The 4-day workweek: How one Ohio manufacturer is making it work
The 4-day workweek: How one Ohio manufacturer is making it work
When Bill Kowalcic first heard that his company Advanced RV was trying out a four-day workweek, he was filled with questions.
"All of us were a little nervous — like, are we going to be able to get our work done? Are we going to do OK? Is this going to hurt us?" says Kowalcic, a skilled craftsman who works in the finishing department.
A year and a half later, he has answers.
Not only has his team found shortcuts and time savers, he's happier on the job.
"Gosh, it's been great," he says.
"I've never had a job where I've said this before, but at the end of the three-day weekend, I'm ready to come back in Monday morning."
To answer my initial questions.
They are using a 32 hour work week.
They do not all seem to have the same day off, but that is not directly discussed.
There was internal resistance.
Output is close to what it was on a 40 hour work week.
It is worth the read.
Numerous studies around the world have shown better productivity with the 30ish hour week: better attitude, fewer mishaps, more focused work groups... Glad to see it done & voiced in the US (again).
Couldn't the 4-day workweek work without issue if they just hired more people and they worked different days?
Of course, there would be less profit. But there's already too much, so what's the problem?
It creates jobs, stimulates the economy, and people don't have to work as hard.
My local council here in the UK moved to a 4 day work week (with the same pay). Counterintuitively they've ended up saving £500k a year because they hire far fewer agency staff.
Productivity has remained the same or increased in all bar one metric and staff retention is much higher.
Of course our halfwitted government has said they're not allowed to do that because it apparently provides poor value for the tax payer. I despair...
less profit
Here, I found the problem...
there would be less profit
I challenge this assumption.
I WFH at a software dev. We make money hand over fist. And the CEO tells the board of directors that we're going to purposefully lose money, for 4 quarters, in order to beef up our staff, skills and product. We failed at losing money the last 2 times he said that, still trying to lose.
Sometimes I do 3 hours, and yes, that's embarrassing to me. Sometimes I do 14 hours, and if it's a day like that, it's because I choose to jump on a serious issue for a client. And we always take care of our clients, all hands on deck if it's go time.
And my boss takes care of me, if you can believe that. 2 hours out to head to the doctor? Nobody cares. 4 hours? Meh. Take half a day of PTO. We have so much PTO, I take almost every Friday off.
And besides, these clients are my buddies. I call them, talk to them, form relationships, don't want to let them down. If someone calls or texts while I'm laying in bed on my day off? "Hey! Shalafi here! What's up?" I take responsibility for my work. Sounds nuts, don't it?
All this seems an alien concept around lemmy.
Maybe increase your skills as you age and get into fields that don't treat you like a dishwasher? Maybe understand that you have to pay your dues to get in such a position? Maybe understand that accomplishing such a position takes a decade or two?
Back to your point, yeah we hired more people. I handle the IT onboarding, so I know. And it's working, and we're profiting, and we're happy campers. Lemmy tells me this can't be so in this capitalistic hellscape.
Sometimes I do 3 hours, and yes, that’s embarrassing to me.
Why? If you do all you need to do, there's nothing embarrassing about it. You shouldn't be so beholden to a company that you feel guilt over them paying you the same amount to finish work in 3 hours as they would in 8 hours.
And it can be shorter still.
confused capitalist noises
Having worked a 4-10s schedule before, I also have a very strong preference for it.
Now imagine 4-8s at the same pay (and productivity because you aren't perpetually exhausted by working 40+ hours a week in addition to all the other regular life things everyone needs to do).
If you can not work 40 hours in a week without being too exhausted to do anything, you should go see a medical professional.
I just started loading trailers all day compared to an office job before and I was up before 7 on Sunday and slept in on Saturday.
That is with no physical conditioning before hand.
Would it be nice to do 4 8's? Sure.
But let us not pretend that 40 hours in a week are slave hours.
This case is even better than that with 4-8s while keeping the same pay.