A handful of businesses experimented with the 4-day work week before the pandemic. But the biggest trial happened in 2022 when 61 companies across six countries, including the US, UK, and Canada, ran a pilot over six months. The results from the trial were impressive. Workers reported feeling happier, better work-life balance, and increased morale boost. Businesses were happy with higher workforce productivity and lower absenteeism, with Joe Ryle, the director of 4 Day Week Campaign, calling the trial ‘a major breakthrough moment.’
Businesses were happy with higher workforce productivity and lower absenteeism, with Joe Ryle, the director of 4 Day Week Campaign, calling the trial ‘a major breakthrough moment.’
However, the survey by 4 Day Week Campaign also made another interesting discovery. Men with a 4-day work week spent 22% more time on childcare and 23% more time on housework, while women’s time on these duties went down. A 4-day work week seems gender-neutral on the surface, but benefits women more and promises gender parity since they spend disproportionate time doing the bulk of housework and caregiving duties.
Work, women, and motherhood
To pick between their career and motherhood is an impossible choice for working women. No matter what they go with, the guilt of not doing justice to the other never settles. Natasha Puri, former Director of Marketing at Pepper Content, summed it up really well when she said, ‘if you choose to have a career, you can’t possibly have time to be a ‘good’ mom – whatever that means. It feels like we are constantly chasing ‘good enough’. We talk about mental health but who talks about this burden of guilt that women are constantly carrying?’ The option of a 4-day work week may take away that pressure as women can focus on both.
Parul Singhal, Account Executive at AFBBS, believes it will allow her to spend more time at home, which will improve communication and understanding among family members. As a working mother of a 2-year-old, she pushes the idea of a 4-day work week a bit further. She challenges, ‘but why does it have to be Monday through Thursday? Why can’t we be flexible and let others choose the days they work on? What about those who get periods? One medical leave every month for many women isn’t enough to deal with those challenges.’
The 2022 Women in the Workplace Report by McKinsey and Company revealed that almost a third of women mulled reducing their working hours, switching to a less demanding job, or exiting the workforce entirely. But to be without a paycheck means risking financial instability, compromising with lifestyle, and/or losing voice in household and financial planning. Without a job, it’s hard for (single) working mothers to meet living and childcare costs. Quitting work affects career prospects and long-term pay drastically. But a 4-day work week may encourage women to stay put as they’d get more time to balance home and work.
It’d also help them rest more and indulge in leisure activities which isn’t possible right now.
The need for rest and self-care
Ishita Pasricha, Brand Manager at a SaaS company, agrees with that. As a single woman in her late 20s who doesn’t live with her parents, she says,’the current 5-day work week makes me take Saturdays in to recuperate – which means sleeping throughout the day to get rid of the week’s tiredness. And Sundays are carried out in a rushed manner just getting the house in order. A 4-day work week would at least allow me to do the things I love – read, meet people outside of work, visit family, maybe even start looking at cooking as something I enjoy doing instead of a chore.’
Women who live with parents find it equally challenging to be on top of both home and work.
Women who live with parents find it equally challenging to be on top of both home and work. They don’t have it easy and aren’t free to be career-focused, often sacrificing self-care and ‘me time’. ‘In the wake of taking care of everything, from work to home, I don’t get time to take care of myself. With a 4-day work week, I will get extra time for my personal growth and would be able to go to therapy easily, instead of using my entire time on grocery shopping, dusting, washing, and safai,’ said Sakshi Sharma, Content Writer at Social Ketchup.
On being asked if she has any help to manage the house, she shared, ‘my mom alone can’t do it and my father has his own job.’ Does that mean a 4-day work week is free of challenges? Hardly.
The challenges of a 4-day work week
First, it seems great when there’s the same pay involved. But jobs from companies offering a shorter work week come at 80% pay, implying a smaller paycheck is logical if you want more free time.
But jobs from companies offering a shorter work week come at 80% pay, implying a smaller paycheck is logical if you want more free time.
The trade-off may work for some salaried middle-class or upper-middle-class Indian women. But it would hurt low-income groups who can’t forego pay for extra time at home. For women in the informal sectors working upwards of 10-12 hours per day six days per week, the day is ‘too short for additional hours to be compressed into it,’ as wrote Shirley Lung, Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, in her paper ‘The Four-Day Work Week.’ And it beats the whole purpose if they have to make up for lost productivity by cramming up their workdays with more tasks and working hours.
The pressure to deliver more would also be unfair to older women and to those dealing with disabilities or neurodivergent issues. From a business perspective, a 4-day work week isn’t viable in tight labor markets as slashing working hours would mean reducing labor supply and creating a shortage. Compared to developed countries, India’s worker productivity is already low. To maintain even current levels of productivity, employees would have to work twice as much to increase output per hour significantly.
Otherwise, the ‘total GDP would fail if everyone worked 20% less,’ as Wim Naude wrote for The Print. That happened in Japan when it reduced the work week from 46 to 30 hours in 1988. The productivity did not rise and economic output was 20% lower than what could be. Besides output concerns, legal challenges also make a 4-day work week nonviable in India. Adopting a 4-day work week would violate labor codes that came into effect in June 2022.
Reetika Arora, Head of HR and Compliance at Compliance Hawks, pointed out, ‘the minimum requirements in India is 48 hours of work per week, and switching to a 4-day work week would mean working 12 hours per day, which might not be feasible in sectors like manufacturing, FMCG, and healthcare. In addition, all the establishments covered under the Factories Act 1948 cannot ask employees to work more than 9 hours per day. In such cases, the wages for overtime must be double the actual rate.’
Looking ahead
The bottom line is this – a 4-day work week isn’t tenable for all businesses or all women.
‘The feasibility and success of a 4-day work week would depend on the specific needs and priorities of the business and its employees, as well as the willingness to adapt and make necessary changes to accommodate the new schedule,’ as Anish Singh, Head, HR Unilever Australia and New Zealand, told Anagh Pal for Business Insider India. With output, legal, and business model concerns, it may not be the right time for a 4-day work week in India. However, taking a needs-based approach offers a good starting point for businesses to think of new solutions and alternatives to a centuries-old problem.
