From Finland to Australia, from politicians to psychologists – the whole world is once again watching and supporting New Zealand as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggests switching to a four-day workweek after the pandemic lockdown ends.
She first proposed this in one of her regular Facebook lives as a way to ease into a ‘new normal’ after the lockdown. Switching to a three-day weekend, according to Jacinda Ardern, would help boost domestic tourism and take some financial pressure off businesses after being forced to put their operation on complete or partial hold during the lockdown.
But it’s not only local businesses that quickly picked up on this idea. Shared by Washington Post, Business Insider and other major worldwide media, this video had a positive response all over the world. Finland, UK and Japan are all supporting the idea, while companies like Microsoft, Shake Shake and Twitter are already implementing a new schedule. Microsoft Japan had announced a 40% increase in productivity as a result.
Even Andrew Yang – an entrepreneur, CNN political commentator, and former US presidential candidate – wrote on Twitter that it’s time for the world to make a switch:
‘3-Day weekends are better than 2-Day weekends. We should seriously look at 4-day workweeks. Studies show that we would be just as productive. It would create jobs at the margins and improve mental health.’
The concept of a four-day workweek is not exactly a new one. A while ago, Karen Jansen, a researcher on organisational behavior in the U.K., stated that a major worldwide switch towards a longer weekend will probably happen organically somewhere around 2030. There is a lot of evidence that less time at the office and more time at home results in better productivity and the overall happiness of employees. In fact, one study showed that 64 percent of leaders of businesses with four-day workweeks saw an increase in productivity, while 77 percent of workers linked it to a better quality of life.
But there are also other benefits of this new work-life balance we should not forget about and, first of all, there’s the possibility of closing the gender gap at work. While mothers these days often spend the most part of the week taking care of their kids, they have less chance of competing with male colleagues, but, by having a three-day weekend, where the whole family can spend time together and share responsibilities more evenly, this will lead to more or less equal chances for both genders at the office as well.
‘You’re never going to get women at the top unless you get the guys out of the office,’ says Andrew Barnes, CEO of Perpetual Guardian, New Zealand’s largest estate planning company, and a leading proponent of the four-day workweek in New Zealand. ‘It makes it okay [for men] to spend time at home, to look after kids, to have care responsibilities.’