Speaker 1: Hey, that folks, is Friday May first, and have the
Speaker 1: anniversary on this day. One hundred years ago, the five
Speaker 1: day work week was born. Before that, it was actually
Speaker 1: a six day work week, and now some of us
Speaker 1: wanted to be Fox and with that, Welcome to this
Speaker 1: episode of Amy and TJ Big Anniversary. Who knew one
Speaker 1: hundred years I did not know this. This one snug
Speaker 1: up on me, broj.
Speaker 2: Yes, I had no idea the facts behind this day.
Speaker 2: May one, nineteen twenty six was the day that Henry
Speaker 2: Ford had the Ford Motor Company there in Detroit go
Speaker 2: into a five day, forty hour work week. It had
Speaker 2: been a six day and that was standard in America
Speaker 2: back in nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 3: Had no idea.
Speaker 4: Do people remember that?
Speaker 3: I houly not many, because you'd have to be pretty
Speaker 3: damn old to know something.
Speaker 1: But I don't remember that, like talk, I don't remember
Speaker 1: people back in the day it used to be.
Speaker 4: I don't remember that at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they said something days about it was the only
Speaker 2: day that most American workers had off until Henry Ford
Speaker 2: came up with the idea. Had a theory that if
Speaker 2: you gave employees more time off to rest, to relax,
Speaker 2: to take care of their personal lives. They would be
Speaker 2: more focused and more efficient when they were actually on
Speaker 2: the job for those five days.
Speaker 3: And it turned out to be true.
Speaker 2: They actually were able to measure workplace efficiency and it
Speaker 2: increased with the day off, and so that just spread
Speaker 2: like wildfire and pretty much Now, obviously that's a standard
Speaker 2: way of going to work these days and has been
Speaker 2: for the past one hundred years or so.
Speaker 1: Okay, but they were able to measure back then, you
Speaker 1: were saying that it was effective.
Speaker 2: Within his own company, he said, he was able to
Speaker 2: say this act, this worked, the workers are more efficient,
Speaker 2: make better use of their time, and they didn't. The
Speaker 2: point being is you decree the workday, but you keep
Speaker 2: the pay the same. So pay, yes, pay remains the
Speaker 2: same because you're still getting the same output. It's just
Speaker 2: in a fewer amount of time or a fewer amount
Speaker 2: of days.
Speaker 1: Again, his logic there or I think you read something
Speaker 1: in particular there. But the logic there was something about
Speaker 1: their personal lives. How did you say that?
Speaker 2: Again, it was if you give employees the time to
Speaker 2: take care of their personal lives and deal with personal matters,
Speaker 2: they aren't trying to do it on the job.
Speaker 3: Basically, if you have to work six days a week,
Speaker 3: you only get one day off.
Speaker 2: Sure enough, when you're on the job, you're going to
Speaker 2: be handling things that are personal probably, or you're going
Speaker 2: to be distracted because you're going to be stressed because
Speaker 2: you weren't able to take one day. Wasn't enough for
Speaker 2: people to take care of their own business.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't just how much of this was about
Speaker 1: actually giving somebody. I guess it all ties in just rest. Yes,
Speaker 1: you need a second to recover. Correct, it also keeps
Speaker 1: Yes you have. Physical health improves when you have more
Speaker 1: time to rest. Mental health improves when you have more
Speaker 1: time to rest. So when you have better rested, more
Speaker 1: physically and mentally fit employees, they're just going to perform better.
Speaker 3: Period.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: I weren't Sundays back in the day stressful because that
Speaker 1: was church day, right, that big church day, big family
Speaker 1: that you're not sitting around the house being lazy. It's
Speaker 1: not like you get to I think about that now.
Speaker 1: Think of all the things we do on the weekend,
Speaker 1: and we still don't think we have enough time to
Speaker 1: get this done. I got to run an errand I
Speaker 1: gotta do the laundry, I got to clean the house
Speaker 1: and the kids again. The next thing you know, it's
Speaker 1: Sunday and you haven't even rested. So to think one
Speaker 1: day off a week, obviously we know what that's like.
Speaker 1: We're used to working seven days a week. But roads
Speaker 1: to think of the whole country right now, as tightly
Speaker 1: wound as we are, we only got one day off
Speaker 1: a week together on Sunday.
