Four-Day Week For Less Carbon Emissions, Better Productivity: Juliet Schor (Sociologist, Boston College)

Employees are feeling a burnout post the pandemic; and companies are trying very hard to retain their staff by introducing the 4-day week working schedule. It is therefore no wonder that a renowned economist Juliet Schor has recently said that the pandemic has indeed ‘turbo-charged’ the four-day workweek.

This is one reason, Schor said a growing number of companies are implementing shorter workweeks to retain employees. Many who left jobs said that they were actually in search of better work-life balance, higher pay, and to take a stand against unfair working conditions.

This is being done to help employees return back to work in a more stable and calmer frame of mind. They are being paid the same amount of money, and deliver the same amount of work, but in smaller duration of time.

The Great Resignation has been a result of the way society has gone through a paradigm shift in the pandemic years. People have found it difficult to come back to full fledged work after having got used to working from home. It has been stressful and an anxious work experience for many.

Schor also says, while delivering a lecture recently, that lesser people coming to work is actually good for the environment too. It means less cars and vehicular movement, which means less carbon emissions.

The economist used the Boise-based nonprofit Healthwise as an example of a company finding success by recently implementing a four-day workweek.

Healthwise employees were “quitting in droves,” Schor said, which led the firm to set up a shorter workweek trial for its employees in August 2021. The company allowed workers to clock in for four days a week, so long as they completed the same amount of work. Six months later, not only did Healthwise’s revenue increase, Schor said, but employees were “dramatically happier” and customer satisfaction scores were “outstanding.”

Why are people quitting work post pandemic and how companies are giving them 4-day weeks to retain a talent pool?