Workplace Stress and the Four-Day Workweek

It's Monday morning soon.  Didn't we have a holiday a few weeks ago? Cue workplace stress. Workers around the world are more stressed than ever, according to a new Gallup report. The State of the Global Workplace: 2022 reports that worldwide, more than 44% of workers say that they have a problem with daily stress at work. That's a record high and up slightly from 43% in 2020, which was its own record at the time. (The U.S. and Canada are home to the world's most stressed-out workers.)

Among workers surveyed, 60% report feeling "emotionally detached" while at work, and 19% consistently feel "miserable." The report notes that these findings are concerning given that, on average, people spend a staggering 81,396 hours of their lives working. The only activity we spend more time doing is sleeping. 

We could all use a chance to unplug and unwind, but here's the rub: the weekend doesn't always deliver. In fact, recovery from work tends to be the most difficult and elusive for those who need it most. "We call it the 'recovery paradox,'" one psychologist tells Knowable magazine. "The odds are high that when a job is stressful, it's difficult to have an excellent recovery." The key, it seems is to up the quality of your free time. Developing new skills or devoting yourself to something can be helpful. A 2019 study found that people who achieved some sort of mastery during their off time were more energetic and enthusiastic the next morning.

Then there's the process that psychologists call "detachment." The benefits of tuning out when you're off the clock became clear in a 2018 report involving more than 26,000 employees in various lines of work. The analysis found that detachment was a powerful buffer against work-related fatigue. The workers who left work thoughts at the office were less worn out than their colleagues. Of course, this makes me think of the show Severance, which took this idea to a whole other level.

Perhaps, for now, all we can do is try to stay present when we're not working and hope for the four-day workweek to catch on in more places. To be sure, the experiment isn't for everyone. "If you look at the companies that are pioneering the four-day week, tech is very much at the forefront," says Juliet Schor, an economist and sociology professor.  "There are many people who are spending more time at the office than they need to."  Schor is the author of the book The Overworked American, and leads research at 4 Day Week Global. "If work were organized more efficiently," she says, "[employees] could get it done in a shorter period of time, go home, and have a better life."

Companies that join the pilot program are asked to test a four day workweek for six months. The requirement for participation is no reduction in pay but substantial reduction in hours. The vast majority of participants have gone to four days with 32 hours of work, with Friday as the most common day off. So far, 22 companies in the U.S. and 70 in the U.K. have enrolled in a trial this year. Companies in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are also involved. Kickstarter, with roughly 100 employees, is a notable company in the trial. "White collar work is the sort of dominant work at the moment," she notes.

Indeed, it seems that it may be easier to try out a four-day workweek in an office environment, where there is often more flexibility when it comes to schedules, than in other industries. When NPR called a manufacturing plant in the northeast that makes steel products, a floor manager who answered the phone said he didn't have time to grab a supervisor to speak on the record. Before hanging up, he said the plant was so slammed because of supply chain shortages and backlogged orders, that there's no way they could make a four-day workweek happen.