American workers now receive paid leave for childbirth, extended illness, caring for loved ones, et cetera. New laws at both the state and federal level are in the works, potentially extending this coverage. The average salaried employee will take a significant leave of absence periodically during their career. If you’re in a paid-leave state, we can conservatively estimate a 20-day leave once every 10 years. If we then average this out across a career, that’s 2 days per year.

That means 230 days worked now, but we’re not done yet.

Even the most attentive employee will spend at least half an hour every day (and probably a whole lot more) on personal device time. This includes Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, videos, personal email, and more. That’s another 151 hours of productive work completely lost, or 19 regular workdays.

Now we’re down to 211 days. If you then divide that by 52 you’ll get 4.06 average days per week; and I haven’t included bereavement, company boondoggles, “working from home” and lots of other non-work activities. These numbers aren’t going to be the same for every company or even every employee, but it’s a good starting point if you want to start getting in on this discussion.

The Bottom Line

By this math, you’re already getting about four days of solid, productive work from your team. So why not make it count? By managing your team’s efforts for maximum impact and output, you are also creating an environment where employees feel more rested and have more energy, and may bring their best work to the table. And with more personal time allotted to them and less time in the office, they may be more inclined to get the absolute most out of their working hours.