Big-brained business psychology friends (hi , , ): I'm curious - what are the best arguments *against* a 4-day work week?
(Beyond the traditionalist ones that have been so thoroughly debunked by studies & trials?)
Conversation
I actually am against it. It perpetuates the fiction that work can be regulated to a set tempo band. Pay people for time or outcomes or some mix, not for a duty cycle. Outside of acute-risk scenarios, treat people as adults who know their limits.
Ie pilots and surgeons need regulated limits because they might kill people otherwise. Everybody else… if they choose to work 100h one week and 20 the next, let them decide. Pay for outcomes or time, not how they balance work and leisure.
2
13
It’s a ridiculous fiction anyway. For jobs driven by urgency, limits on duty cycle are really an indirect way to negotiate overtime opportunity. If you turn 40 into 32, that’s really 8 more hours overtime if work demand patterns don’t change.
1
4
Show replies
I'd personally be delighted with a 4-day week. Extend each of those days to 10 hrs to make up the 40, I don't care. I'm a happier, more sane person and a better worker on a 4/3.
1
You have an "individualistic" view of work. Nowadays, work is more and more collaborative, and teamwork requires coordination of hours. If everyone one works when they want, no one can rest properly because they'll have to be reachable.
Coordinate on the rest days.
Plus, you'll still be free to do your own work over the weekend, if you wish.