Speaker 2: That's tough and it's not sustainable. And so yes, we
Speaker 2: have been in a five day work week mentality. Look,
Speaker 2: I think as broadcasters, as journalists, there are some jobs
Speaker 2: where that's not even possible. I think that's laughable. We
Speaker 2: were pretty much on call twenty four to seven. A
Speaker 2: lot of doctors, a lot of other emergency workers, folks
Speaker 2: who are working multiple jobs. They're like, please, a five
Speaker 2: day work week, a forty hour work week sounds amazing.
Speaker 2: Many of us know what an eighty ninety hour work
Speaker 2: week looks like and have done that for a very
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 3: And that's just what you got to do.
Speaker 2: You gotta hustle, right, So I say this with the
Speaker 2: acknowledgment that a lot of folks would kill for a
Speaker 2: five day work week. But now there is a steady
Speaker 2: shift and a large drumbeat.
Speaker 3: It is getting louder and louder around the world.
Speaker 2: Stop to make this now the norm a four day
Speaker 2: work week, and you could say anywhere from thirty two
Speaker 2: to thirty five hours a week. Some have even said
Speaker 2: thirty eight hours a week. However you want to place it,
Speaker 2: but you give people three days off to relax, to reset,
Speaker 2: to take care of business, to be a better hit
Speaker 2: human and therefore a better worker.
Speaker 1: Okay, So all these the movement that is going on
Speaker 1: now you described, does it also include people being paid
Speaker 1: the same now? Yes, for four days of work? So
Speaker 1: the work you used to do to get paid for
Speaker 1: this for six days and then five and now four?
Speaker 3: Correct that full time?
Speaker 4: Yes, same pay.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that is Look, there are some other.
Speaker 2: Other ways of potentially doing this people have talked about, yes,
Speaker 2: a reduction and pay. But for the most part, when
Speaker 2: people describe wanting to officially adopt a four day work week,
Speaker 2: it is not at the cost of benefits or salary.
Speaker 1: Okay, And is it the same theory is that you
Speaker 1: give them an extra day. Henry four gave them two
Speaker 1: days off, same theory, and you can even they're suggesting
Speaker 1: you can even get more out of people if you
Speaker 1: have them working less. Yes, that correct.
Speaker 2: Yes, they say all boats rise because the company has
Speaker 2: more efficient, more effective, sharper, friendlier, just warmer, nicer employees,
Speaker 2: and then the employees get to feel healthier physically, mentally, rested,
Speaker 2: being able to have that time with the family.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is a huge part of the theory.
Speaker 2: That at least going from six days to five days
Speaker 2: feels like was successfully proven. Could you do the same
Speaker 2: with a four day work week? A lot of countries
Speaker 2: are trying to see if it's.
Speaker 1: Possible just just thirty two hours a week versus forty
Speaker 1: hours a week. That is a lot of time to
Speaker 1: have an employee not being productive on behalf of your company.
Speaker 2: What if you afour went breaks or condensed your lunch
Speaker 2: to thirty minutes, You could make up the time in
Speaker 2: a lot of other ways, or you add an extra
Speaker 2: hour onto your day so you can offset.
Speaker 3: There are ways to negotiate.
Speaker 2: Like some of that that you can there's some wiggle room,
Speaker 2: but it really is sometimes it's not just about maybe
Speaker 2: going down to thirty two hours. Sometimes they said it
Speaker 2: at thirty eight or thirty seven, but just condense or
Speaker 2: maximize the hours, or add an hour so you can
Speaker 2: you can find a way to really set aside three
Speaker 2: full days of being off.
Speaker 1: There is nothing better as you're coming up in your
Speaker 1: career as a three day weekend. You get them randomly
Speaker 1: here and there. For some holidays, a three day weekend
Speaker 1: is a dream difference.
Speaker 3: Yes, don't you feel so different?
Speaker 2: Yes, after a three day weekend, it's like a marked difference.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I get concerned, and you'd please tell me
Speaker 1: you've researched this more than I have. Are there concerns
Speaker 1: about what type of worker, what type of economic environment
Speaker 1: we are creating if we are suggesting I know some
Speaker 1: would say it's a good thing, but I'm asking if
Speaker 1: there is any pushback, essentially saying we are creating just
Speaker 1: a lazier culture or a culture of folks who don't
Speaker 1: don't anticipate having to work so hard or having an
Speaker 1: expectation of what they're older.
