Why working less could be better for you — and your employer

SBS Australia

2 days ago

By the time mother-of-two Anna Dadic gets into the office in the morning, she already feels like she's "fought three wars". The 42-year-old lives in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Marrickville, works full-time and is still breastfeeding her youngest child. She says she's constantly exhausted. On weekdays, her routine starts at 5.30am so she can ready herself for work and drop her kids off at childcare. She describes the process as "rinse and repeat".
"We are regimented in our routine and if anything upsets the order of things [such as someone falling sick] everything gets a lot harder," she says.
Dadic's husband does childcare pick-ups in the evenings, but then there's dinner to prepare, bathtime and the battle to put her children to bed. Winter is dreadful, she says, because the kids pick up various bugs from childcare. "We are pretty socially isolated. Evening plans feel impossible, and we are usually too tired anyway, so they happen rarely." In Australia, Dadic's situation is not unique. Most women now work and continue doing so even after having children.
Modern working conditions due for an update? Next year will mark 100 years since US carmaker Henry Ford pioneered a five-day work week for employees in his factories, which was a reduction from the six days generally worked.
Swinburne University associate professor of management John Hopkins believes modern working conditions are again due for an update, including the possibility of working fewer hours.
Henry Ford pioneered the five-day work week in his US factories almost 100 years ago. Source: Getty / PhotoQuest While the concept of a four-day work week has been discussed for more than 50 years, in the past decade, there has been a noticeable uptick in demand for more flexible work arrangements. Hopkins says that over the past century, new technologies such as the internet have sped up the rate at which people can work, but this hasn't necessarily freed up time for workers. "It's actually worked the opposite. They are just required to do more work in the same amount of time," he says.
Hopkins says technology has even led to people working longer hours because it allows them to check emails or be available after work.
We've had this intensification of work over the last 100 years where we're doing a lot more work in those eight hours per day than we were ever doing before ... and our brains are becoming overloaded.
"We need more time to rest [and] recover."
The benefits of working less Japan, which is struggling with record-low birth rates, is shortening working hours as a way of encouraging parenthood.
In April, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government introduced a flexible work system that allows its employees to take three days off per week while maintaining the same total working hours over a four-week period.
In a statement to SBS News, a spokesperson says the program allows employees to balance work and childcare responsibilities, and also helps those without children care for family members or pursue personal development. An additional program specifically for parents of young children allows them to shorten their working hours by up to two hours per day. "These hours do not need to be made up at a later date," the spokesperson says.
Hopkins says his research has found significant benefits to allowing workers to reduce their work hours — with no drop in salary — including a reduction in sick days, staff turnover, burnout and work-related stress.
Japan has announced measures to ease the pressures of working life as it attempts to improve its low birth rate. Source: Getty / Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg As part of Hopkins' recent research project in Australia, 10 senior managers were interviewed about their experiences with introducing the four-day work week. A preview report released in 2023 showed that 70 per cent of employers observed increased productivity, while the other 30 per cent reported no change. None reported a drop. Positive results included reduced sick days and better ability to compete for talent and retain staff.
Workers found they had time to complete life admin tasks, take weekends away (including visiting family) and invest in self-care activities, such as exercise, massages and doctor visits. They also had more time to participate in hobbies.
This week, a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour also reported that employees who trialled a four-day work week were less likely to suffer burnout, had a higher rate of job satisfaction, and better mental and physical health. More than 2,800 employees across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and the US were surveyed. Ahead of the six-month trial, low-value activities such as "unnecessary meetings" were eliminated to prepare people for working reduced hours.
The four-day work week is just one of several flexible work arrangements that are becoming increasingly popular, including hybrid work, remote work, unlimited leave, gender-neutral parental leave and flexible public holidays.
'You need time to rest and recover'
Hopkins says one of the reasons Henry Ford dropped the number of work days from six to five was because he realised productivity didn't drop.
To perform at your best, to be the most productive, most efficient, you need time to rest and you need time to recover. Hopkins points to AFL players as an example, noting they only play games once a week for six months of the year.
"If they were to play twice a week or three times a week, what would happen? They'd start to get more injuries, their performance would drop off."
Just as athletes can get physical injuries if they push themselves too hard, other workers are susceptible to burnout. Source: Getty / Morgan Hancock He says some of the people interviewed for the four-day week survey said they no longer experienced the "Sunday scaries" before the start of the working week, when they would usually feel scared or apprehensive. It also gave people more time to reflect on their work, Hopkins says, and identify ways of improving. "You never have a good idea when you're working, you have a good idea when you're in the shower or when you're taking the dog for a walk, because your brain is thinking about different things and allows you to be creative," he says.
"So it is about striking that right balance between work and rest and recovery to optimise performance."
Young and middle-aged workers are feeling exhausted Hopkins believes that work hours will be reassessed, partly because workers are feeling burnt out. A 2023 Melbourne University study on the State of the Future of Work found that 33 per cent of young and middle-aged workers reported difficulty concentrating at work because of their responsibilities outside of work. This compares to just 11 per cent of mature workers (aged 55 years or older).
The study looked at data from 1,400 Australian workers and found prime-aged workers (between 18 and 54 years old) were also twice as likely to feel like they didn't have enough time to do everything they needed to do compared to older workers.
More than half of the workers without access to flexible work surveyed reported feeling exhausted (55 per cent) compared to 45 workers who had access to flexible conditions. They also felt less motivated while at work.
Unions push for four-day work week This week, both the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) issued statements calling for a shorter working week to be introduced, ahead of the federal government's productivity roundtable next month. Steve Murphy, national secretary of the AMWU, says gains from improved productivity over the past decade have gone to bosses and not to workers.
