Business communications

Report: 4dayworkweek.edited

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4dayworkweek.edited

by Shah Razzakh Mohammed

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14,125 2,049 136 8 min 11 sec 15 min 45 sec

characters words sentences reading

time

speaking

time

Score Writing Issues

97

This text scores better than 97%

of all texts checked by Grammarly

38 Issues left

2

Critical

36

Advanced

Plagiarism

1 %

2 sources

1% of your text matches 2 sources on the web

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Writing Issues

Unique Words 31%

Measures vocabulary diversity by calculating the

percentage of words used only once in your

document

unique words

Rare Words 37%

Measures depth of vocabulary by identifying words

that are not among the 5,000 most common English

words.

rare words

27 Clarity

14 Passive voice misuse

8 Intricate text

3 Wordy sentences

1 Unclear sentences

1 Hard-to-read text

3 Engagement

3 Word choice

4 Correctness

2 Confused words

2 Misplaced words or phrases

4 Delivery

4 Inappropriate colloquialisms

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Word Length 5.4

Measures average word length characters per word

Sentence Length 15.1

Measures average sentence length words per sentence

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4dayworkweek.edited

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1

4-Day Work Week

Student's Name

Institution/Af�liation

Course

Professor

Date

Part 1

A 4-day work week involves a work schedule with reduced hours rather than a

compressed hour schedule. The paper will focus on the 4-day work schedule,

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focusing on the advantages and disadvantages. The 4-day week schedule is a

contemporary idea being conceived in the corporate world, with organizations

seeking to reap the bene�ts of creating a �exible work schedule for their

employees. Flexible work schedules bene�t both the organizations and the

employees. Flexible work schedules are associated with improved work culture,

increased productivity, reduced costs, and diverse teams. Therefore, the work

seeks to determine the pros of the 4-day work week and the cons of the

schedule and make recommendations based on the evidence.

The 4-day working shift has been evidenced as an answer to many problems

following the pandemic. The Corona Virus pandemic caused a signi�cant shift

in many organizations, especially concerning work arrangements. As

governments develop structures to help with econ0mic recovery, the

proposition of the 4-day work schedule has become widespread, with several

case studies depicting that employing shorter working hours is helpful during

an economic recession. Iceland is among the countries that have evidenced the

success of the 4-day work week as an overwhelming success after trying it out.

The country tried the schedule on 25,000 workers in various industries, and the

trial proved successful, bene�ting both the companies and their employees.

The schedule was associated with improved well-being, low-stress levels,

improved work-life balance, and improved productivity. The study revealed that

a shorter working week within the public sector was successful, thus creating a

need for other governments to learn.

Canada has depicted a solid desire to adopt the 4-day working week schedule.

Advocates argue that the basis of success for this schedule is that employees

are better rested, thus allowing them to be more productive. Companies in

Canada, including Ontario and The Leadership Agency, have implemented this

schedule and have vowed never to return to the traditional working schedule.

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The two companies both agree that the schedule impacted their businesses,

and well-being signi�cantly impacted their employees. Proposers also argue

that this schedule is essential for making society less about work but more

focused on �exibility, well-being, and mental health. Working long shifts and

longer days has been linked to burnout, which can interfere with the

productivity of individuals.

However, despite the signi�cant bene�ts of the 4-day work week, some cons

undermine its effectiveness and success. Capitalism expresses the issue of

labor maximization of the 4-day work week. Capitalism is focused on maximum

labor exploitation and constant pro�t accumulation. Therefore, this point of

view expects that reduced working time will be associated with work

intensi�cation to produce more wealth in a reduced time frame.

Another point of view that is skeptical about the ef�ciency and implementation

of the 4-day work week is that it would be impossible to recover from the

�nancial pain after the pandemic; thus, employees cannot afford to reduce the

workload for their employers. A strong critic of the proposed schedule states

that the plan is a strange reward for bad management, and in a business

setting, the whole week is essential for operations and pro�t generation.

Moreover, the issue of competition also comes into play because an

organization's competition would take advantage of the days the employees

are not working on using it to their advantage. In addition, the opponents also

argue that it is not necessary to take up this schedule to achieve a �exible work

schedule, as is the desire for most employees.

Part 2

As the interest for the 4-day work week in Canada increases, there have been

mixed reactions towards adopting the schedule. The proposes of the schedule

take notes from Iceland, which has openly declared its support for the

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schedule after testing the plan's ef�cacy. The country undertook a study

between 2015 and 2019, where they shortened the working hours for 2500

workers from various industries without cutting their pay (Elliot, 2021).

Numerous employers cut their week to 35- or 36-hours Dow from 40 and

focused on being ef�cient by altering their work patterns, restructuring work

shifts, and cutting meetings. After this study, employees stated that they

experienced signi�cant improvements, including less stress, improved well-

being, and an improved work-life balance during the study period (Elliot, 2021).

The public sector was among the bene�ciaries of the schedule, causing unios

to push for restructuring of their working schedules after the study.

