Editor’s Notice: This story initially appeared on The Penny Hoarder.
Does a four-day workweek sound good to you? Three-day weekends endlessly and ever? Does that sound interesting?
If it does, we’re going to take a look at what your most sensible choices are for getting a job with a four-day workweek.
We’re additionally going to speak about how one can search for a four-day workweek job, how one can interview for one and how one can regulate to 4 10-hour shifts — as a result of that’s what most of those jobs require.
The four-day workweek is within the information due to a pilot program in the UK. Greater than 60 firms there participated on this planet’s largest trial of the four-day workweek, from June to December 2022.
Corporations mentioned their income largely stayed the identical — and after six months, most supervisors and staff preferred it a lot, they decided to keep the arrangement.
Right here’s how one can make it occur for you, too.
The right way to Search for a 4-Day Workweek Job
In case you’re searching for a job, the very first thing you’re in all probability going to do is hit up one of many many free job boards you will discover on-line. So make “4 day workweek” a goal of your looking.
Certainly has a category for four-day workweeks. So does ZipRecruiter. So does LinkedIn. You possibly can additional slim it down by looking by location, by job sort, by wage, even by firm.
It’s vital to refine your search and slim it down as a lot as attainable. In any other case, the job web site’s search engine will simply throw one random job after one other at you: a Pepsi supply driver in Maine, an auto mechanic in Michigan, a household observe doctor in Indianapolis … you get the concept.
It’s additionally vital to attempt totally different job boards and to attempt totally different key phrases. Some helpful examples are “4 day work week” or “4 day workweek” or “4 ten hour days” or “4 on 3 off.”
Or, if you happen to’re searching for a 32-hour-a-week job, be particular and seek for “32 hour workweek.”
The Most Widespread 4-Day Workweek Jobs
Once we went searching for four-day workweek jobs on Certainly, LinkedIn, Monster, ZipRecruiter and different free job boards, we observed that the identical 4 sorts of jobs stored popping up again and again.
We’re not saying that the next 4 profession paths are the one strategy to land a four-day workweek. We’re simply saying that, based mostly on our searches of assorted job websites, these careers are the most certainly strategy to do it.
1. Software program Engineer/Tech Employee
To utterly nobody’s shock, a bunch of tech startups look like the commonest forms of firms in America which might be making the swap to four-day workweeks.
“Work shouldn’t suck,” the digital advertising and marketing firm Justuno announced last year. “Moderately, we need to encourage our crew to maintain themselves, decompress, and deal with the life aspect of work-life steadiness.”
Right here’s a number of tech firms which might be doing the identical factor:
- Basecamp, a mission administration software program developer
- Bolt, a San Francisco-based e-commerce firm
- Buffer, a social media content material writer
- DNSFilter, a digital safety agency
- G2i, a tech hiring platform
- Kickstarter, which helps tasks get funded
- Nectafy, a web based content material supplier
- Praytell, a digital communications company
- Uncharted, a “social affect accelerator” in Denver
Clearly you should have the proper ability set for this trade. However if you happen to do, this is without doubt one of the most sensible methods to get a four-day workweek.
2. Driver
We’re speaking about two totally different sorts of driving jobs right here:
- Truck drivers with industrial driver’s licenses
- Van supply drivers, most of whom work for Amazon subcontractors
Truck drivers are highly in demand. Once we looked for four-day workweek gigs on varied job boards, we discovered listings for truck drivers. When you’ve got a industrial driver’s license, you in all probability have choices.
We additionally noticed loads of listings for Amazon supply drivers in varied elements of the nation. You don’t want a particular driver’s license to drive a type of Amazon vans round. However that job is actually no picnic, and it may be difficult. It’s positively not for everybody.
In case you’re searching for a four-day workweek, although, it may very well be one risk.
3. Nurse or Physician
Right here’s only a sampling of four-day workweek gigs within the medical area that we discovered on varied job boards:
- Nurse anesthetist in Pennsylvania
- Medical imaging assistant in Arizona
- Household medication doctor in Massachusetts
- Emergency room nurse technician in Seattle
- Veterinarian in Illinois
- OB-GYN in Missouri
- Optometrist in Washington
Medical professionals are additionally extremely in demand and have extra employment choices than most of us.
4. Manufacturing facility Employee
We discovered Monster to be an particularly good place to search out these jobs.
On any given day, employers may very well be searching for a forklift operator in Pennsylvania, a “warehouse affiliate” in Illinois, a upkeep technician at a Minnesota manufacturing plant — all with four-day workweeks.
Interviewing for a 4-Day Workweek Job
You’re going to wish to persuade your potential employer which you could perform — and even thrive — with a four-day workweek.
Be ready to emphasize the way you arrange and prioritize your work, and the way you cope with time constraints. In case you’ve ever labored a brief week or bizarre shifts earlier than, that’s clearly key.
“Our staff are working very consciously and we’re working onerous. So we are saying the 4 days you’re right here, you higher be all in,” Bolt co-founder Ryan Breslow instructed CNBC. “You higher be responsive, having unbelievable affect.”
Dealing With a 4-Day Workweek Job
So that you’ve lastly gotten your self a four-day workweek! Congrats! Now all it’s a must to do is survive it.
Like we mentioned, most of those jobs require 10-hour shifts — and even 11-hour shifts with a lunch break. They’re nonetheless 40-hour-a-week jobs, however the work is finished in 4 days as a substitute of 5.
It may be an enormous adjustment.
“Moving into the routine of working 10- or 11-hour shifts could also be troublesome after beforehand working eight- or nine-hour days. You might end up feeling extra burned out on the finish of a 10-hour shift,” the nationwide trucking firm Schneider advises job applicants.
“Nonetheless, with time and as you regulate, longer shifts will change into simpler to handle. Plus … having that third day without work gives you extra time to recharge.”
Is a Commonplace 4-Day Workweek Coming to America?
In all probability not anytime quickly.
Our customary five-day, 40-hour workweek dates again to 1940. That’s when Congress amended the Honest Labor Requirements Act to require employers to pay extra time after 40 hours of labor per week.
Earlier than that, longer workweeks had been extra typical.
In early March 2023, a U.S. congressman introduced a bill that will make the 32-hour workweek a nationwide customary. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., is attempting to decrease the edge that triggers extra time pay from 40 hours to 32.
However politically, that’s a very onerous promote. The overwhelming majority of American firms aren’t precisely brimming with enthusiasm for this concept. This invoice isn’t anticipated to go anyplace.
What the Specialists Say
The Wharton College of Enterprise on the College of Pennsylvania recently asked some of its experts if the U.S. may embrace a four-day workweek.
“By no means say by no means. However I’m not anticipating it occurring anytime quickly,” mentioned Wharton administration professor Matthew Bidwell. “We’re a little bit of a workaholic nation.”
“I actually don’t consider our employers are going to consider which you could get as a lot work completed in 4 days as in 5,” added assistant administration professor Lindsey Cameron. “We see the delicate strain they’re exerting to get their staff to get again into the workplace now.”
A four-day workweek may occur for you, although.
All it’s a must to do is use the proper job.
