Inside a U.S. company pioneering the four-day work week model

American workers overwhelmingly say that they want a four-day work week, and in some companies, that's possible. CBS News' Brook Silva-Braga takes a look inside one of the places where it's happening.

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[catherinec]

I’ve had a few jobs that had 4 day work weeks, but I worked 4 ten hour days. Even though my day was longer, I thought it was fantastic! I was more rested and more focused. I was able to get to all my doctors appointments and go to the grocery store when it wasn’t busy. Then I’d STILL have 2 more days to relax and be with my family

[robertmartinez]

I've been saying we need to do this for years!! No reason we need to work 5 days out of the week. More balanced work to weekend time!!

[Some.real.human.]

People are happy to work hard when they feel like they are being treated fairly. The social contract needs to improve. Fundamentally we live in a positive sum world. Four day work week will give people more time to consume which will drive economic growth. Technically has given us the productivity to make this possible. Knowledge workers do better with agency, sustainability, and rest

[VYBEKAT]

Productivity is the same with reduced working hours because people aren't burnt out, tired, dragging their feet, making mistakes, getting injured, getting sick.... All of this costs time and money. 4 x 8 is more efficient because workers are rested, alert, less stressed and less distracted.

[EricAllen]

4 day work week helps with mental health & time for people to actually go get help since everywhere is closed on weekends...

[c.b.]

I'd love to work 4 days, 8 hours. Working a 4×10 was a nightmare for me, because the day off was during the week.

[ellenmcdaniel]

All I want is to be able to have sick days when I'm sick, without fearing I'll lose my job.

[Hurdzy]

I work compressed work weeks, and am only on site a total of 6 months a year. I couldn't imagine going back to 8 hours 5 days a week. I have 3 and 4 day weekends, and feel like I get to live a life. I hope this trend catches on and people can stop living to work, and work to live.

[philipfrancis]

Registered Nurses have had 12-hour shifts with 3 days on one week and 4 days on the next week, along with job sharing and other unique scheduling alternatives. RN’s LOVE those options! But the MBA’s and Finance folks who run hospitals despise them; too costly and too complicated to administer. This has led to many nurses leaving the work force.

[branflakee]

I do 4 days and work 10 hours. It's amazing!!!!

[zerokool-]

One of issues is that the US is a work culture. So many people are glued to work and depressed.

Plenty of work places do 4 day work week. My brother been working 4 day a week at the company for 8 years.

[christopherwanamaker]

I've been saying it for years, how we as Americans should look to our foreign country ally nations to learn from those who have been around a lot longer than the United States and we can learn from them in different topic area categories to massively improve our country! For the longest time, which seems like forever, America has purposely tried and succeeded in doing everything completely different and backwards from the way the rest of the world does things in almost every topic area! And my question is why? There are so many things that other countries do so much better than we do when it comes to a healthcare system, education, dealing with garbage, protecting the environment, work hours, amount of paid vacation, wildlife bridges, using plastic garbage to create plastic roads, etc. We need to learn from the Tom Cruise movie "The Last Samurai" that I wrote a college paper on, on what was really going on in Japan in the early 1800's and why the newly formed government was so admit about wanting and pushing evolution, grow, expansion, and great change? Why did they look out into the four corners of the globe and request subject matter experts come to Japan to assist with their evolution and progression to massively change their culture and country, which in turn created the civil war against their own people the Samurai. The overall reason for the great push for evolution, advancement, and progression was to become stronger and better equipped to prevent China from invading and taking over Japan. So the wealthiest businessmen banded together and formed a newly formed government to take power away from the leaders and protectors of the Samurai and used their knowledge and wealth to reshape and evolve all of Japan's culture to catchup with the rest of the world and eventually that lead to Japan becoming a central power in the world. So my thought process is if Japan did it back in the 1800's, why can't America do the same thing now? Why can't we grow, evolve, change, adapt, and massively improve almost every topic area? Why can't we learn from our foreign ally nations who have a lot more knowledge and experience in almost every topic area and if we did this we as a country would greatly evolve and improve nearly every aspect of life within our country. After awhile we might even reach Starfleet evolution status, if only we would stop being so different, difficult, old fashioned, stuck in nothing but tradition were we literally make everything we do harder instead of smarter. One really big change I would love to see other than 4 day work weeks is for all American companies to do the same thing our miliary does when it comes to paid vacations, which is for every month you work you get 2.5 days of paid vacation, so every year you work you get 30 days of accumulated paid vacation, and once you hit 60-90 days worth you are forced to take a least 30 days worth so burnout within that person doesn't occur!

[Drucio]

I would work more per day to have more days off

[guybeingaguy]

One thing I’m certain of…..
The gift of life was not meant to be spent working.
I retired at 47.
This is MY time as we are only doing this thing called life once.

[petercook]

But what is the guy that doesn't want to spend 3 days with his wife going to do?

[feathermerchant]

I worked a 4 day (10 hour day) week in 1973. We were required to take a one hour lunch which made it just a bit too long for me. Still nice to have 3 day weekends.

[williammurray]

As long as the businesses that these employees use don't go to the same schedule.

[swatisharma]

If you factor in (1) How much productivity is good for planet and human health (reference discussion on Degrowth)
(2) Need to increase public awareness and participation/voice in matters outside of work and home - community work, social reforms, financial and political areas where public should atleast have awareness, ideally participation
(3) More family time to strengthen/build values that many time hectic schedules make it impossible for parents or couples to work on
This would make 3 day work week, 1 day “community” work and 3 days for family- the ideal solution to many issues, in my opinion.

[maddaaro]

Lmao loved the guy who brought up Europe 😂

[quartytypo]

The four-day work week should remain 8 hours/day.