When is a 4-Day Week not a 4-Day Week?
Find your 20% time: Google does it, so can you
The debate around new working models fascinates me, as does recent heightened corporate interest in employee wellbeing.
The pandemic brought lessons. A virus tiptoed among us, whispering that we didn’t need offices, or to ever see our colleagues outside of an online meeting room again. Once the world opened back up, Chief Financial Officers quickly join the discussion.
“We’ve come this far, why not continue?” they shouted, before pulling out calculators and adding, behind closed doors, “Less time in the office, less overheads.”
Human Resource Managers — renamed Chief People Officers to prove people have as much inherent value as money to a successful company — joined the discussion. They set the idea to music, a delicate symphony entitled Work-Life Balance. Flexible, remote and hybrid working were born and debate around shorter working weeks - notably the 4-day week — gained momentum.
Who doesn’t want to work less?
Giving people more time for themselves, their families and their lives outside work is a fabulous idea; who would say no to a four-day week?
