Is the four day work week the best way to deal with workplace stress?
Is the four day work week the best way to deal with workplace stress?
With workplace stress increasingly becoming an issue, this feature explores whether the four-day week is a suitable intervention to manage workplace wellbeing.
Why is stress an issue?
Statistics show that 76% of employees state that they have incredibly high stress levels (Champion health statics). This means 13.7 million workdays lost a year, which costs the UK economy £23.8 billion (NICE).
Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, University of Manchester says:
‘Stress is the kind of leading causes of long-term sickness, absence, not only in the UK, but in almost all economy developed economies. So, in the UK, when we had really good data before the pandemic hit, 57% of all long-term sickness, absence was for stress, anxiety and depression.’
How can stress cause these issues?
According to the governments Health and safety executive (HSE), the cause of stress in the workplace is ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demands upon them.’
https://www.hse.gov.uk/
The demand placed upon employees can be the main reasons for workplace stress absence, also known as a psychosocial stressor.
‘Companies need to deal with how their employees prioritize their work, so they are not overloaded. The work, given by the line manager, who has a command-and-control type management style without being aware of the impact it has on the individual. This is where the problem stems from’ said Professor Cooper.
Professor Cooper added that companies are taking a more strategic approach to managing with stress in the workplace, but interventions such as ‘Employee Assistant programmes’ (EAPs) and counselling programmes are ‘simply not enough.’
Four-day-workweek is a new way forward.
The UK’s four-day work week pilot proved a success as 86% said that they would retain the new model of work.
From June to December the pilot project was based on the 100-80-100 models which means 100% pay for working 80% of their previous hours, for same pay but same productivity.
Tyler Grange, a landscape planning, ecology, and arboriculture consultancy company in Warwickshire took part in the pilot scheme. During the trial, their 80 employees did not work Fridays and had no loss in pay.
As a result of this, they saw that the productivity increased by 21%, making it one more percent more productive over 4 days instead of the normal week.
The company reported an increase of 60% of traffic to their job vacancies page, 18% reduction in tiredness, and increase of 10% in happiness levels.
Helen Brittain, company secretary & HR lead at Tyler Grange explained that the company employs two in house psychologists that are there once a month to provide support for employees. The staff receive an hour-long seminar at occasional lunchtimes to build resilience.
‘By reducing our hours so we don’t work Fridays we have definitely seen an improvement in employee wellbeing. There has been a reduction in contacts to mental health advisors,’ said Ms Brittain.
‘It has taken a lot of hard work and groundwork to get this scheme into place, by informing our staff, clients and changing systems, but we have seen the benefits in that there is less burnout and people are more attracted to join our company’
‘We are committed with the four-day working week for the rest of the future,’ she added
Suitable for all occupations?
Some industries require a seven-day working week presence, such as bus and train drivers, but also NHS staff. With a four-day work week this would be impractical, Professor Cooper added.
‘I think if we went to a four-day working week for people, the NHS would just disappear. It just couldn’t survive. So, could we go to a four-day working week for them? Not really.’
But is it the answer for workplace stress?
The results of the four-day work week have shown that productivity and happiness at work has improved. However, there is a long way to go for workplaces to optimise their management of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Can stress management interventions work within the four-day working week?
‘So, I think, it's something we should look at, like we should look at all aspects of stress interventions, everything from mental health to first aiding. We should look at all of these in the four-day working week. It is not a magic bullet, but in the armoury. In the wellbeing armoury’ said Professor Cooper.
If you are suffering with workplace stress, here are some helpful links to visit:
https://www.stress.org.uk/
https://www.samaritans.org/