The 32-Hour Workweek
A bill in California has been proposed to set full-time work at 32 hours a week (or four days), with overtime being paid for any work over those hours. This is in line with the research I’ve seen on productivity for knowledge-worker jobs (office jobs, computer work, tech). I haven’t come across research for other types of work - customer-facing or factory-based - though I believe that is how the 40-hour workweek was first created. (Under no circumstances does research support 60- or 70- workweeks, which are often seen in legal enterprises and in many entrepreneurial settings. These types of “crunch” hours are effective for a maximum of about two weeks, after which productivity declines below the 40-hour workweek mark. It becomes less productive, not just per hour but over the whole of the week!)
The reason given for moving on this legislation now is two-fold. One, workers are ready for it—because of the pandemic. They are more aware of their desire for work-life balance and specifically want less work and more of the rest of life. Indeed, a demand for this increased flexibility is a large source of the recent spate of quitting we’ve seen recently, aka The Great Resignation. The other large reason is also the second part of why this legislation is being proposed: improved wages. Not even including the recent inflation, worker wages have stagnated over the past few decades, while earnings in real dollars (taking amounts “back in the day” and converting them to today’s dollars, while considering inflation, general price increases, etc) have actually declined. It is being proposed that the additional “overtime” pay could bring salaries back in line with where they ostensibly should be.
How could your company make a 32-hour workweek possible for your employees? Could you do a 4-day workweek or shorter shifts over 5 days? Is it possible they are really only working that amount anyway and the rest of their time at work is… just putting in face-time, socializing, taking care of personal matters, etc.? Or could you do something creative like taking into account commuter time and figuring out ways to reduce that so your employees get more of their own time back?
Are you paying your employees appropriately for the amount of work you are asking for? What steps could you take towards increasing employee pay (or other benefits)? (To be clear, not all industries need to pay their workers more, but many do — especially their front-line or customer-facing workers. No offense to you, but executives are often overpaid, particularly in relation to those well below them in the corporate hierarchy.)
If you are not able to increase pay or reduce hours, how else can you provide flexibility or better work-life balance to your people? (For example, some companies allow for a certain number of days per week to be worked from home. Others ensure workers take an adequate amount of vacation to refresh and recharge. Still others allow workers to set their own hours - either arriving early or late, to miss the commuter-rush slowdowns or to accommodate personal/family needs like dropping kids off at school. And, of course, there are those organizations who accommodate an 80/9 schedule, where workers work five days one week and four the next, so they have one day off every other week.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/us/four-day-workweek.html