It turns out that the four-day workweek is the gift that keeps on giving.
Over the past 18 months, dozens of companies in Canada, Ireland, the U.K., and the U.S. have been experimenting with a four-day workweek. Early results have been positive: Employees in the trials reported being happier while still being able to keep up with their workload.
But here’s the kicker, according to a recent article from The Wall Street Journal: “The longer people worked in new, more efficient ways, the shorter their workweeks became.”
That’s right — the longer companies stuck with the shorter workweek, the more efficient employees became while spending even less time at their desks, at their stations, or wherever else they happen to work.
“After six months,” reports the WSJ, “workers said they had less burnout, improved health and more job satisfaction, and had cut their average work time by about four hours to 34 hours a week. Those who continued the schedule a full 12 months reduced working times even further, to about 33 hours a week. Meanwhile, they continued to report better mental and physical health and work-life balance.”
To learn more about this four-day-workweek experiment, be sure to check out the top spot in our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals. And further down our list, you can learn why many Gen Zers are putting their foot down about working a minute past 5 p.m.; why the restaurant industry may be leading the pack in skills-based hiring; and how a well-known beer company posted a job where no resume was needed to apply.
Here are the must-read articles from this week:
1. A Four-Day Workweek Experiment Finds Work Does Get Done in Less Time (The Wall Street Journal)
2. TikTok Trend Watch: Gen Z Is Back in the Office, and Not Staying a Minute Past 5 P.M. (Worklife)
3. Canada Wants U.S. Skilled Workers — and They Are Interested (BBC)
4. How the Restaurant Industry Is Leading the Skills-Based Revolution (HR Dive)
5. Work from Home as a Drive-Thru Employee? How Remote Blue-Collar Jobs Are Catching On (USA Today)
6. Job Seekers’ Search Intensity Is Surging Amid Cooling Labor Markets (LinkedIn)
7. How to Effectively — and Legally — Use Racial Data for DEI (Harvard Business Review)
8. Myths vs. Reality: Remote and Hybrid Managers Report High Productivity and Trust (FlexOS)
9. The Most In-Demand Jobs on LinkedIn Right Now (LinkedIn Talent Blog)
10. Parent Company of Coors and Miller Abolishes the CV — Sort Of (ERE)
Here is the must-listen podcast:
Scaling Operations and People with Stripe’s Claire Hughes Johnson (Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders)
