Carlos Slim, Mexico's telecom magnate who just recently reclaimed Forbes' title as the richest man in the world, said that he thinks you should only work three days a week. Of course, the catch is that he believes you should also delay retirement until age 70 or 75.
According to an article by TIME, at a recent business conference in Paraguay, the billionaire said it is time for a "radical overhaul" and that "with three work days a week, we would have more time to relax…having four days [off] would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied."
However, in exchange, the 74-year-old magnate believes you should work until the ages of 70 or 75. Slim figuratively almost put the "money where his mouth is" by implementing a contract for workers of Telmex to start working in their late teens and retire before they turn 50, or to have the option to work past retirement age for four days a week at full pay. Thus, working one more day a week than what he thinks is ideal.
Slim is not alone in his support for a shorter work week. According to a Forbes article discussing the benefits of a 4-day Workweek, job-seeker websites show that many prospective employees are looking for non-traditional work weeks. A four-day workweek still enables employees to work 40 hours a week but allows them to have more time to dedicate to outside activities. Many companies have found that these "compressed schedules" have increased retention rates and have been a major draw when recruiting talent.
It doesn't take a complex study to understand how employees could benefit from an extra day off, from being able to run errands, to spending more time with family, and relaxing in general. Also, employees who have the extra day off are less likely to overextend their lunch breaks to go to a doctor or dentist appointment, or attend to other weekday errands. The benefits on traffic congestion would likely be considerable as well.
But, employers still seem hesitant to offer flexible workweek options, and only 36% of employers offer four-day workweeks, with only 7% establishing the four-day workweek company-wide. Many companies rely heavily on established organizational norms and don't perceive the added benefits that this option would add to their organization.
There are many ways four-day weekdays can be implemented while still enabling employees to put in forty hours. The 4/10 model is very common, where workers work 10 hours a day, four days a week. However, elderly employees claim that these schedules are so tiring that the extra day off ends up being spent on recovering from the week and adds no real benefit. Another less strenuous option is the 5-4/9 arrangement where employees alternate between weeks of five nine-hour days, and four nine-hour weeks so that you get a day off every other week. When combined with holidays this can equal a four day weekend and can be perfect for weekend getaway trips.
Unfortunately, for those who would love to start working a four-day schedule, it is hard for an employee to request these types of flexible schedules if the company has not made the option available. Meaning that any shift toward alternative workweeks will likely be a top-down change and probably not bottom-up, and therefore it is unlikely this will be a widespread norm any time soon.
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