"The best and most logical way to fairly share the gains of productivity is for workers to not have to work as many hours, and to move to a shorter working week," he says.
Productivity cannot be at the expense of the wellbeing of workers. The most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows labour productivity fell by 1 per cent in the year to March, even though the number of hours worked rose by 2.3 per cent. A Productivity Commission bulletin in June noted productivity growth over the past decade had stagnated.
"In the absence of a growing productivity dividend, the dream of a more balanced life ... risks slipping out of reach for many Australians," it says.
Since 1980, Australians have used about 23 per cent of their productivity dividend — the savings from increasing productivity via automation and technological advancements — to work less, and banked the other 77 per cent as higher income. The report notes that Australians have opted to use those savings to upgrade their lifestyles, such as buying fancier coffee and taking more expensive holidays, rather than further shortening their workdays. It's hoped artificial intelligence (AI) will drive further productivity improvements, and unions want these benefits to be shared with workers.
ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler says the union believes shorter working weeks will promote gender equality because it will allow caring responsibilities to be more easily shared between partners, as noted in a 2023 report by the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation federal secretary Annie Butler says the union supports shorter working hours. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas "By changing the definition of 'full-time' work and encouraging a culture shift away from a focus on hours to that of productivity and work quality, the reduced hour model may lead to the removal of some of the barriers to women's professional advancement," the committee's report says. Part-time jobs may also be better paid because working for two days would be considered "half a full-time equivalent".
Butler says shorter working weeks would have a positive effect on women's workforce participation, increase the number of hours workers have to balance their well-being and care responsibilities, and ultimately improve retention.
Could a four-day week be backed by government? The Greens also support the introduction of a four-day work week.
"[It's] a better way to work and one that puts the health and happiness of workers first, while allowing the productivity of businesses to soar," Greens spokesperson for jobs and employment, Senator Barbara Pocock, says.
It's a win for workers and a win for workplaces. As part of its election campaign, the Greens supported bringing a test case to the Fair Work Commission and establishing a national institute to guide implementation of a four-day work week. Pocock says the Greens remain committed to the policy.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told The Australian newspaper this week he would support practical measures from the productivity roundtable that had broad support from business, unions and civil society.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he is looking for productivity measures that have broad support. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas The Coalition, which walked back a proposal to force Canberra public servants back into the office five days a week during the federal election campaign , appeared non-committal when asked whether it supported the four-day work week. "Liberals believe in agency and empowerment," Coalition spokesperson for industrial relations and employment Tim Wilson said in a statement to SBS News. "Improving standards of living comes from partnerships to get ahead through salaries, startups, shareholdings and small business, and we are going to back Australians to back themselves." While there are benefits to a shorter working week, Hopkins' research on the four-day work week also identified several challenges.
This includes overcoming scepticism about its potential to increase productivity, making changes to roster systems so that staff can maintain services over five days, and the management of part-time workers.
Hopkins says moving to a four-day work week is not easy; it takes planning and piloting, but the businesses that have introduced the policy have stuck with it and seen the benefits, including being better able to attract and retain talented staff.
Families have changed since the 1950s Demographer Liz Allen, from the Australian National University, says providing extra workplace flexibility could help couples manage the stresses of family life, but it was only one part of the puzzle if authorities want to boost Australia's declining birthrate , which is now at a record low of 1.5 babies per woman. Issues such as housing affordability, economic security, gender equality and climate change also need to be addressed. She says many Australians are struggling to raise families within systems that have been developed based on outdated gender norms.
"When it comes to unpaid household work, men are not doing their fair share, and that's not the fault of men, that's how we've been conditioned," she says.
Our tax system, our workplace system, all manner of things, are trapping us in this 1950s model of the perfect family. "Family doesn't look like that anymore, family has changed, and the structural supports have not kept [up] with the times." Allen says it may be time to go back to the drawing board rather than continue "trying to fit a square peg into a round hole". "We keep beating ourselves up because we can't get it to work.
"We lack the vision to do something different."
People want a share of the time saved by AI While arrangements such as working from home have delivered time savings for some workers, not everyone benefits from this.
Hopkins says only about a third of jobs are remote-capable.
[Some] people feel like they've been left behind. Their white collar colleagues have all of a sudden gained all this flexibility and ability to work from home over the last few years and they haven't gained anything. However, improved rostering and better access to holidays could help these workers, says Hopkins. There may also be scope to consider whether a worker can perform some elements of their role at home, such as a train driver who may also have administrative tasks and logbooks to complete.
AI may help employees work faster and Hopkins says "people want a share in the time that's saved".
Workers want a share of the time saved by new technology such as AI. Source: Getty / Oscar Wong "They don't want to be working the same number of hours that people were working 100 years ago."
But he says this will ultimately come down to the management of technology and business owners.
'A miserable feeling' Dadic works from home two days a week, and her husband works a four-day week a couple of times a month. Her mother also helps out when her children — aged three and 16 months — are sick or something urgent comes up. She worries that she and her husband are too tired to be fully present with their kids and are missing the joyful moments.
"I worry that, over time, that could have an impact on [the kids]."
Anna Dadic says she is exhausted due to juggling the demands of full-time work and being a mother to two children. Source: Supplied Dadic's aware of how lucky she is and how much worse things could be, but worries she's not living life to the fullest because she's constantly stressed and running on empty. "That's a miserable feeling," she says. "It's this constant cycle of guilt, worry, and self-criticism that's hard to break." Additional reporting by AAP This is part two of a series looking at how modern families are balancing the pressures of working life. Read part one here.