Hey, that folks, is Friday May first, and have the anniversary on this day. One hundred years ago, the five day work week was born. Before that, it was actually a six day work week, and now some of us wanted to be Fox and with that, Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Big Anniversary. Who knew one hundred years I did not know this. This one snug up on me, broj.
Yes, I had no idea the facts behind this day. May one, nineteen twenty six was the day that Henry Ford had the Ford Motor Company there in Detroit go into a five day, forty hour work week. It had been a six day and that was standard in America back in nineteen twenty six.
Had no idea.
Do people remember that?
I houly not many, because you'd have to be pretty damn old to know something.
But I don't remember that, like talk, I don't remember people back in the day it used to be.
I don't remember that at all.
Yeah, they said something days about it was the only day that most American workers had off until Henry Ford came up with the idea. Had a theory that if you gave employees more time off to rest, to relax, to take care of their personal lives. They would be more focused and more efficient when they were actually on the job for those five days.
And it turned out to be true.
They actually were able to measure workplace efficiency and it increased with the day off, and so that just spread like wildfire and pretty much Now, obviously that's a standard way of going to work these days and has been for the past one hundred years or so.
Okay, but they were able to measure back then, you were saying that it was effective.
Within his own company, he said, he was able to say this act, this worked, the workers are more efficient, make better use of their time, and they didn't. The point being is you decree the workday, but you keep the pay the same. So pay, yes, pay remains the same because you're still getting the same output. It's just in a fewer amount of time or a fewer amount of days.
Again, his logic there or I think you read something in particular there. But the logic there was something about their personal lives. How did you say that?
Again, it was if you give employees the time to take care of their personal lives and deal with personal matters, they aren't trying to do it on the job.
Basically, if you have to work six days a week, you only get one day off.
Sure enough, when you're on the job, you're going to be handling things that are personal probably, or you're going to be distracted because you're going to be stressed because you weren't able to take one day. Wasn't enough for people to take care of their own business.
So it wasn't just how much of this was about actually giving somebody. I guess it all ties in just rest. Yes, you need a second to recover. Correct, it also keeps Yes you have. Physical health improves when you have more time to rest. Mental health improves when you have more time to rest. So when you have better rested, more physically and mentally fit employees, they're just going to perform better.
Period.
Man.
I weren't Sundays back in the day stressful because that was church day, right, that big church day, big family that you're not sitting around the house being lazy. It's not like you get to I think about that now. Think of all the things we do on the weekend, and we still don't think we have enough time to get this done. I got to run an errand I gotta do the laundry, I got to clean the house and the kids again. The next thing you know, it's
Sunday and you haven't even rested. So to think one day off a week, obviously we know what that's like. We're used to working seven days a week. But roads to think of the whole country right now, as tightly wound as we are, we only got one day off a week together on Sunday.
That's tough and it's not sustainable. And so yes, we have been in a five day work week mentality. Look, I think as broadcasters, as journalists, there are some jobs where that's not even possible. I think that's laughable. We were pretty much on call twenty four to seven. A lot of doctors, a lot of other emergency workers, folks who are working multiple jobs. They're like, please, a five day work week, a forty hour work week sounds amazing.
Many of us know what an eighty ninety hour work week looks like and have done that for a very long time.
And that's just what you got to do.
You gotta hustle, right, So I say this with the acknowledgment that a lot of folks would kill for a five day work week. But now there is a steady shift and a large drumbeat.
It is getting louder and louder around the world.
Stop to make this now the norm a four day work week, and you could say anywhere from thirty two to thirty five hours a week. Some have even said thirty eight hours a week. However you want to place it, but you give people three days off to relax, to reset, to take care of business, to be a better hit human and therefore a better worker.
Okay, So all these the movement that is going on now you described, does it also include people being paid the same now? Yes, for four days of work? So the work you used to do to get paid for this for six days and then five and now four?
Correct that full time?
Yes, same pay.
Yes, and that is Look, there are some other.
Other ways of potentially doing this people have talked about, yes, a reduction and pay. But for the most part, when people describe wanting to officially adopt a four day work week, it is not at the cost of benefits or salary.
Okay, And is it the same theory is that you give them an extra day. Henry four gave them two days off, same theory, and you can even they're suggesting you can even get more out of people if you have them working less. Yes, that correct.
Yes, they say all boats rise because the company has more efficient, more effective, sharper, friendlier, just warmer, nicer employees, and then the employees get to feel healthier physically, mentally, rested, being able to have that time with the family.
Yes, that is a huge part of the theory.
That at least going from six days to five days feels like was successfully proven. Could you do the same with a four day work week? A lot of countries are trying to see if it's.
Possible just just thirty two hours a week versus forty hours a week. That is a lot of time to have an employee not being productive on behalf of your company.
What if you afour went breaks or condensed your lunch to thirty minutes, You could make up the time in a lot of other ways, or you add an extra hour onto your day so you can offset.
