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Now Is a Great Time for Your Company to Cancel Fridays
Businesses should use the remote work upheaval to finally adopt four-day workweeks
Company-wide remote work — once the dream of only a few companies — has become the new norm for many firms. For employees able to work from home during this crisis, there are far more distractions and challenges during the workday than before. Childcare, homeschooling, housekeeping, and working full-time jobs often have to take place in the same space and with frequent gear shifting (after all, a bored toddler doesn’t care if you’re on a Zoom call with your boss). More than 80% of employees wish their companies were doing more to help them adapt to the outbreak, according to a study from Thrive Global.
These statistics indicate a sense of dissatisfaction with the ways pandemic-induced remote work has replaced in-office work without subsequent shifts in expectations and management strategies from company leadership. In this era of increased domestic obligations with minimized intersocial contact or work-life separation, now is a perfect time for companies to consider switching to a four-day workweek by giving Fridays back to their employees.
Employees in the U.S. have added nearly three extra hours to their workweeks since the onset of mass remote work.
Shelter-in-place work habits are hurting employees
There are some notable benefits to remote work, including opportunities for increased flexibility in work schedules, the availability to care for children during the day, and less time wasted traveling to and from an office. (The quick pivot to remote work is even seen as a possible tipping point away from physical commuting and toward telecommuting.)
But evidence suggests that during the pandemic the average workday has expanded. NordVPN, a VPN service provider that tracks its users’ connections, estimates that employees in the U.S. have added nearly three extra hours to their workweeks since the onset of mass remote work. Bloomberg found that for some employees, this rise in working hours came from no longer having the excuse of being unavailable at a moment’s…
