Why a Shorter Workweek is Inevitable

Within the face of a disaster like COVID-19 — on high of the trendy day risks of *gestures vaguely throughout* — it’s completely no shock that we’ve been asking ourselves questions like:

• Am I truly doing what I need to be doing?
• May I be spending my time higher?
• Is that this actually the job for me?
• What sort of job do I truly need?

(BTW, in case you’re nonetheless asking your self these questions now, don’t fear: We have plenty of resources to help you find a career you’ll love.)

Over the previous few years, IWT has additionally seen itself evolve and remodel with new staff, a top-to-bottom rebrand, a brand new podcast, a guide replace, new programs, 1000’s of recent college students, and a Netflix TV show — simply to call just a few issues. It lastly received to the purpose the place we realized two issues:

• We need to actually stay our values. If we’re going to show our college students and readers to stay their Wealthy Life, then we must always completely put our cash the place our mouth is and do the identical for us. 

• If not now, when? Like the remainder of the world, we had been lastly prepared to actually work on our personal phrases — even when it meant a radical change. 

It isn’t simply us both. Actually, workweek experiments are in all probability much more standard than you assume. 

The way forward for the workweek

A current June 2023 survey conducted by ResumeBuilder.com of roughly 600 U.S. enterprise leaders discovered that 20% of companies had been already using a 4DWW.

Not solely that, however 41% of companies stated that they deliberate to ultimately use a 4DWW mannequin sooner or later — with half of these respondents saying it might occur by the tip of 2023. 

What’s this imply? Corporations are looking for new methods to make staff happier and extra productive. That is the longer term for a big swath of the American workforce — and we are saying that’s GREAT. 

If which means that employees will be capable of get their very own companies and workplaces to make use of Wealthy Life practices, then we expect it’s superb that compressed workweeks are blowing up in reputation. 

However we also needs to observe that the 4DWW additionally works notably effectively for IWT as a result of we’ve developed a tradition that pulls high expertise, supportive coworkers, and all-around superb individuals. 

It’s like what our reader Margaret stated: Expertise made her higher at what she does — so she will be able to handle her workload in a fraction of the time it used to take her. Likewise, we had been already fitted to one thing just like the 4DWW as a result of that is the kind of tradition we’ve got constructed for practically 15 years. 

“There’s no silver bullet,” IWT president Gretchen Leslie says. “It’s not an arcane ability. It’s all of the issues that make you nice at working. The 4DWW is only a crucible for actually refining these abilities — as a result of even when we stopped the 4-day workweek tomorrow, we might all be higher for what we’ve discovered from doing it as a result of it makes us so conscious and considerate about how we work.”

As extra companies start to contemplate options to the 40-hour, 5-day workweek, you would possibly end up in that place quickly. While you do, it may be straightforward to be scared or nervous about it — which is truthful. Change is sort of all the time scary. 

However consider: What received you right here received’t get you there. Generally you must shake the snow globe simply to see the items fall into the precise place.