YO U R I NVE STI N G
No More 9 to 5: A Closer Look at the Flexi-Work Revolution Is the standard work week becoming obsolete? Ben Tutty considers how the four-day week could improve our lives without sacrificing productivity.
Way back in 1930 one of the most renowned economists of all time, John Maynard Keynes, forecast we’d eventually only need to work 15-hour weeks. He predicted technological change and productivity improvements would mean we could produce enough to meet all our needs in the two-day work week, leaving us with more leisure time – a five-day weekend, to be exact. Fast forward to 2022. The length of the average American work week (38.8 hours) has increased by an hour since 1970, while the average Kiwi work (37.8 hours) week has stayed roughly the same. As I sit here typing on a Friday, I’m wondering – what happened to five-day weekends? And how did Keynes get it so wrong? Why aren’t we working less? Keynes was right about one part of his prediction: technology did cause a productivity boom across most sectors. Office workers, for example, are nearly five times more productive than they were in the 1970s. The primary industries and many other sectors have experienced similar gains, and yet here we are working 40-hour weeks. The problem is that most of the rewards from these productivity gains have gone to the top. In the US, for example, real CEO pay increased by 937 per cent from 1978 to 2013, while worker pay only increased by 10.2 per cent. In other words, we’re S P R I N G 2 0 2 2 | I N F O R M E D I NVESTO R 7 4
producing way more economic value but the rewards aren’t being shared evenly. What’s more, the 40-hour work week is baked into our culture, despite the fact that it hasn’t really evolved as a concept since the early 1900s. What’s the alternative? Introducing the four-day work week Perpetual Guardian famously switched to four-day weeks back in 2018 while continuing to pay their staff a full-time wage – several years later the trial is still going strong. Kirsten Kilian-Taylor, Manager, Perpetual Guardian Foundation, says that it’s all about trusting employees. “The most winning highlight of this change is that we’re giving power to our people. Our CEO has essentially said, ‘you can own your destiny – as long as you achieve, it’s all good.’” She says there’s more to the initiative than working one day less per week. “Our research showed that most people were only really productive for two days a week. So this change was about activating ourselves more meaningfully for a shorter period of time and being rewarded for it.” Kilian-Taylor adds that their approach to the work week is continually evolving, but it’s been a great change for employee wellbeing. In fact, research shows that staff have had more time to participate in family life, train and study, while seeking out new travel, leisure and volunteering activities they normally wouldn’t have had the time for.
