The Hybrid and 4-Day Work Week Are Here. Can They Work for You?

Let’s start with a bold statement. There is nothing “traditional” about the traditional five-day workweek. While most of us grew up in a world where men and women “went to work” Monday through Friday, the very notion of a 40-hour workweek is actually only about 100 years old. 

In fact, it was only in September 1926 when Ford Motor Company, then one of America’s largest employers, adopted the five-day, 40-hour workweek. (The model didn’t become legally codified until June 1940 when Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act, limiting the workweek to 40 hours nationwide.) Truth be told, until the early 20th century, it was not uncommon for people to work six days a week—with only Sundays off for “worship.” Also, factory workers put in days commonly stretching 10 to 12 hours at a time.

As we’ve discussed before in this space, the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 blew a battleship-sized hole in the 40-hour, five-day workweek paradigm. In May 2020, at the height of COVID’s initial wave, over one-third of the employed worked from home. (This compares to only 6 percent of people who typically worked from home prior to 2020.) As it turned out, most of those people who could work remotely found they very much liked this arrangement. They also wanted to make it permanent. Even employers who wished for employees to return to the office, if for no other reason than they had already paid for the space, found it quite difficult to mandate that workers return to their cubicles when our tight labor market gave so many people the option of going elsewhere.

Presently, a popular “compromise” some companies have found to reconcile labor and management interests is the so-called “4-Day Hybrid” model. Under it, workers typically go to the office four days a week, then work the fifth day from home. Some staff members work from home on Mondays while others do so on Fridays so the office itself is operating five days a week and all employees are present mid-week. Actually, this is the very model the Walt Disney Company adopted last March, albeit under employee protest.

Let’s stop here to note: Like remote work itself, this kind of hybrid schedule is only practical for certain, traditionally white-collar organizations such as creative agencies, legal and accounting firms, financial services companies, tech companies, etc. Like it or not, most businesses involved in manufacturing, retail, and consumer goods continue to require their employees to work on-site full-time.

Returning to our theme, in order to achieve employee buy-in for a 4-Day Hybrid program, employers must first demonstrate the value of in-office activity, according to Paul McDonald, senior executive director for talent solutions and business consulting at recruiting firm Robert Half. Quoted in the March 7 issue of Human Resource Executive, Paul explained, “Having a purpose is what’s leading the charge. What in-person with a purpose means is coming into the office to meet your team, go through training, or some other purpose.”

Yet another, even more radical model gaining in popularity is the literal 4-day workweek. No, this isn’t author/podcaster Tim Ferris’ once radical notion of eschewing the 9-5 grind for a life of leisure largely accomplished by hiring off-shore virtual assistants. It’s also not the antiquated idea of cramming 40 hours of work into four 10-hour-long workdays. Instead, it’s literally about getting five days of pay for just four days—32 hours—of work. 

To this point, last year, several U.K. companies agreed to switch to a four-day workweek as part of a controlled experiment. Virtually all found that their productivity actually increased, and many chose to stick with the new model even after the experiment finished. Obviously, there is significant controversy about the experiment’s results. Perhaps the employees involved simply worked harder to ensure the initiative succeeded and would relapse to their old “lazy” ways once they had secured the new, more liberal schedule. Still, enough people see merit in the idea that governments throughout the U.S. are seriously contemplating making the four-day, 32-hour work week a matter of law. (This includes California.)

Certainly, recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are making it likelier than ever that huge swaths of the workforce may soon become obsolete, and that those who remain may be able to produce far more with far less effort. If so, a four-day workweek seems like a helpful way to share the bounties promised by AI as time, as we all know, is money. Just ask the new so-called “time billionaires.”

So, is a Four-Day Hybrid or literal Four-Day Workweek in your company’s future? If so, enabling the transition without disrupting operations takes great skill and care. As experienced corporate culture and compensation specialists, our team can help you determine the alternative model best suited to your organization. We can also help you plan and implement a transition benefitting both employees and their managers. Please contact me at laura@conoverconsulting.com to take your first step into a brighter future.