The Four-Day Week | Andrew Barnes | TEDxAuckland
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- Опубліковано 14 тра 2024
- The 4 day week is the future of work. When Andrew Barnes trialled this groundbreaking flexibility model at the company he founded in New Zealand, he discovered productivity, engagement, job satisfaction, work-life balance and employee wellbeing had never been better - so the business adopted it full-time. Media, business leaders, and consumers around the world wanted to know how he did it, and how they can introduce flexible working arrangements in their own workplaces - and here, Andrew explains where he got the idea, how he introduced the 4 day week in his business, and what others need to know to play their part in changing how we work, for good. In 2019, Andrew Barnes' book and podcast series about the four-day week, and the future of work is set to be released so he can continue to encourage businesses to take up this revolutionary practice. Andrew has made a career of market-changing innovation and industry digitisation. Most recently, in New Zealand, he triggered a revolution of the entire fiduciary and legal services industries, and the transformation he has led as the founder of Perpetual Guardian has positive implications both locally and globally. This was evidenced by his announcement of the four-day week, which made headlines around the world reaching an audience of over 4 billion people from 35 different countries and leading change in government thinking in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Andrew is a director of Complectus Limited, the company encompassing Perpetual Guardian and several other trustee businesses. He is the director of Coulthard Barnes, chair of the Regional Facilities Auckland board, and chairman of New Zealand payroll provider, PaySauce. PaySauce recently launched a new draw-down service to give employees interest-free access to money they have already earned as soon as they earn it, and is aimed at preventing people having to resort to pay day lenders (which charge up to 700% interest on small loans).
Earlier in his career, Andrew identified the opportunity for the evolution of real estate in Australia and was chairman of realestate.com.au at the time of its IPO on the ASX. Later, he became CEO of Bestinvest, a UK-based investment management and advisory company, leading the sale to private capital in 2007, and was managing director of Australian Wealth Management Limited, a major Australian wealth management and trustee business that he led to IPO in 2005.
Andrew is a sought-after keynote speaker and is regularly asked to address audiences internationally on subjects as diverse as governance, philanthropy and business, leadership, entrepreneurship, team culture and change management topics. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
I have been working 4 days/week for 4 years now and I can tell you it positively impacted my mental and physical health. It positively impacted my family. The pay cut of one day was financially hurtful but worth it since it helped with cutting daycare costs, parking, lunch etc. I spend more time with my children and my aging parents. I work harder for the 4 work days because I want to make sure my team and my work doesn’t suffer because of my choices. I take less time off work since I can schedule all my family and medical appointments on my day off. I need less vacation time since I am more rested when I am off that extra day. We really should start considering 4 day work week more seriously.
This is a wonderful review. Thanks for sharing your story.
I would work for him in a minute! Not only does he understand productivity and where it comes from, but he seems like a person that values his employees well-being.
Worked as an operations specialist for a global company and the first thing that i implemented was giving back to the warehouse workers. Bonus percentage went to them and they worked harder than ever and went from loss to profit. Simple, take care of the ppl making you money and they'll take care of you; idiotic if you think about it
Amazing!! This needs to be widespread!!
I hope south africa gets to see this video andrew Barnes is a real boss,care about the people who work for you.its them who make you who you are.HAPPY WORKERS THE BETER THEY DO THE WORK
I'm a Canadian and I approve this message. 😁
Great insight. Thanks for sharing about how it works for your business. It’s time has come.
This needs more views
We should at least have the option to work a 4 day week.
I am on board!
Loved this talk. Loved the way he examined how productivity in the modern office works, that there can be the same amount of productivity in less time, loved the way he seems to actually value his employees and their well-being. Also appreciated the part about leveling the playing field for men and women re childcare, as well the part about the environment. Love the way it didn't just remain a good idea for him; he actually implemented it in his company. That was brave and groundbreaking. The only part I didn't like was where he strongly emphasized this was "a gift" to employees. No, with all due respect, the true gift is that billions of people get up every day and go to work and sell their labor for less than it's worth so that people like Andrew Barnes can become wealthy. Still, I appreciate Mr. Barnes attitude regarding work. He has gotten the ball rolling as far as the four-day workweek is concerned. If only others could be so open-minded so that this idea could catch on around the world.
I would love to work for him!
You would love to work?
If it ‘has to be earned’, it’s not a ‘gift’ is it? Fair play to him for introducing it, though.
2020 let's do it !!
Tell that to my employer! We have an open-plan-office (only 4 people in it at the moment - more in other parts of the building) with two doors and there constant chatter, constant phone-calls, constant people interrupting, constant trafic through the office etc. and they want me to be productive therer? Forget it, I am doing my best but could do more (in less time!) if I had a) my own office b) no phone (or at least one that doesn't constantly ring!) c) access to headphones and music (I love classical music and it is known to enhance concentration!)
ps: Give me a 5-6 hour-work-day and I bet I will be tons more productive!
