The Four-Day Workweek

by Robert Grosse

This provocative book makes a compelling case for reducing the number of workdays in a week to four. Globalization has brought with it fiercer competition and greater worker mobility, and as organizations compete for top talent, they are becoming more open to unconventional worker arrangements, such as remote working and flextime. International business expert, Robert Grosse, draws on scholarly research to construct an appealing argument for why the four-day workweek benefits both the organization and the employee. Research has demonstrated that longer work hours harm the individual and don’t amount to a more effective organization, which begs the question: then why do it? The book goes beyond merely arguing that a reduced workweek is a good idea. It delves into why, explores the means for achieving it, and scrutinizes the barriers to getting there. This is a book for forward-thinking executives, leaders, and academics who understand that work–life balance is the secret sauce not only for organizational success, but also for greater productivity and satisfaction in their careers and those of the people they manage.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook

180 pages, Paperback

Published May 23, 2018

Reviews

[Jay Red · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched book, stating the facts excellently but with a flaw in the argument in my opinon which is that the 4 day week will be taken up widely by employers and the state will somehow meet the short fall.

It makes sense that the economics of the recession might force several companies to take this up due to falling demand, but in the 2020 world the governments of the day will not cover the shortfall.

This book lays out the case for change very nicely. Compelling reasons why humans would be better off in terms of the benefits of having such a reconfigured setup to maximise the benefits for the company in spending less time doing the core jobs in work.

Its a very long term vision which i could see being implimented more in europe than the US in the foreseeable future.

They however gloss over the "Machines will take our jobs " argument by pointing to history when the cases stated are very different. Machines needed people to ensure the gains of the machines were realised, however with machines in the long term within this senario will have more intelligence and will be given more oppertunity to replicate human levels of competence could be a game changer and simply putting a historical slant on the outcomes fails to see the difference of the coming changes AI will bring.

So this is why i gave the book less stars because although the premise is good, the outcomes predicted seem ill thought through.


Nice introduction book to a topic that will gain traction over time.

[Fraser Worthington · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the subject matter and appreciate what the author is trying to do, but feel it lacked in the execution. Large parts of the chapters go off on a tangent and provide a strenuous link to the relevancy to the four day work week. The later chapters appear just repetition of the points made earlier. Perhaps the nature of subjects such as these, but was a tough read.

[Spencer Brauchla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logical arguments in favor for a universal transition to a four day work week. A general lacking of innovative concepts kept this book at a three star rating.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Assumptions, anecdotes, and more high-level observation than application. It may work for you as an intro and history of the concept.