There are ways to negotiate.
Like some of that that you can there's some wiggle room, but it really is sometimes it's not just about maybe going down to thirty two hours. Sometimes they said it at thirty eight or thirty seven, but just condense or maximize the hours, or add an hour so you can you can find a way to really set aside three full days of being off.
There is nothing better as you're coming up in your career as a three day weekend. You get them randomly here and there. For some holidays, a three day weekend is a dream difference.
Yes, don't you feel so different?
Yes, after a three day weekend, it's like a marked difference.
Okay, but I get concerned, and you'd please tell me you've researched this more than I have. Are there concerns about what type of worker, what type of economic environment we are creating if we are suggesting I know some would say it's a good thing, but I'm asking if there is any pushback, essentially saying we are creating just a lazier culture or a culture of folks who don't don't anticipate having to work so hard or having an expectation of what they're older.
I ain't come here to work. Is there any ease?
Now? I haven't heard anything like that, because really, I think the larger mental health or the larger issue that people talk about often is that we work too hard. We work ourselves to death. We don't enjoy our lives, and we don't put we don't prioritize our health and our enjoyment of life. And because we don't, we're miserable people, and that doesn't make for good employees. So no, I haven't seen anything. I've only I actually have not seen. The concern is is there really going to be at
least a steady output or an increased output. That's the concern I think companies have, right, how can I manage this? And look, No, a country has officially adopted a four day work week schedule nationwide, but a lot of countries have pilot programs out or they're doing a government employee pilot program. Some places are pushing legislation, and there are a lot of individual companies, private companies. There is growing support that this world and they are starting to adopt it.
The I'll ask do they have results yet? I know you said pilot programs. Does anybody have any hard data yet on.
I haven't seen any hard data on it yet.
But this is really really exciting when you start looking at what and who was doing this. So in Belgium, employees right now can request a four day week without the loss of salary as long as they condense their hours. So I think you make up the hours in the days, but they allow you can request it, and they can make accommodation for you to have a four day work week.
That's essentially just you not being in the office on one day extra day.
It's not about an officer out of office.
It's about just maybe adding a couple hours to your day to make up to offset for the loss of the fifth day.
That's what I'm saying.
That fifth day is just about you not being engaged with your workplace. Correct, But you have those eight days have now been added to the four that you are eight hours excuse me, have been added to the four days that you are working.
So maybe, yeah, essentially add two hours extra to your day. I mean it didn't specify that, but that's basically saying you would condense your hours so you would make up for your time and just working longer days.
That seems doable and I think preferable. Wouldn't most people say they want to do that.
Yes. Yes.
In Iceland from two this is interesting, from twenty fifteen to twenty nineteen, they did large scale trials on a four day work week and they were deemed an overwhelming success, which is now led the country of Iceland now has widespread adoption of a four day work week, so that country, that nation largely has four day work weeks because of a four year trial that they conducted to see if there was any loss in output revenue, et cetera.
What constituted, ay, would you say, a wild success or whatever?
They called it an overwhelming success, just meaning that there was no significant loss. There was nothing that was lost in terms of outputction revenue by doing it that way. The United Arab Emirates in twenty twenty two introduced a four and a half day federal work week, So if you work for the federal government, you work four and a half days. Basically you have a half day on Friday.
Okay, now they should make that law.
I mean, that's just nice, awesome, that's just kind nice.
I love that in Lithuania they have a thirty This is really interesting. They have implemented a four day work week, so thirty two hours. They actually give the hours for parents with children under three. I think that's pretty cool, but could also cause some annoyance within the work place any parent. It says for parents and children under three man or a woman yep in Lithuania.
Yeah, that's somebody would immediately sue for discrimination in the US.
That would never work here in the UK.
In twenty twenty two, they ran one of the world's largest trials with sixty businesses and they said it was successful.
So they have started to go.
If you go over to the UK, you'll see a lot of folks and if you just even google four day work weeks, you'll see some of the countries that have a lot of companies who live by those rules, and the UK is one of those. Portugal also had a government backed pilot with forty one companies that was successful. Japan is encouraging now as a nation for all companies to adopt a four day work week to improve work life balance.
So Tokyo, the City of Tokyo.
All of their one hundred and sixty thousand government employees have a four day work week that began in April of last year, and some other municipalities have like Osaka, have done the same thing.
So that's pretty cool.
Australia, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, South Africa all of them doing something similar. So when we come back, what the heck is the United States doing and there is a very big force behind this trend of the four day work week.
Would you believe that chat GPT is involved?
True.
Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are talking about on this anniversary, on this one hundredth anniversary of the five day work week, we are now talking seriously about countries, including the United States of America, getting closer, it seems, day by day to maybe one day implementing unofficial four day work week.
Does that sound good to you?
