Expert Explains What Days Employees Should Work On Four-Day Working Week

Author and four-day work week advocate Joe Sanok has shared this thoughts on which days employees should work when implementing the schedule.

The concept of a four-day working week is one that has been touted, trialled or adopted by various companies in different countries, but Sanok is encouraging more people to free up time for 'personal discovery and life balance' by ditching one day of work each week.

Sanok has written a book on how to begin the transition to a four-day work week and answered people's questions on the concept in an 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) post on Reddit this week, explaining his research has proven 'we've left the old Industrialist way of thinking, we no longer see people as machines to be maximized'.

The author's book, titled Thursday is the new Friday, implies the four-day work week would span Monday to Friday, but in response to a question from a curious Redditor, Sanok clarified this isn't necessarily the case.

Responding to Sanok's AMA, the Reddit user wrote, 'Does it matter which 4 days? I would personally go for [Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday], but I think many would go for [Monday-Thursday].'

Sanok replied to the question to say that the most important part of a company implementing a four-day work week is to 'start with an experiment that lasts at least 3 months', but revealed the actual days that employees are asked to work does not necessarily matter.

He said, 'It does not [matter]... Some do [Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday], others [Monday-Thursday].'

Sanok is a strong advocate for the four-day work week, explaining on his site that employees working five days 'barely recover on the weekend,' adding, 'It’s time to optimise our brains to slow down and then do creative, innovative, and amazing work! I help you reimagine and reinvent your time to find balance and happiness.'

However, the author has admitted there are some challenges that come along with implementing the schedule, 'specifically with hourly workers, manufacturing, and people genuinely slowing down if they have time off'.

He continued, 'Some people might just go get another job, so the value of slowing down and allowing the brain to reset would then be lost.'

Sanok has also explained that if someone 'goes and works more' after enjoying a three-day weekend, then the employer 'doesn't get someone that comes back rested and more creative'. Therefore, 'understanding how when we slow down we do more productive and creative work needs to be part of the education'.

More than 30 companies in the UK are set to start trialling four-day work weeks from June as part of a partnership between think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week UK Campaign and researchers at Oxford University, Boston College and Cambridge University.

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