5 days, 8 hours but we clean up the work environment and minimize or eliminate all the interruptions and waste through strategic planning and make you and the other workers in the area all more productive for 40. You’re right on though, interruptions destroy work flow. We’ve fixed many similar issues in our own office. Not fully efficient yet, it’s a struggle. But there are tons of ways to creatively boost production and eliminate interruptions. As long as the employer is willing to allow for some creativity from the process owners, yourselves.
@@ronsin9490 it's a toxic way of thinking that deteriorates the mental of the workers and this see's them as nothing but lazy peons.
I'd work HARDER for more TIME off with the same pay. it incentives everyone since they get a whole extra day off with the same pay. That's where the magic happens.
Time is so limited and short and people are only getting smarter. This is a matter of time. it's a no brainer.
@@sahanaru The assumption that everyone would just work harder is completely ridiculous. If you need more incentive than being employed in the first place to do your job (assuming you’re being paid fairly) then your work ethic is already questionable.
@@ronsin9490 less the assumption and more just being human in a corporate world.
Profit and numbers are all anyone cares about. If you can produce the same quality/quanitity of whatever while having more free time for everyone. You'll have happier workers. The truth is young people especially just dont value money as much. We value time/impact on the world. And so much of the 9 to 5 is wasted time.
Life is too fast paced and so many things people want to do but no time to do it.
Life is corrupted and "making it" isnt determined by money anymore no kne cares if you make x amount a year.
All i want to do is pay bills, snowboard. Ill take pay cuts and work fewer hours. But north america will call you in on your days off. Workplace culture of expected ot or bad work ethic.
If my boss sees me as just a number he/she disnt deserve my passionate work ethic. My work-life needa to be respected or ill quit like everyone else post pandemic.
Phone on commute to work sorry.
My company once tried 4 10 hour days. Somehow over the course of the whole year this was "implemented," I only got 2 4 day weeks. Always ended up turning into 5 and occasionally 6 10 hour work days.
I wish my boss would do this, but they're stuck in their ways. I can't stand doing 5 days because I know much of it is a waste.
You should seriously write them a letter and attach the information and video!
CEO’s who operates the 5 days a week are actually damaging the company.
@@commonsense31 During a break, we actually did casually discuss this topic, and the GM & CEO were adamant this would never work.
The problem is that we're a factory (I'm in the office though) and they want to increase output, so reducing work days would be heresy to ever bring up.
InvaderNat Well the person that inspired me to implement it. He owned a Shield and metal factory printing signs and so on.
And he said that productivity and output increased by doing so.
But I also don’t know how much Automation you have at the factory. That could complicate things.
Hm...I don't know if I wouldn't prefer a 6 hour workday for 5 days...sure having an entire day off would be cool, but frankly nobody works for 8 hours straight (unless they are on drugs and they'll pay for that afterwards!)...maybe combining the two (6 hours for 4 days!) would combine both modells for the best results?
come to europe, we work even 12 hours here
@@elviscaragea4433 where do you live brother?
@@lorenztv8958 read
@@elviscaragea4433 europe has many country and greece is quite different from norway you know?
@@lorenztv8958 all are the same
Think pros and cons about it deeply
Let's discuss
Andrew should fly down to meet Elon!!
Elon: I've taken your idea and modified it. Introducing... the 80 hour week! My staff will love me.
@@richardwilde1348 lol
I think I’ll be sending an email to my manager, does unfortunately mean I’ll have to take the hit on pay
as soon as i'm in the building i'm off lol.......what's coffee? seeing all these people making breakfast at 8pm in the staff kitchen boggles my mind.
Drive down actual waste in all your processes before you worry exclusively about boosting productivity by gifts and rewards. Some things to note:
1. Consumerism is 24/7. Only select industries can function in such a way without sacrificing their levels of customer satisfaction.
2. Gains can be misleading and misrepresented. Has your quality of work taken a hit to sacrifice for speed of completion.
3. Guaranteed rewards eventually can drive poor behavior. Once the privilege becomes the perceived right the gift looses its shine and the productivity you've created can suffer.
I genuinely believe there are industries that can thrive in a 4 day work week. I think it is completely impractical to believe that this should be a global standard of any sort. If you ask the question of who would like to get paid to work less the votes will be loud and unanimous. This isn't the only way to motivate a work force or to boost productivity or strengthen the minds and well being of your work force. Focus on eliminating wastes and taking the needless stress out of 40 hours before you worry about cutting 40 to 32. If your waste reduction reaches Toyota levels then have at 'er.