Speaker 4: I ain't come here to work. Is there any ease?
Speaker 2: Now? I haven't heard anything like that, because really, I
Speaker 2: think the larger mental health or the larger issue that
Speaker 2: people talk about often is that we work too hard.
Speaker 2: We work ourselves to death. We don't enjoy our lives,
Speaker 2: and we don't put we don't prioritize our health and
Speaker 2: our enjoyment of life. And because we don't, we're miserable people,
Speaker 2: and that doesn't make for good employees. So no, I
Speaker 2: haven't seen anything. I've only I actually have not seen.
Speaker 2: The concern is is there really going to be at
Speaker 2: least a steady output or an increased output. That's the
Speaker 2: concern I think companies have, right, how can I manage this?
Speaker 2: And look, No, a country has officially adopted a four
Speaker 2: day work week schedule nationwide, but a lot of countries
Speaker 2: have pilot programs out or they're doing a government employee
Speaker 2: pilot program. Some places are pushing legislation, and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of individual companies, private companies. There is growing
Speaker 2: support that this world and they are starting to adopt it.
Speaker 1: The I'll ask do they have results yet? I know
Speaker 1: you said pilot programs. Does anybody have any hard data
Speaker 1: yet on.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen any hard data on it yet.
Speaker 2: But this is really really exciting when you start looking
Speaker 2: at what and who was doing this. So in Belgium,
Speaker 2: employees right now can request a four day week without
Speaker 2: the loss of salary as long as they condense their hours.
Speaker 2: So I think you make up the hours in the days,
Speaker 2: but they allow you can request it, and they can
Speaker 2: make accommodation for you to have a four day work week.
Speaker 1: That's essentially just you not being in the office on
Speaker 1: one day extra day.
Speaker 3: It's not about an officer out of office.
Speaker 2: It's about just maybe adding a couple hours to your
Speaker 2: day to make up to offset for the loss of
Speaker 2: the fifth day.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That fifth day is just about you not being engaged
Speaker 1: with your workplace. Correct, But you have those eight days
Speaker 1: have now been added to the four that you are
Speaker 1: eight hours excuse me, have been added to the four
Speaker 1: days that you are working.
Speaker 2: So maybe, yeah, essentially add two hours extra to your day.
Speaker 2: I mean it didn't specify that, but that's basically saying
Speaker 2: you would condense your hours so you would make up
Speaker 2: for your time and just working longer days.
Speaker 1: That seems doable and I think preferable. Wouldn't most people
Speaker 1: say they want to do that.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes.
Speaker 2: In Iceland from two this is interesting, from twenty fifteen
Speaker 2: to twenty nineteen, they did large scale trials on a
Speaker 2: four day work week and they were deemed an overwhelming success,
Speaker 2: which is now led the country of Iceland now has
Speaker 2: widespread adoption of a four day work week, so that country,
Speaker 2: that nation largely has four day work weeks because of
Speaker 2: a four year trial that they conducted to see if
Speaker 2: there was any loss in output revenue, et cetera.
Speaker 1: What constituted, ay, would you say, a wild success or whatever?
Speaker 2: They called it an overwhelming success, just meaning that there
Speaker 2: was no significant loss. There was nothing that was lost
Speaker 2: in terms of outputction revenue by doing it that way.
Speaker 2: The United Arab Emirates in twenty twenty two introduced a
Speaker 2: four and a half day federal work week, So if
Speaker 2: you work for the federal government, you work four and
Speaker 2: a half days. Basically you have a half day on Friday.
Speaker 4: Okay, now they should make that law.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's just nice, awesome, that's just kind nice.
Speaker 2: I love that in Lithuania they have a thirty This
Speaker 2: is really interesting. They have implemented a four day work week,
Speaker 2: so thirty two hours. They actually give the hours for
Speaker 2: parents with children under three. I think that's pretty cool,
Speaker 2: but could also cause some annoyance within the work place
Speaker 2: any parent. It says for parents and children under three
Speaker 2: man or a woman yep in Lithuania.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's somebody would immediately sue for discrimination in the US.
Speaker 3: That would never work here in the UK.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, they ran one of the world's
Speaker 2: largest trials with sixty businesses and they said it was successful.
