Editor’s Notice: This story initially appeared on The Penny Hoarder.
Does a four-day workweek sound good to you? Three-day weekends perpetually and ever? Does that sound interesting?
If it does, we’re going to have a look at what your most life like choices are for getting a job with a four-day workweek.
We’re additionally going to speak about the best way to search for a four-day workweek job, the best way to interview for one and the best way to modify 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 workers favored it a lot, they determined to maintain the association.
Right here’s the best way to make it occur for you, too.
Methods to Search for a 4-Day Workweek Job
If you happen to’re searching for a job, the very first thing you’re most likely going to do is hit up one of many many free job boards yow will discover on-line. So make “4 day workweek” a goal of your looking.
Certainly has a class for four-day workweeks. So does ZipRecruiter. So does LinkedIn. You’ll be able to additional slender it down by looking by location, by job sort, by wage, even by firm.
It’s essential to refine your search and slender it down as a lot as attainable. In any other case, the job website’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 apply doctor in Indianapolis … you get the thought.
It’s additionally essential to strive totally different job boards and to strive 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, in the event you’re searching for a 32-hour-a-week job, be particular and seek for “32 hour workweek.”
The Most Frequent 4-Day Workweek Jobs
Once we went searching for four-day workweek jobs on Certainly, LinkedIn, Monster, ZipRecruiter and different free job boards, we seen that the identical 4 sorts of jobs saved 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 varied job websites, these careers are the most probably strategy to do it.
1. Software program Engineer/Tech Employee
To utterly nobody’s shock, a bunch of tech startups seem like the commonest varieties of firms in America which are making the swap to four-day workweeks.
“Work shouldn’t suck,” the digital advertising and marketing firm Justuno introduced final 12 months. “Quite, we wish to encourage our staff to care for themselves, decompress, and deal with the life aspect of work-life steadiness.”
Right here’s a number of tech firms which are doing the identical factor:
- Basecamp, a undertaking 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 initiatives get funded
- Nectafy, an internet content material supplier
- Praytell, a digital communications company
- Uncharted, a “social impression accelerator” in Denver
Clearly you must have the fitting talent set for this business. However in the event you do, this is among the most life like 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 extremely in demand. Once we looked for four-day workweek gigs on numerous job boards, we discovered listings for truck drivers. In case you have a industrial driver’s license, you most likely have choices.
We additionally noticed loads of listings for Amazon supply drivers in numerous 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 undoubtedly not for everybody.
If you happen to’re searching for a four-day workweek, although, it might be one risk.
3. Nurse or Physician
Right here’s only a sampling of four-day workweek gigs within the medical discipline that we discovered on numerous 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 unit Employee
We discovered Monster to be an particularly good place to seek out these jobs.
On any given day, employers might 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 want to persuade your potential employer which you can operate — and even thrive — with a four-day workweek.
Be ready to emphasize the way you set up and prioritize your work, and the way you take care of time constraints. If you happen to’ve ever labored a brief week or bizarre shifts earlier than, that’s clearly key.
“Our workers are working very consciously and we’re working exhausting. 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 unimaginable impression.”
Dealing With a 4-Day Workweek Job
So that you’ve lastly gotten your self a four-day workweek! Congrats! Now all it’s important 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 completed in 4 days as a substitute of 5.
It may be an enormous adjustment.
“Entering into the routine of working 10- or 11-hour shifts could also be troublesome after beforehand working eight- or nine-hour days. Chances are you’ll end up feeling extra burned out on the finish of a 10-hour shift,” the nationwide trucking firm Schneider advises job candidates.
“Nonetheless, with time and as you modify, longer shifts will turn out to be simpler to handle. Plus … having that third break day provides you with extra time to recharge.”
Is a Normal 4-Day Workweek Coming to America?
In all probability not anytime quickly.
Our commonplace five-day, 40-hour workweek dates again to 1940. That’s when Congress amended the Truthful Labor Requirements Act to require employers to pay time beyond regulation after 40 hours of labor per week.
Earlier than that, longer workweeks have been extra typical.
In early March 2023, a U.S. congressman launched a invoice that will make the 32-hour workweek a nationwide commonplace. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., is attempting to decrease the edge that triggers time beyond regulation pay from 40 hours to 32.
However politically, that’s a extremely exhausting 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 just lately requested a few of its specialists if the U.S. might embrace a four-day workweek.
“By no means say by no means. However I’m not anticipating it taking place anytime quickly,” mentioned Wharton administration professor Matthew Bidwell. “We’re a little bit of a workaholic nation.”
“I truthfully don’t imagine our employers are going to imagine which you can get as a lot work completed in 4 days as in 5,” added assistant administration professor Lindsey Cameron. “We see the refined stress they’re exerting to get their workers to get again into the workplace now.”
A four-day workweek might occur for you, although.
All it’s important to do is locate the fitting job.
