Work smarter, not harder

A preface for today’s newsletter: I do not know anyone who says that work is the best part of their day. I know people who like-even borderline love-their jobs and their job is still not the best part of their day. So why do we devote such a large chunk of our lives to it?

The current state

The way we work in the US is a spectacular societal failure. A strong claim, but hear me out. In the past 50 years, non-farm productivity in the US has increased 2.3x. In the same period, average hours worked per week has only decreased 2.8% from 35.4 hours/week to 34.4 hours/week.

A note on how this is calculated: according to the BLS, “Factors such as unpaid absenteeism, labor turnover, part-time work, and stoppages cause average weekly hours to be lower than scheduled hours of work for an establishment.”

In other words: the standard workweek is still 40 hours.

While output per labor hour has more than doubled, workers are required to show up for the same amount of time as they did 50 years ago. If a new machine or software doubles productivity, instead of reducing the workweek by half…we produce double what we did before.

This is asinine.

In theory, increases in productivity should be tightly coupled with increases in leisure time. In the past 50 years, we’ve seen some of the greatest technological advances in human history. But although such advances have increased our productivity, they haven’t reduced hours spent working.

A (slightly) different model

A study came out earlier this year in the UK in which a 4-day work week was trialed at 61 companies, with no reduction in pay for workers. In addition to revenue growth during the trial, firms also saw a 57% decrease in employee turnover and a 65% reduction in absenteeism. Employees in the trial experienced benefits including:

• 71% felt less burnout

• 48% were more satisfied with their job than at the beginning of the trial

• 37% reported physical health improvements

Additionally, 40% of employees experienced reduced difficulty sleeping and 46% of employees reported reductions in fatigue. The employee benefits all benefit the employer as well: well-rested workers are less likely to produce errors, improvements in physical health lead to lower healthcare costs, and a decrease in employee turnover leads to a significant decrease in annual recruiting costs. Sounds like a win-win!

With the trial now complete, 92% of the companies studied will continue with the 4-day workweek!

Full time +

I recently had a choice of two full-time positions. One salary was in the mid-range of my worth, the other was at the higher end. I opted for the position in the mid-range because it has better PTO, includes work from home two days/wk, and requires less time in the office (40-45 hrs/wk instead of 50+ hrs/wk). Although the high-paying job looked great on paper, the hourly compensation ended up being equal to the mid-range job. I appreciate both employers being up-front about how much work they expect, but I’d like to see more workplaces offer a 32-hour workweek as full-time.

A closer look

One of the most important changes to work-life since the pandemic is the reexamining of our relationship with work. The opportunities provided by remote or even hybrid work allow people more time to spend with their family, friends, pursuing meaningful hobbies, or simply resting instead of commuting.

A child’s first steps, mastering photography, seeing a grandchild’s baseball game, or having time and energy to put into cooking a beautiful meal for friends are the things that workers are no longer missing out on. How many more small moments—or even big ones—would a different model of work give all of us?

And it’s not just white-collar work. When new machines or tools are used in manufacturing or the trades, employees typically still work an 8-hour day (or longer). In addition to being more productive, new machines/tools should also be safer and more ergonomic. And again, if it takes someone less time to do the work, why make them do more of it?

Why change the model now?

The Millennial generation (and some progressive Gen-Xers) will spearhead the decentralization of work from life, paving the way for a (hopefully grateful) Gen-Z that will need to work less than 40 hours a week for the same or better quality of life than we experience today.

I am not anti-work. But I am anti-”continue the way we’ve been working just because that’s how it has always been done.” Seeing the enormous improvements in productivity in the past 50 years has me excited about what we’ll see in the next 50. But it also leaves me a bit anxious if we continue the current trend of constantly producing more instead of working less.

So, what could this look like?

1. A shorter workweek: as the data show, a 4-day workweek is beneficial for people and companies. And: it’s achievable.

2. Fractional roles: as we dissect our relationship with work (and consequently, money) more people will recognize what enough looks like for them and seek out part-time professional roles. (People in fractional roles will likely produce better results and less errors than those in full-time roles due to less fatigue & stress associated with working full-time.)

3. Using productivity gains to work less: businesses typically reap the rewards of productivity gains. What if the gains were shared with employees? Even a modest 11% increase in productivity would allow half-day Fridays (hourly pay should increase accordingly). Mandating paid time off similar to the EU (20 days) or UK (28 days) would benefit workers immensely.

A future issue of The Value Stream will dive more deeply into other modes and models of working. Currently, the easiest way to make work suck less is decreasing the amount of time we spend at work. Moving forward: can we make the work easier to stomach? What environments, culture, technology, benefits, and compensation structures would actually make work more enjoyable? Right now there’s a lot of focus on making work less bad, instead, we need to focus on how to actually make it better.

Thanks for reading!

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