Similarly, Canadian companies, Ontario, and The Leadership Agency are

Canadian companies that have taken a similar approach. The Ontario company

founder vows to never return to the traditional schedule after testing out the 4-

day week. Jamie Savage, the founder of The Leadership Agency in Toronto, also

tested the schedule in October 2020. Savage noted that her employees were

experiencing burnout during the pandemic and therefore sought ways to move

their life quality (Davidson, 2021). She noted that after employing the 4-day

week, her employees could operate more ef�ciently because they were not

overwhelmed at work. According to her, the bene�ts of this schedule outweigh

the fear of most companies against the plan and the fear of productivity loss.

This plan increases productivity because the workforce is better rested and be

energized to be more productive (Fraser Institute, 2021).

The impacts of the 4-day work week have been likened with the WW1 and WWII

era when the government-subsidized working weeks to keep people working.

Similarly, proposers argue that the 4-day work week can help economic

recovery due to the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the economic world.

Work-time reductions are bene�cial and the solution towards mass

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redundancies during economic downtowns. Some countries, including Spain,

Scotland, and New Zealand, are already testing the ef�cacy of this approach.

The approach's bene�ts have been associated with lowering costs, especially

health-related costs, and enhancing civic engagement opportunities (Rapid

Transition, 2021). The employment of the 4-day work week with no loss of pay

can help tackle unemployment and help save employees from burnout and

mental health issues. Long working shifts disproportionately affect women

because they have other duties such as child care outside of work. Therefore,

considering gender inequality, working time reduction and providing suf�cient

childcare support, and amending the gender pay gap successfully help reduce

genre inequality and dispel conventional gender roles.

Additionally, the bene�ts of the 4-day work week have been extended towards

the environment. Lesser working weeks help reduce commuting rates and

energy consumption. The estimates are that reducing working time by 25% can

contribute to a 30% reduction in the ecological footprint (Rapid Transition,

2021). An additional bene�t is that people will engage in less environmentally

damaging activities and more labor-intensive ones, including learning new

skills and cooking food from scratch.

Some companies, such as Buffer, a company dealing with social media

management tools, testi�ed that they still managed to get the same amount of

work done in fewer hours despite working on a reduced working schedule. The

company also says it might not go back to a �ve-day working week again. The

company also reported a more ef�cient and focused workforce after the

schedule. The concept of paying individuals the same amount for fewer working

hours was associated with human �ourishing. This will help in making society

less about work. When employees are provided with an excellent reason to

work harder, they focus more on their most important tasks. Employees can

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have more time outside to manage their lives outside work so that non-work

responsibilities do not interfere with their ability to function in the workplace

as often as when working a long-week schedule.

Despite the signi�cant praises of the 4-day work week, capitalism questions

the ef�cacy of the proposition and takes a neutral stand. The perspective

focuses on labor maximization. Capitalism holds value in labor maximization

and constant pro�t accumulation. Under this perspective, reduction in working

time must be accompanied by work intensi�cation. The rise of automation has

caused an increase in low-paying work as overwork for numerous people exists

simultaneously with high unemployment rates and underemployment rates. It

would be easy to alter the working hours by decreasing the working week,

giving the unemployed workers, and implementing labor-saving technology.

According to the Marxist point of view, the working day length involves the

struggles of capitalists seeking pro�ts and workers �ghting for decent living

standards. The world should �ght for abolishing work drudgery and present

humans with conditions where other disciplines such as art, science, and

culture can �ourish.

Other studies oppose the 4-day week schedule because they observe that the

plan will not be a solution for businesses to recover after the �nancial pain of

the pandemic. The opposers argue that working a four-day week shift would

mean working more hours a day to execute the operations they execute within a

day (Marks, 2021). This can be considerably more than the average working

hours per day. This means that people would not work for more extended

periods, but the few working shifts would mean intense shifts. This would

increase the risk of exhaustion. Therefore, organizations should seek

alternatives rather than taking the 4-day workweek to improve their �exibility

and enhance employee experiences.

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39

Other strong critics cite that the schedule is a strange reward for bad

management. According to these opposers, it is not an excellent sign for

companies to �nd inef�ciencies to shorten their weeks. This means that �rms

were mismanaged; hence the idea of rewarding an organization with shortened

working week is a strange reward (Effron, 2021). Opposers also argue that this

new time should be directed towards jobs that everyone is being paid to do. The

rationale behind this is that every day of the week matters and is essential to

productivity. Moreover, the competition also wants organizations to skip a day

because they will take advantage of the absence to develop competitor-killing

strategies, and organizations cannot compete if they are not in the �eld (Effron,

2021). In addition, they do not see any productivity within four days. Employees

cannot achieve anything more on a shortened schedule, and the plan does not

improve anything for customers, stakeholders, and suppliers.

Authors can improve readability by using short and easy words that any

audience can understand use short sentences. Long sentences can easily lose

meaning and distract the reader from the main focus. User-friendly fonts also

enhance readability because they are friendly to the eye and enhance the

reading experience. Dropping the jargon can help enhance readability to ensure

that a variety of people can understand the content.

