The working world has been thrown into a blender the last few years. Most likely, you even started working from home in 2020 after a career in the office. And you like it but have no idea what the future of remote work holds. Will remote work continue (like most of us want)? Are we all heading back to the office (like most employers seem…
Measuring working hours is hard to do across a company, let alone all of the countries of the world. But the OECD collects the average annual hours worked for each country by taking the total number of hours actually worked per year divided by the average number of people in employment per year. That is the best dataset available for working hours. To get to average…
On September 25, 1926, Henry Ford announced his company would start working a five-day, 40-hour work week. The five-day work week was born and it was a breakthrough, clearly! It’s been friggin’ 95 years to the day, and we’re all still doing it. But as we approach a century since the preeminent work schedule was invented, people are finally starting to question it. After all,…
What is an 80-hour work week? If you work five days per week, you need to log 16 hours per day to get to 80 hours in a week. The most common 80-hour work week is 13-15 hours of work per day with spread over six days. Are you working 80 hours per week? Or, eek, considering it? For those working the 80-hour work…
The five-day work week is (still) the standard. The four-day work week is quickly becoming normalized. The three-day work week? For companies, it’s mainly a distant idea, but will likely grow in popularity as the four-day work week spreads. For entrepreneurs and freelancers, it’s happening right now (and might be an attainable goal for you). In this article, we break down everything you’ll need to…
Does Lithuania have a 4-day work week? Yes, sort of. In 2022, Lithuania passed a law that public-sector employees with children two or younger are allowed to work 32 hours per week. Private sector employees and people who do not have young children do not qualify. Why are people talking about a 4-day work week in Lithuania? A standard work week is 40 hours in Lithuania….
Does Spain have a 4-day work week? No. Spain does not have a four-day work week. They have a well-funded, well-publicized plan to trial a four-day work week. The trial has not started. Why are people talking about a 4-day work week in Spain? The political party, Más País, included the four-day work week as part of it’s platform when it launched in 2019. The…
Does Japan have a 4-day work week? No. Japan does not have a four-day work week. Why are people talking about a 4-day work week in Japan? There are two main reasons people have heard about the four-day work week in Japan. 1) Microsoft Japan ran a four-day work week trial called the “Work Life Choice Challenge” in the summer of 2019. The company claims…
Does Iceland have a 4-day work week? No. From 2014 – 2021, Iceland ran two well-publicized trials of a 35-36 hour work week sponsored by the federal government. The combined studies came to be known as Iceland’s four-day work week study, but that title and the results are misleading. As a result of the studies, many organizations did reduce their working hours. However, on average…
Does the US have a 4-day work week? No. The United States does not have a four-day work week. However, multiple bills have been proposed across the country to change the average work week from five days and 40 hours to four days and 32 hours. Plus, hundreds of companies have either implemented or trialed the four-day work week in the last few years. Why…