The forty-hour workweek has been receiving a serious look at its effectiveness across the world in recent years mainly from a position of work-life balance for employees. In 1975 studies concluded a four-day workweek made employees more efficient while the International Labor Organization shared in 2018 that working excessive hours reduces productivity due to fatigue.
The Four-Day Workweek
In New Zealand, one organization saw employee work-life balance increase by 45% with job performance unaffected by a four-day workweek. After announcing a four-day workweek in 2019, Microsoft found a 40% boost in productivity that also helped free up an extra day for leisure and rest. With an extra day, employees were refreshed and more productive.
An important point to remember in labor history is that the Generation X population was the first to petition employers for work-life balance. For Millennials, career progression, and personal development were found more important than financial compensation in a 2011 study. But in a 2022 survey, a top priority for the Generation Z population is compensation. Considering the significant inflation coming out of the pandemic, Gen Zers understand the importance of salary growth and employer benefits.
The Great Resignation
An outcome of The Great Resignation, which refers to the growing movement of workers quitting their jobs due to a feeling of unfulfilling careers, was a realization of an unbalance between work and life. Work-life balance is becoming more important for employers to offer when competing in the job market. In a separate study, 82% of Gen Zers wanted mental health days and 74% would opt for a hybrid or totally remote work. Burnout and lack of work-life balance are the top reasons given by Gen Zers as to why they would quit a job.
“A quick survey of history reveals that Gen Z is simply driving home the aims of a movement which Boomers roused, Gen X bolstered, and Millenials articulated. They’re the product of a development that’s been underway since the mid-1900s, a re-imagination of the American workplace in this millennium.”
Sleep Deprivation’s Relationship with Work
A Boston College professor of sociology, Juliet Schor, led a trial research group with the nonprofit organization 4 Day Week Global in a four-day workweek study. This study in 2022 found that after six months, 33 companies who participated encountered lower levels of stress, less fatigue in employees, and improvements in employees’ physical and mental health. Insomnia also dropped.
Sleep deprivation also fell drastically for those in the study who made the switch. The percentage of those who had been getting less than seven hours of sleep a night decreased from 42.6% to 14.5%. One statistic found that employees who transitioned to a four-day week clocked 7 hours and 58 minutes of sleep per night, an hour more than they slept while working five days a week.
Tips When Working from Home
Make a to-do list the night before. Before laying your head down on the pillow, make a list. It will help you prioritize the next day and it will lessen the anxiety swirling around your head as you try to get a full night’s rest.
When you first log in to work, keep your to-do list handy next to the laptop. This can be incorporated into your family routine that you create together. Start with catching up on your email box, reading the news, and using a tool like Google Chrome blocker to allow time for focused work. You can use different extensions to filter distractions and carve out time to work depending on your own needs.
Note your progress by highlighting or crossing off your to-do list along the way. This will show you are being produced so that at the end of the day you can look back at what worked and what didn’t work.
To maintain the work-life balance while working from home, clock out before dinner. It can be hard to balance home and work life when you are in your home. Create a makeshift office if you do not have one and turn off your laptop before dinner if your day normally ends before the drive home. Also, remove your email from your phone: you will thank me later.
If you can follow these simple basics to keep the work-life balance at home and at work during a four-day workweek, you should see significant results in your stress and sleep cycle.
If you are in a pattern of sleepless nights that are negatively affecting your health, your family, or your career, connect with the Alaska Sleep Clinic for a free consultation Our sleep medicine specialists offer the help needed to get back on track with a quality, healthy night’s sleep.