I kind of like it. I'd like to see some numbers on productivity and whatnot. And I do have a couple of concerns here or there, but generally speaking, I certainly the one you mentioned a second ago, the is it Tokyo the government work with Yes.
Have a half day on every United Arab Emirates. Okay, everyday. That's awesome.
I love this.
So Look and here in the United States you may have heard of a Senator Bernie Sanders. He's been pushing legislation to make the standard work week to thirty two hours with no pay reduction. Look, there is so there is a push. Private companies are also, some of them doing it on their own, but this is interesting. In twenty twenty two, fourteen percent of employers in the United States offered a form of a four day work week. Twenty twenty four, it's at twenty two percent, So the
trend is going up. More and more companies are now starting to pilot these programs see if it works for them. But we are starting to see American companies starting to come around to this idea.
We are last.
I think other countries are much further ahead than we are, but it is interesting that we are catching on.
Americans are known to be workaholics.
Yeah, and we're known as a superpower, and we're no to be the place that everybody wants to come for opportunity, and we're known as the economic engine for the world.
Yeah.
How much of that has to do with that work ethic, with that five days a week, with us being having that mindset. I mean, you can close your eyes when you say American worker. You can see that somebody with a hard hat on sitting on a steel beam, driving a tractor, driving a truck. Yeah, it's what we do. So there's some balance in there. I like, that's the best compromise. The UAE thing you said up I give everybody a half day on Friday. That's kind of awesome.
I would sign on to that today, but I don't know. I wonder then about the direction we end up going. Who before somebody starts asking for a three day work day, I wanted the direction we're going to where every kid that goes in for an interview at some company has an expectation of what they deserve or no, I don't have to work that hard.
They're already seeing that now COVID everyone learning how to zoom or work from home. You have a whole generation of younger adults who are annoyed that now they're having to start to come into the office. So, yes, a very different mindset can emerge from some of these trends that seem.
To be positive. They can bite you back in the butt.
But they some would say that's direction we should go roes. Okay, fine, we should be in the office lest we shouldn't. Yes, you do need to respect that I only want to be in here four days a week, even though I'm just twenty two years old and fresh out of college. Yes, I have demands.
I don't know.
Maybe that's the way it should go, but it's just not what we are from and what we're used to, and so I do wonder about us. I guess, going back that direction, which you and I have seen plenty, we spend time on college campuses. We talked to some college professors about what they see, just this idea of I am entitled to so much before I prove myself by even working five days a week.
Right.
I know, for those of us who work seven days a week and who have for most of our careers, it's a bit of an eye roll. It's hard to but we're probably the crazy ones, and they're the ones who are smart because they are prioritizing a work life balance. And I was actually thinking about Japan. The country of Japan. As regimented as they are, they're rule followers. Generally speaking, there's incredible organization and precision that that country is known for.
And yet I love that they're leading the way in this work life balance and they are trying to push this on companies and or I guess encourage all the companies who do business there in Japan to adopt this four day a week lifestyle.
The other big influence.
Right now is ai ai Chat GBT maker open Ai has a huge arm that is trying to influence employers as they try to get some of these businesses obviously to incorporate their technology. They're also saying, hey, you should consider trialing a four day work week as AI use and demand grows in the workplace, and that way you can offset some of this balance with what computers are not going to do and replacing human.
Brain power with computer technology.
It's an opportunity to maybe try and work out different schedules with your own employees.
But it's a little scary.
You feel like, wow, they're really just trying to push everybody out of the office so they can take over.
I'm making sure I was hearing you correctly.
Yeah, okay, thank you, Yes, all right, it's scary.
I heard it as well.
Hey, yeah, you have a four day work week. It's gonna be great.
For your imployer's got it.
Yeah, we got you covered.
Chat GPT has it?
Okay, that sounded like an advertisement to me.
That made it seem like if I heard anything coming from open AI from chat GPT, I'd be thinking, you know what, whatever you're telling me to do, I'm doing the opposite, because clearly you're trying to take my job. Like now, you don't have to worry about the young crazy, the young kid coming up from college taking your job. It's the computer that's telling you, hey, you should have a day work week. Yeah, that's concern I mean completely concerning.
But yes, they say that this is to help society adjust to the AI era.
Wowoo, get used to not being in the office so much, is what they're telling us.
So I don't talk a lot about our seven day work week right now after hearing about what a I would like us to do.
We need to work eight days, were gonna work twenty five eight?
Like Mary Jay say, oh my god, all right.
Well here's too hoping that all of you have found, at least in your own personal life some sort of work life balance. But yeah, I think it is important to recognize that. You know, when you're on your deathbed, I always remember this. The last thing you're going to say is I wish I had worked harder. I wish I hadn't taken so many vacation days. No, you're not
going to see either one of those things. So it's good to have a conversation like this, to always try and keep our lives in perspective and With that, everyone, thank you for listening to us. As always, I made me Robaka inside t J.
Holmes. We will talk to you soon.