This is a guest post from 4 Day Week, The place to find software jobs with a better work-life balance. Most jobs listed have a 4 day work week (32 hours).
1. What is the difference between part-time vs. full-time employees under US law?
If you’re wondering if moving to a 4-day week makes you a part-time employee, there is no official definition of part-time vs. full time hours under US law. A good benchmark to use, however, is whether you are working under or over a 30-hour week, as defined by the IRS, who would consider 30 hours or less as part-time.
For this reason, most employers will still consider you a full-time employee if you are working four 8-hour work shifts a week (equating to 32 hours per week). Some employees may even opt to work 4 9-hour work shifts a week in order to be putting in a 36-hour work week.
Ultimately, the terms of what constitutes a part-time and full-time employee is at the discretion of the employer’s company. It’s worth noting, however, that misclassifying part-time and full-time employees can lead to some hefty penalties.
2. Switching to the 4-day work week may carry challenges – but they’re worth overcoming.
When some employees switch from a full-time workweek to a part-time, four day work week, there can be some aches and pains that arise. What’s important to know, is that this is normal, as you’ve just rejigged the working week by a full day, changing a schedule that an employee has probably been accustomed to for years, if not decades.
Some common issues may arise out of initial stress around employees finding that they are working a compressed working week (four 10-hour shifts) rather than a reduced week, particularly during times of the year when workload naturally increases (for example, around the holiday season for office retail workers).
The key here is to stick with it, as, over time, 4-day work week employees will adjust to the new working hours, becoming more productive. Studies have shown that employees, once settled into the new working hours, are 20% more productive, and whilst they would need to be 25% more effective in order make up for the missing day, this can be easily made up when one additional working hour is added to one day of the week (i.e. 3x 8-hour days and 1x 9-hour work day).
3. Switching from full-time to part-time boosts productivity and revenue.
Microsoft were one of the first big tech companies to trial the 4-day work week, and when it was rolled out in their Japan offices, they found a whopping 40% increase in productivity from their workers. What was also interesting during this trial, is that they found that employees took 25% less time off due to stress, sickness and family matters, and over 90% of employees preferred the shorter week overall.
Similar trials took place over a 4-year period also took place by the Reykjavik City Council in Iceland. The result was workers who reported a drop in stress levels, risk of burnout and an increase in their overall work-life balance, which prompted most workers to switch to reduced hours permanently.