This standard workweek is now so ingrained in our society that it almost feels timeless. But the five-day rotation doesn’t claim roots in any historic text or religious practice. It wasn’t developed by the ancient Romans, Greeks, or Egyptians. Nobody sat down to conduct an objective analysis for the optimal number of days for humanity to rest and work and determined that our current schedule was ideal, or fair, or necessary.
As with the last time there was a systemic shift in our working hours, new technologies have catalyzed a reimagining of our professional schedules. Though it’s still early days, AI is already changing not just how we work, but the kinds of skills that deliver value. We believe the next phase in this evolution is a four-day work week.
The history of the work week
To understand how the work week is impacted by technology, look to the history books.
Throughout that period, workers lobbied for better working conditions, convincing some organizations to experiment with shorter working hours and fewer working days. In the early 19th century, a group of Christian Sabbatarians convinced the federal government to close the post office on Sundays so workers could attend church, and other employers gradually followed.
The first major industrial employer to adopt that schedule was Henry Ford, who announced his intention to implement a five-day, 40-hour workweek at his Detroit auto plant in 1922, a move considered very controversial at the time. A 1922 New York Herald editorial, for example, argued that “the Ford plan is joyous news to all who like to think of bringing work down to the irreducible minimum.”
Since then, work has changed in countless ways, yet that structure has remained—not for good reason, but because it's “the way it’s always been.”
Today, 57% of American women are employed—as are 67% of men—and many households rely on a dual income to make ends meet. That means that even if standard operating hours haven’t changed in the last 100 years, the number of working hours in those dual-income households has nearly doubled.
On an assembly line, an hour of activity is closely correlated with a specific output, but in a knowledge economy, there are countless ways to fill an hour at work—not all of which contribute equally to the bottom line.
At the same time, wages aren’t keeping up. According to the Economic Policy Institute, from 1948 to 1973, a technology-fueled 97% jump in individual productivity was coupled with an inflation-adjusted 91.3% increase in average wages. Between 1973 and 2013, however, individual productivity increased by another 74% while average hourly compensation increased by just 9% once adjusted for inflation.
At the time, automobiles were a luxury good, and the Ford Motor Company had already sold a car to just about anyone with enough money to afford one. By increasing wages and reducing working hours, Ford expanded the market for his product from the upper classes to the masses.
Ford knew that reducing working hours would spur economic activity, boost recruitment and retention, and improve worker morale and wellbeing, all of which positively contributed to the company’s bottom line.
Today, many workers are avoiding AI adoption, and their anxiety and hesitancy is understandable. But when the prize for embracing new tools is time off from work, without any change in salary, workers are incentivized to stop resisting and start experimenting.
As we undergo another seismic shift in how work is accomplished, history tells us that we have another once-in-a-century opportunity to set a new standard that reflects the needs of today—and those of the 100 years to come.
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