Just as Tim Ferriss's "4 hour workweek" is a simplified tagline used to convey a more complex point (there are more possibilities than ever to escape the 9-5), in my mind the "4 day workweek" term is the same (a work week need not be 5 days): it's not the precise form of the reduced workweek that matters, it's the shattering of the unchallenged acceptance of society's ideals with respect to work (full-time = 40 hours/week; hard workers work more and are better employees; aspiring to work less means you are lazy/lack ambition/will never achieve anything great etc.).
What surprises me (VC backed founder topping out at 40 hours per week) the most is how having an aspiration to work less is seen as a goal that needs to be in some way defended - why does everyone (feel they have to pretend to) love work so much? I literally felt the need to create a blog about the perils of overwork [1] just to help justify to myself why it's OK that I don't want to spend more time working (result = peace of mind that I'm not letting the entire world down by not working myself into the ground)... Of course, a lot of this pressure is in my head, but these standards are informed by society's . I have worked jobs where 60 hours per week was the _aspiration_, where leaving at 6PM was met with snide remarks of "taking a half day" and I could count on one hand the number of senior business leaders I've encountered in my career who paid more than lip service to any notion of work-life balance.
I look forward to the continuing changes in and challenges to the work ideals of high performing businesses as the composition of the workforce changes over the coming decades and (politics aside) commend movements like 4 Day Week campaign and 30hourjobs.com for their role in accelerating this progress.
What surprises me (VC backed founder topping out at 40 hours per week) the most is how having an aspiration to work less is seen as a goal that needs to be in some way defended - why does everyone (feel they have to pretend to) love work so much? I literally felt the need to create a blog about the perils of overwork [1] just to help justify to myself why it's OK that I don't want to spend more time working (result = peace of mind that I'm not letting the entire world down by not working myself into the ground)... Of course, a lot of this pressure is in my head, but these standards are informed by society's . I have worked jobs where 60 hours per week was the _aspiration_, where leaving at 6PM was met with snide remarks of "taking a half day" and I could count on one hand the number of senior business leaders I've encountered in my career who paid more than lip service to any notion of work-life balance.
I look forward to the continuing changes in and challenges to the work ideals of high performing businesses as the composition of the workforce changes over the coming decades and (politics aside) commend movements like 4 Day Week campaign and 30hourjobs.com for their role in accelerating this progress.
[1] https://thefreedomseries.com