There’s been a lot of discussions recently on how the old 8-hour workday is about to be a thing of the past. One of the alternatives suggested is to institute a 5-hour workday.
Back in February 2015, Sweden asked researchers to examine whether a six-hour workday at an elder care center in the city of Gothenburg was feasible.
The trial lasted two years and workers got the chance to work fewer hours but retained their full pay. Employees were reportedly enthusiastic as they found more spare time during the day to spend with their families, read or exercise. However, the question of whether or not productivity could increase, and at what cost, was, for the most part, left unanswered.
Fast forward to 2019 and it seems that a 5-hour workday is just about to happen at least for those employed by tech companies and startups.
According to a 2018 article on the Harvard Business Review “The internet fundamentally changed the way we live, work, and play, and the nature of work itself has transitioned in large part from algorithmic tasks to heuristic ones that require critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.” and ““the more complex and creative jobs are, the less it makes sense to pay attention to hours at all.”
One of the most sought after arguments for a shorter workday is that for most desk jobs, there really is no correlation between hours spent at the workplace and productivity. Adobe found that the average employee checks email 74 times a day, and check their smartphones 2,617 times a day – in a constant state of distraction and hyper-responsiveness. Would it be possible, then, to achieve the same or higher levels of productivity during a shorter day by simply removing distractions?
A German consulting company thinks so: according to Rheingans Digital Enabler’s CEO, Lasse Rheingans, ““We have all experienced that: We sit in the office, out of energy, reading newspapers online or Facebook, just in need of the little pauses to recharge, but you don’t really recharge,” he says. “My idea is focusing on the first five hours and then just leave, and have a proper break.” Despite shorter days, the company produces the same level of output for clients, and the company was profitable in 2018. Unsurprisingly, Rheingan’s employees are happy, productive and more loyal to their current employer. “It’s not really about the process of establishing a five-hour day. It’s about individual maturity,” he says. “It’s so silly to think of a 40-hour workweek when work is not a place or time.” It’s an activity, he says.
He might be on to something. According to the HBR, a typical employee day is characterized by:
- Hour-long meetings, by default, to discuss matters that can usually be handled virtually in one’s own time
- Unplanned interruptions, helped in no small part by open-plan offices, instant messaging platforms, and the “ding” of desktop and smartphone notifications
- Unnecessary consensus-seeking for reversible, non-consequential decisions
- The relentless pursuit of “inbox zero,” a badge of honor in most workplaces, but a symbol of proficiency at putting other people’s goals ahead of one’s own
- Traveling, often long-distance, to meet people face-to-face when a phone call would suffice
- Switching between tasks constantly, and suffering the dreaded cognitive switching penalty as a result, leaving one feeling exhausted with little to show for it
- Wasting time on a specific task long after most of the value has been delivered
- Rudimentary and administrative tasks
What about a shorter workweek altogether then? Microsoft tested a four-day workweek in August, which resulted in a 40% jump in productivity and apparently made everyone happier and less stressed too. Having less time available also incentivized employees to cut on distraction, meetings, and small talk.
In conclusion, researchers agree that a 5-hour workday will yield good results for managers who choose to pursue a significant change in their organizations.