Speaker 3: So they have started to go.
Speaker 2: If you go over to the UK, you'll see a
Speaker 2: lot of folks and if you just even google four
Speaker 2: day work weeks, you'll see some of the countries that
Speaker 2: have a lot of companies who live by those rules,
Speaker 2: and the UK is one of those. Portugal also had
Speaker 2: a government backed pilot with forty one companies that was successful.
Speaker 2: Japan is encouraging now as a nation for all companies
Speaker 2: to adopt a four day work week to improve work
Speaker 2: life balance.
Speaker 3: So Tokyo, the City of Tokyo.
Speaker 2: All of their one hundred and sixty thousand government employees
Speaker 2: have a four day work week that began in April
Speaker 2: of last year, and some other municipalities have like Osaka,
Speaker 2: have done the same thing.
Speaker 3: So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Australia, Sweden, Germany, Brazil, South Africa all of them doing
Speaker 2: something similar. So when we come back, what the heck
Speaker 2: is the United States doing and there is a very
Speaker 2: big force behind this trend of the four day work week.
Speaker 3: Would you believe that chat GPT is involved?
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ,
Speaker 2: where we are talking about on this anniversary, on this
Speaker 2: one hundredth anniversary of the five day work week, we
Speaker 2: are now talking seriously about countries, including the United States
Speaker 2: of America, getting closer, it seems, day by day to
Speaker 2: maybe one day implementing unofficial four day work week.
Speaker 3: Does that sound good to you?
Speaker 1: I kind of like it. I'd like to see some
Speaker 1: numbers on productivity and whatnot. And I do have a
Speaker 1: couple of concerns here or there, but generally speaking, I
Speaker 1: certainly the one you mentioned a second ago, the is
Speaker 1: it Tokyo the government work with Yes.
Speaker 4: Have a half day on every United Arab Emirates. Okay, everyday.
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: I love this.
Speaker 2: So Look and here in the United States you may
Speaker 2: have heard of a Senator Bernie Sanders. He's been pushing
Speaker 2: legislation to make the standard work week to thirty two
Speaker 2: hours with no pay reduction. Look, there is so there
Speaker 2: is a push. Private companies are also, some of them
Speaker 2: doing it on their own, but this is interesting. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, fourteen percent of employers in the United
Speaker 2: States offered a form of a four day work week.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty four, it's at twenty two percent, So the
Speaker 2: trend is going up. More and more companies are now
Speaker 2: starting to pilot these programs see if it works for them.
Speaker 2: But we are starting to see American companies starting to
Speaker 2: come around to this idea.
Speaker 3: We are last.
Speaker 2: I think other countries are much further ahead than we are,
Speaker 2: but it is interesting that we are catching on.
Speaker 3: Americans are known to be workaholics.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're known as a superpower, and we're no
Speaker 1: to be the place that everybody wants to come for opportunity,
Speaker 1: and we're known as the economic engine for the world.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: How much of that has to do with that work ethic,
Speaker 1: with that five days a week, with us being having
Speaker 1: that mindset. I mean, you can close your eyes when
Speaker 1: you say American worker. You can see that somebody with
Speaker 1: a hard hat on sitting on a steel beam, driving
Speaker 1: a tractor, driving a truck. Yeah, it's what we do.
Speaker 1: So there's some balance in there. I like, that's the
Speaker 1: best compromise. The UAE thing you said up I give
Speaker 1: everybody a half day on Friday. That's kind of awesome.
Speaker 1: I would sign on to that today, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: I wonder then about the direction we end up going.
Speaker 1: Who before somebody starts asking for a three day work day,
Speaker 1: I wanted the direction we're going to where every kid
Speaker 1: that goes in for an interview at some company has
Speaker 1: an expectation of what they deserve or no, I don't
Speaker 1: have to work that hard.
Speaker 2: They're already seeing that now COVID everyone learning how to
Speaker 2: zoom or work from home. You have a whole generation
Speaker 2: of younger adults who are annoyed that now they're having
Speaker 2: to start to come into the office. So, yes, a
Speaker 2: very different mindset can emerge from some of these trends
Speaker 2: that seem.
Speaker 3: To be positive. They can bite you back in the butt.