Part 3

The 4-day shift has been met with various reactions. The proposers argue it

increases productivity, enhances employee mental health and well-being, helps

conserve the environment, and allows employees to focus more on their jobs.

However, opposers argue that this approach cannot help employers recover

after the pandemic's �nancial dif�culties. There is no productivity in reduced

working hours, every hour counts, and organizations will fall behind in

completion.

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39

I recommend that organizations implement the 4-day work week because,

based on the case studies from companies in Canada and New Zealand, the 4-

day workweek is effective. It is possible to do the same amount of work in a

shortened period. I support the view that employee well-being is essential, and

companies should therefore focus on enhancing this for their employees. I

suggest that research studies the concept of doing the same amount of work in

a shortened period and how stakeholders and suppliers should be considered

under this plan.

References

Davidson, S. (2021). Ontario CEO tests four-day workweek for employees says

she won't go back. CTV News. Retrieved From:

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-ceo-tests-four-day-work-week-for-

employees-says-she-won-t-go-back-1.5621892

Effron, M. (2020). WHY THE 4-DAY WORKWEEK IS A TERRIBLE IDEA. Talent

Quarterly. Retrieved from: https://www.talent-quarterly.com/why-the-4-day-

workweek-is-a-terrible-idea/

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Elliot, J.K. (2021). Iceland's 4-day workweek was deemed an 'overwhelming

success' after trial. Global News. Retrieved From:

https://globalnews.ca/news/8005603/four-day-work-week-iceland/

Fraser Institute. (2021). Achieving the Four-Day Work Week: Essays on

Improving Productivity Growth in Canada. Retrieved From:

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/achieving-the-four-day-work-week

Marks, A. (2021). These are the challenges and downsides to the 4-day

workweek. Fast Company. Retrieved From:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90676319/these-are-the-challenges-and-

downsides-to-the-4-day-workweek

Morris, S. (2018). Is a four-day week possible? Socialist Appeal. Retrieved

From: https://www.socialist.net/is-a-four-day-week-possible.htm

Pinsker, J. (2021). KILL THE 5-DAY WORKWEEK. The Atlantic. Retrieved From:

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/four-day-

workweek/619222/

Rapid Transition. (2021). Work less, recover better? How a shorter working week

answers many post-pandemic problems. Retrieved From:

https://www.rapidtransition.org/stories/work-less-recover-better-how-a-

shorter-working-week-answers-many-post-pandemic-problems/

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1. being conceived Passive voice misuse Clarity

2. Therefore, the work seeks to

determine the pros of the 4-day work

week and the cons of the schedule

and make recommendations based

on the evidence.

Intricate text Clarity

3. been evidenced Passive voice misuse Clarity

4. Word choice Engagement

5. Confused words Correctness

6. is focused Passive voice misuse Clarity

7. Confused words Correctness

8. Wordy sentences Clarity

9. According to her, the bene�ts of this

schedule outweigh the fear of most

companies against the plan and the

fear of productivity loss.

Intricate text Clarity

10. be energized Passive voice misuse Clarity

11. been likened Passive voice misuse Clarity

12. been associated Passive voice misuse Clarity

13. Wordy sentences Clarity

14. disproportionately Misplaced words or phrases Correctness

15. successfully Misplaced words or phrases Correctness

16. Therefore, considering gender

inequality, working time reduction

and providing suf�cient childcare

support, and amending the gender

pay gap successfully help reduce

Unclear sentences Clarity

successful → booming

work week → workweek

work week → workweek

schedule proposes

The employment of the →

The

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genre inequality and dispel

conventional gender roles.

17. been extended Passive voice misuse Clarity

18. This Intricate text Clarity

19. are provided Passive voice misuse Clarity

20. be accompanied Passive voice misuse Clarity

21. This Intricate text Clarity

22. This Intricate text Clarity

23. more Wordy sentences Clarity

24. This Intricate text Clarity

25. Word choice Engagement

26. This Intricate text Clarity

27. were mismanaged Passive voice misuse Clarity

28. be directed Passive voice misuse Clarity

29. being paid Passive voice misuse Clarity

30. Intricate text Clarity

31. Hard-to-read text Clarity

32. Word choice Engagement

33. been met Passive voice misuse Clarity

34. I Inappropriate colloquialisms Delivery

35. I Inappropriate colloquialisms Delivery

36. I Inappropriate colloquialisms Delivery

bad → lousy

Moreover → ¶ Moreover

. Organizations

easily → quickly

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40

37. be considered Passive voice misuse Clarity

38. Inappropriate colloquialisms Delivery

39. and allows employees to focus more

on their

Workplace Learning After The

Pandemic: Why L&D Programs ...

https://fupping.com/annamaria/2

021/08/10/workplace-learning-

after-the-pandemic-why-ld-

programs-need-to-remain-online/

Originality

40. These are the challenges and

downsides to the 4-day workweek.

Fast Company.

These are the challenges and

downsides to the 4-day workweek

https://www.msn.com/en-

us/news/other/these-are-the-

challenges-and-downsides-to-

the-4-day-workweek/ar-AAOsJuT

Originality

won't → will not