Jake's Talent & Learning Newsletter - A Four Day Work Week? 🗓
Stop Working and Do Better.
Greetings, everyone! And as always, a special welcome to those of you receiving this newsletter for the first time.
What's in this Newsletter?
Four-day work week?
Working with you in 2020
Personal news and updates
Four-Day Work Week?
About five years ago, I had an epiphany: Why do we have our society set up for five days of work and two days of 'rest'? Is this how things should be?
Like most of my epiphanies, I soon learned that this was far from a profound, original thought (shocking, I know). In 1928, famous economist John Maynard Keynes predicted humans would be working less than 15 hours/week by 2028 thanks to technological improvement. In 1965, a US Senate Subcommittee predicted a standard 14 hour work week by the year 2000. A 2010 study from the New Economics Foundation offered that the optimal work week would be 21 hours.
The results soon became clear to me. We are working harder and longer, but not smarter and - more importantly - not better. A 2013 article from CNN Business put it bluntly:
"The average German worker puts in 394 hours less than an American each year -- the equivalent of nearly ten fewer weeks. The country is far smaller than the United States in area, population and resources, yet still manages to compete as the fourth largest economy and third largest exporter in the world," (Kurtz, 2013).
I was hooked. I became enamored with a small learning and development company that explicitly advertised a four day work week as a main element of employment. I was so impressed that I FedEx'd a handwritten letter to their CEO and small team stating my credentials and begging them to interview me for a job - any job - there (they told me to feel free to apply to any jobs listed on their website. Gee, thanks.).
Fast forward to present day and it's still on my mind. That's why a recent real-life experiment at Microsoft caught my eye. In Japan, known for some of the longest working hours in the world, Microsoft experimented with a four day work week for a full month. The results were incredible:
- 40% increase in sales
- Electricity consumption went down by 23%
- Paper printing decreased by 59%
- 92% of employees approved
40% increase in sales. 40%. Now, the known time-horizon of one month clearly impacted the psychological willingness to work effectively during the experiment. But this was for a full month. Enough time to rebuild habits and routines.
Do I think this will happen consistently any time soon? No. (Well, unless Andrew Yang wins the presidency).
If I were running an organization that employed more than myself and my dog, would I make the switch? Yes, absolutely. (He sleeps most of the work day anyways).
Food for thought.
Working with YOU in 2020
As the year comes to a close and I plan to head out on paternity leave (more on that below!), I get the pleasure of figuring out how in the world 2020 will look.
If there are any learning initiatives, coaching experiences, training programs, or anything at all that you're thinking of, let's have a quick chat! This is the closest I'll probably get to making a 'sales call'... so please let me know how we might be able to work together in 2020!
Personal Updates
1) Our soon-to-be-baby girl is set to arrive any day! Mom is a champ and our house is 95% ready (and I am 10-15% emotionally ready)! We are so excited. Any guesses on what the name will be?! I'll be taking a paternity leave but still accessible between sleep-deprived moments of exhaustion and elation.
2) My new venture, Endeavorun, has launched! We have an awesome 5-day all-inclusive running retreat in Oregon for adult runners of all levels. Do you have any running friends who might be interested? I could really use your help spreading the word (and it's amazing just how far individual word-of-mouth recommendations go)!
3) Thank you to those that came to our awesome NYC workshop on influential presentation design! We had a great group of 24 individuals and I know a handful of them are planning to bring the workshop to their organization:
That's it for this edition - please reach out if I can be at all helpful!