Speaker 1: But they some would say that's direction we should go roes. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: we should be in the office lest we shouldn't. Yes,
Speaker 1: you do need to respect that I only want to
Speaker 1: be in here four days a week, even though I'm
Speaker 1: just twenty two years old and fresh out of college. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have demands.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the way it should go, but it's just
Speaker 1: not what we are from and what we're used to,
Speaker 1: and so I do wonder about us. I guess, going
Speaker 1: back that direction, which you and I have seen plenty,
Speaker 1: we spend time on college campuses. We talked to some
Speaker 1: college professors about what they see, just this idea of
Speaker 1: I am entitled to so much before I prove myself
Speaker 1: by even working five days a week.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: I know, for those of us who work seven days
Speaker 2: a week and who have for most of our careers,
Speaker 2: it's a bit of an eye roll. It's hard to
Speaker 2: but we're probably the crazy ones, and they're the ones
Speaker 2: who are smart because they are prioritizing a work life balance.
Speaker 2: And I was actually thinking about Japan. The country of Japan.
Speaker 2: As regimented as they are, they're rule followers. Generally speaking,
Speaker 2: there's incredible organization and precision that that country is known for.
Speaker 2: And yet I love that they're leading the way in
Speaker 2: this work life balance and they are trying to push
Speaker 2: this on companies and or I guess encourage all the
Speaker 2: companies who do business there in Japan to adopt this
Speaker 2: four day a week lifestyle.
Speaker 3: The other big influence.
Speaker 2: Right now is ai ai Chat GBT maker open Ai
Speaker 2: has a huge arm that is trying to influence employers
Speaker 2: as they try to get some of these businesses obviously
Speaker 2: to incorporate their technology. They're also saying, hey, you should
Speaker 2: consider trialing a four day work week as AI use
Speaker 2: and demand grows in the workplace, and that way you
Speaker 2: can offset some of this balance with what computers are
Speaker 2: not going to do and replacing human.
Speaker 3: Brain power with computer technology.
Speaker 2: It's an opportunity to maybe try and work out different
Speaker 2: schedules with your own employees.
Speaker 3: But it's a little scary.
Speaker 2: You feel like, wow, they're really just trying to push
Speaker 2: everybody out of the office so they can take over.
Speaker 4: I'm making sure I was hearing you correctly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, thank you, Yes, all right, it's scary.
Speaker 4: I heard it as well.
Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, you have a four day work week. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be great.
Speaker 3: For your imployer's got it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got you covered.
Speaker 3: Chat GPT has it?
Speaker 4: Okay, that sounded like an advertisement to me.
Speaker 2: That made it seem like if I heard anything coming
Speaker 2: from open AI from chat GPT, I'd be thinking, you
Speaker 2: know what, whatever you're telling me to do, I'm doing
Speaker 2: the opposite, because clearly you're trying to take my job.
Speaker 2: Like now, you don't have to worry about the young crazy,
Speaker 2: the young kid coming up from college taking your job.
Speaker 2: It's the computer that's telling you, hey, you should have
Speaker 2: a day work week. Yeah, that's concern I mean completely concerning.
Speaker 2: But yes, they say that this is to help society
Speaker 2: adjust to the AI era.
Speaker 1: Wowoo, get used to not being in the office so much,
Speaker 1: is what they're telling us.
Speaker 2: So I don't talk a lot about our seven day
Speaker 2: work week right now after hearing about what a I
Speaker 2: would like us to do.
Speaker 1: We need to work eight days, were gonna work twenty
Speaker 1: five eight?
Speaker 4: Like Mary Jay say, oh my god, all right.
Speaker 2: Well here's too hoping that all of you have found,
Speaker 2: at least in your own personal life some sort of
Speaker 2: work life balance. But yeah, I think it is important
Speaker 2: to recognize that. You know, when you're on your deathbed,
Speaker 2: I always remember this. The last thing you're going to
Speaker 2: say is I wish I had worked harder. I wish
Speaker 2: I hadn't taken so many vacation days. No, you're not
Speaker 2: going to see either one of those things. So it's
Speaker 2: good to have a conversation like this, to always try
Speaker 2: and keep our lives in perspective and With that, everyone,
Speaker 2: thank you for listening to us. As always, I made
Speaker 2: me Robaka inside t J.
Speaker 3: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.