Conversations about shortening the workweek to four days have been popping up for decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic has offered an opportunity for leaders around the world to reconsider the benefits of a four-day workweek. But granting employees a longer weekend requires more than just schedule changes. Its implications are also cultural and transitioning to a four-day workweek would require industries to rethink how they view productivity and compensation.
The History of the Workweek
In 1956, President Nixon said he foresaw a four-day workweek and a fuller family life for Americans “in the not-too-distant future.” The modern five-day workweek in the U.S. has roots more than a century ago, one example being a New England mill expanding a one-day weekend to two in order to accommodate Jewish workers celebrating their Sabbath on Saturday. In 1926 when Henry Ford instituted a five-day workweek at his company, the practice became popularized. In the 1930s, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that a decline in work hours would continue and that by 2030, people would work just 15 hours a week.
We’re less than a decade off from that prediction, when most full-time employees still work 40 hours a week. What held us back? First, during World War II, the needs for labor in both the military and manufacturing sectors skyrocketed. Women took jobs outside of the house for largely the first time, and the unemployment rate dropped from 25% to 10%. The idea of the “American Dream” made Americans value work as part of their culture, and with consumerism on the rise, people needed money to pay for luxuries (that they’d only get to enjoy in the evenings and on the weekends).
