Bosses don’t like the sound of a ‘four-day workweek’. Maybe it’s time to rebrand it
We keep hearing that the four-day workweek is the future,So why are so few businesses actually adopting it?Belgium, Iceland and Lithuania have passed legislation requiring the practice, and other countries in Europe are piloting the idea,Hundreds of companies in the UK have signed up for to give this a try,Microsoft tested the concept in Japan,Non-profits such as the 4 Day Week Foundation and WorkFour are dedicated to expanding the concept.
Should be a winner, right? An employee works fewer hours and gets paid the same, but if they’re still getting the work done, who’s going to complain? As it turns out, lots of people.Employers in particular.And the reason is obvious: working four days but getting paid for five days doesn’t sound fair.It sounds like employers – who by their nature make countless deals every week – are getting the short end of the stick.Just mention the phrase “four-day workweek” to a typical business owner or manager and you can expect an eye roll.
It’s not hard to understand why,A four-day workweek exemplifies the complaints in today’s workplace aimed at younger generations: laziness, apathetic, disinterested, indifferent,Whether that perception is fair or not, considering the idea invites conflict,It’s like all the other trends that employees have been inventing to avoid work,Which is why the concept is failing.
But that’s a shame, because the four-day workweek isn’t a bad concept,It just needs better branding,Some think that, because of AI, a four-day week is inevitable,JP Morgan Chase’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, says that it will “eventually reduce the workweek in the developed world”,Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman and other tech luminaries keep telling us that AI will bring about such productivity gains that workers may not be working at all, let alone four days in a week!Maybe these people are right.
And maybe the recent waves of corporate layoffs are just the beginning of this shift,But in my world – the world of small and mid-sized businesses – employers don’t want to cut hours and they don’t want to get rid of workers,They actually need more help getting the work done,It’s why there are still millions of job openings and it’s why small businesses repeatedly say that finding quality labor is among their top concerns,They want AI to help them get more out of their existing workers in a 40-hour week, not 32.
But if the luminaries are right and some day in the future AI creates a world where fewer workdays are needed, I bet that most employers won’t call it a four-day workweek.There’s just too much baggage around the phrase.Maybe the solution is scrapping the name and coming up with a better term.Like a “performance pay” or “smart pay” or “results/rewards” compensation system.These are terms that are less about laziness and more about getting things done.
These are terms that are more appealing to a business executive.The irony is that the four-day week is already happening.The same employers who bristle at the idea of a shorter workweek are at the same time finding other ways to provide flexibility through remote work, compressed schedules and generous time off.The practice is not so secretly in use already by many organizations.My daughter, a veterinarian, works three 12-hour shifts a week for full pay.
Those in the healthcare field are used to 10-hour shifts, followed by multiple days off,The same for production and construction workers,Companies that offer four or five weeks (plus holidays) of paid time off a year, when you divide those days off by total working days, are effectively offering a four-day workweek,A not insignificant number of my clients offer flex time and half-days on Fridays, and close up shop on additional holidays,Which supports the notion that the problem with a “four-day workweek” isn’t the practice – it’s the label.
By rewarding loyal employees with better remote working options and by offering benefits like more generous paid-time-off plans we can avoid mentioning these words altogether.
Bread and honey for breakfast and 150 miles a week training: secrets of Sawe’s world record
Sabastian Sawe’s astonishing world marathon record of one hour 59 minutes and 30 seconds at Sunday’s London Marathon was fuelled by running 150 miles a week, wearing the lightest super shoes in history and a pre-race breakfast of bread and honey, the Kenyan and his team have revealed.With an estimated 800,000 watching in the capital, the 31-year-old became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon in an official race as he powered home in the second half of the race to shatter the world record.Afterwards, Sawe said he immediately realised that he had created a moment that would never be forgotten. “I have made history today in London,” he said. “For me, I have shown that nothing is not possible
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While many of those present during the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner were shocked by Saturday night’s events, UFC CEO Dana White seemed to rather enjoy himself.White, a long-time ally of Donald Trump, was sitting near the front of the ballroom hosting the dinner when the event was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Rather than trying to find a safe place to hide during the chaos, White was enthused by the scene.“All of a sudden, it just started getting noisy,” White told reporters of the aftermath of the shooting. “Tables getting flipped over, guys running in with guns and they were screaming ‘Get down!’ I didn’t get down – it was fucking awesome
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The week in football was characterised in many ways by the absence of competence. There wasn’t much competence over at Kayo, which had more crashes than Leslie Nielsen. There wasn’t much competence in the umpiring on Friday night. There wasn’t much competence at the AFL tribunal, with its barking dogs and house inspections. There wasn’t much competence, or basic decency, at its appeals board
Nikola Jokić boils over after McDaniels’s mocking layup in Nuggets’ loss to Timberwolves
Nikola Jokić and Julius Randle were ejected after Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless – and provocative – layup at the end of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ playoff victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night.With Minnesota already all but guaranteed victory in a game that ended 112-96, McDaniels chose to make the layup with 2.1 seconds left rather than run out the clock, as is customary. That led to Jokić jogging down from half-court to confront McDaniels, and a shoving match ensued as other players became involved.“I don’t know what [Jokić] said, to be honest
London Marathon 2026: Sabastian Sawe breaks two-hour barrier and world record – as it happened
Sabastian Sawe has done it! He wins the London Marathon and finishes the race in 1:59:30! That is the first record broken in the men’s race in London since 2002.Sean Ingle was on the Mall to witness the incredible Sabastian Sawe.double quotation markThey call Sabastian Sawe the silent assassin. But it was impossible to ignore the beautiful destruction on the streets of London as the 30-year-old Kenyan became the first athlete to shatter the two-hour barrier in an official race.As Sawe crossed the line on the Mall, the clock showed that he had run 26
Sabastian Sawe breaks two-hour barrier to make history in London Marathon
He came. He Sawe. He conquered. Not so very long ago, the idea of anyone running an official marathon in under two hours lurked only in the realms of the fantastical and theoretical: part holy grail, part scientific curiosity.But over the course of one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds of a tumultuous spring day in London, Sabastian Sawe turned it into a brain-spinning reality
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