I keep coming across articles that emphasise the boost in productivity (and employee satisfaction) in companies that adopt a 4 day working week or reduced daily hours. So it got me thinking, why do many businesses resist this idea despite data suggesting that they would be more productive? This is generally speaking because of course it wouldn't work for all businesses but there are many that it would work for.
One thought that came to mind is that in the mindset of many business owners the whole reason they own a business is so they can live a better life than their employees. To them 'happiness is relative' so therefore when they hear the idea of their employees having more time for themselves and their families it makes them question why they own a business in the first place.
For a lot of business owners it is not enough that they should succeed they need to see you struggling to validate their efforts. I think this psychological factor is often overlooked in this debate, especially now that many business have collected data over the COVID period and can prove productivity boosts in home working employees and employees with reduced working hours.
Very few of us have ever been to executive level meetings, the execs make the decisions and then that gets filtered down through a manager to the junior staff, the reasoning behind any of these decisions is never made public because then that would open it up for debate and that is to be avoided. I often think the reasoning behind decisions is 'because your life should be hard' but they know they cannot say that out loud because it highlights their mindset.
For the rich the debate surrounding working hours and days is less about boosting productivity and more about how they maintain their happiness whilst seeing others peoples quality of life improve. I think this plays a larger role than people think.
What do you guys think?