Employees Want This More Than a Four-Day Work Week

Nearly 60% of workers survey say their jobs are the main source of their mental health challenges.

We should never doubt The Ramones.

The New York City punk band was trying telling us something with their 1992 song "The Job That Ate My Brain."

"I can't take this crazy place," they sang, "I've become a mental case. yeah, this is the job that ate my brain."

Many working people can identify with those lyrics -- and there's science to back up those rhymes. 

A survey by the experience management company Qualtrics found that 58% of the respondents named their jobs as the main source of their mental health challenges.

The covid-19 pandemic turned the traditional workplace concept inside out, with many employees giving up the office entirely to work from home, or splitting their time between the job site and their crib.

The four-day workweek has been hailed as a way to increase productivity and reduce employee burnout.

Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist with the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has been a big supporter of the idea, noting that the four-day week improves focus, boosts efficiency, and gives people more time for leisure and connection.

Interest in the four-day week surged following a successful 2018 pilot project at Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand estate planning firm, Qualtrics said.

Testing the Four-Day Workweek

The project was spearheaded by 4 Day Week Global, a not-for-profit organization promoting four-day workweeks.

In 2019, Microsoft  (MSFT) - Get Free Report tested a four-day week in a Japanese subsidiary and reported a 40% productivity increase.

Qualtrics said that a survey of over 1,000 U.S. employees found that 92% of the respondents said would support their employer implementing a four-day work week.

However, a majority also acknowledged tradeoffs, including potentially having to work longer hours to make up missed work, and more than half said a four-day workweek would likely frustrate customers.

And while a four-day workweek was a big hit with most employees, there was something they liked just a little bit more.

Fifty percent of the employees surveyed said they would prefer increased flexibility to work when they want, compared with 47% who said they would rather have a four-day work week.

Qualtrics said these results supported their research that shows employees prioritize flexibility and control. 

The vast majority of workers also said they wanted their employer to implement paid mental health days, saying it would reduce burnout, make employees more productive, and help the company recruit talent. 

So The Ramones were right when they said "there's got to be a better way." There's just more than one way.