The Four-Day Workweek on Worker Burnout and Work-Life Balance

By Steven P.

Abstract: Worker burnout devastated a majority of U.S workers, especially low-income and long-hour workers. The COVID-19 Pandemic severely heightened worker burnout by severing the divide between work and home. The COVID-19 Pandemic, coupled with the outdated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and poor working environments, creates severely devastating conditions for workers. This begs the question: what causes worker burnout and strained work-life balance, and what is the most effective way to address these issues? In Europe, leaders and decision-makers have implemented a four-day workweek, and saw incredible results. However, the U.S has yet to implement a four-day workweek, despite these results. In the U.S, a four-day workweek will improve employee well-being, increase productivity and revenue, and address widespread societal issues. 

Keywords: worker burnout, Great Resignation, COVID-19 Pandemic, four-day workweek, employee well-being

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Summary: Worker burnout threatens our social fabric through overworking and high stress levels. A Vox article reports that salaried workers, on average, worked 49 hours per week, with 25% working over sixty hours and an overall increase in working hours during the pandemic. These working conditions contributed to the Great Resignation, a mass of four-million monthly job resignations, as well as a considerable rise in worker burnout, with over 50% of employees stressed most of the day. Worker burnout is only expected to rise, as hourly shifts and poor mental health are on the rise in the U.S, especially after the pandemic. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic played one of the largest roles in the sudden rise of worker burnout, which led to the Great Resignation. It considerably increased working hours, severed the divide between work and home, and worsened workers’ quality of life. Additionally, the preexisting policies surrounding working conditions, particularly the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), contribute to these poor working conditions, leading to worker burnout. The FLSA reduces scheduling flexibility that employees need, and employers take advantage of this outdated legislation by falsely representing their employees’ jobs, so that they can exploit them by labeling them salaried workers without overtime benefits. Employers also create poor working environments, which are less supportive and directly increase worker burnout. In these environments, employees have work overload, which is positively associated with worker burnout.  

In response, European leaders and decision-makers have implemented a four-day workweek, and saw incredible results. However, the U.S has yet to implement a four-day workweek, despite these results. In the U.S, a four-day workweek will improve employee well-being, increase productivity and revenue, and address widespread societal issues. The four-day workweek will improve employee well-being by reducing work overload and providing scheduling flexibility, proven by researchers at Four Day Week Global. This employee well-being will increase employees’ productivity and, in turn, increase business revenue. Additionally, the four-day workweek addresses various social issues, ranging from racial income inequality, to climate change. These benefits make the four-day workweek the most effective solution at addressing rising worker burnout in the United States.