@Labhesh Haria Decision making is absolutely 24/7. Maybe not in a single industry but it absolutely is a 24 hour process. If you invest in machines to take away thinking then you do it across the board and eliminate people and their thinking from the process altogether. If I have a mechanical or robotic means of achieving the same output as a human with surely no doubt as to the quality of output then I make the entire process mechanical or robotic. And in all of those cases you require people to monitor and maintain said devices to some degree or another.
Hiring people, paying them full wages to work less hours, then paying to install, operate and maintain industrial mechanisms to make up the rest of the time in a day seems like a terrible business investment to me. You either use one or the other or use them in tandem for longer extents of time. Compare running a print press fully manually like the old days for 6 hours a day then having industrial print presses fire off newspapers for the remainder of the day. One method would very very clearly usurp the other immediately and render the human process wasteful and inefficient. As I stated, everything is about efficiency of output and waste management. If your processes are littered with figurative and literal waste then it doesn’t matter how many people, machines, or hours in a week you have, you’re losing money. In any case, a utopian belief that one should be rewarded for simply existing is ridiculous. People get paid for services they provide in order to provide further service. Each job/field/company can dangle the carrot of their choice. But actually leaning out your processes from administrative to physical production (when applicable) is where you gain your productivity first.
Case in point: I will never pay you for 6 hours what a machine can do at the same quality rate in equal or less time. I will never invest in a labour force that works 1/4 of the day that can be replicated by machinery for the remaining 3/4. I will invest in machinery to be the full day and a single set of skilled workers to operate and maintain all of this as required. It’s business, not charity. This is not to say business cannot operate without a good morale, kind tendencies and compassion. But inefficient businesses who also throw their money away foolishly become out-of-business businesses.
1. 4 days work, 8 hours a day, 9am to 5pm, 32 hours a week work.
2. 5 days work, 7 hours a day, 9am to 4pm, 35 hours a week work.
...No 10 hour shifts, they are a disaster.
Its 2023 time too change too 4 days a week
i know companies want you to work all days, 4 days is just a dream?
Yes will undepeeress employees but companies do not care about that, they will replace u if you are depressed
This idea would be very limited to only a certain industries if it were to realistically be implemented. Also, the success rate of this idea is likely very inflated, because people will initially be more motivated and passionate to try out a 4day work week. Long-term, a 5day work week does most probably provide increasingly efficient results in contrasts to the lower alternatives.
Serenity good points
You are completely disregarding the mental health and improvements in work life balance and the general health of the people.
Its not about passionate and motivation you should look at.
I know multiple companies that have done this and the CEO’s says it is the best decision they have ever made! And that they were stuck in an outdated vision on productivity and work hours.
We have been trying a five day week for up to 100 years, whilst the fourth industrial revolution has been here for circa 20. I find it interesting that innovation is accepted for everything other than the way we work. Now the facts. Companies in all sectors and many countries have introduced a four day week with significant (30-50%) productivity gains sustained over years. I suggest you trial it... your biggest risk is your largest competitor doing it first.
4 Day Week exactly,
industries with high stress and turnover will inevitably lose employees to other job markets that can do 4-day weeks as they realize their employers cannot/will not employ 4-day weeks because of the nature of the work (healthcare, for one). It will be in the best interest of high stress, 24-7-365 kind of jobs to find a way to make 4-day weeks work in their industry or permanently lose employees quickly to other sectors.
It's really for white collar jobs who can rip off blue collars for the 5th day of work!
andrew yang approves. the government will begin telling the ambitious that they should not have small businesses, everything will be government sanctioned and controlled. the problem si that there is a social structure that is complex. there needs to be room for small businesses and ambitious people who don't want to work 4 days because they work for themsleves or with a small group of others.
some corproations might be able to afford a 4 day work week, but there is onverall debt problem. if government workers work less, shouldn't tax payers PAY LESS?
not so fast.
keynes says we must maintain demand. why not then simply run a govenrment on deficit spending, after all, isn't taxpayer money going to go towards consumption if not collected?
secret answer, is NOT IF RICH PEOPLE or those who spend VERY little, don't spend. there is an economy of spending on unnecessary things.
the flip side of ambition in the MAKING of MONEY. is FRUGALITY in the saving of money.
immigrants are often ambitious AND FRUGAL. these are the two corner stones of building a strong family and strong financial wealth. good habbits.
not everyone has good habbits, and you cannot change this by selling the idea that top down work schedules should allow for more liesure time. the deeper issue is that while it is indeed true that enganced 'productivity' should supposedly provide for a society with everyone having more leisure time in the past, the reality is that society runs on a ratcheting treadmill of escalating consumption and production. the cycle of change ALWAYS moves forwards, you don't just 'get rich' and then suddenly social classes disappear.
classes are an innate product of RELATIVE lazininess and ambition, and RELATIVE consumptives versus frugality.
some families want 8 kids, some don't .
we have lost sight of what's ACTUALLY important in structuing society, and we are in an emergency triage mode where policy makers love to play over messages from th elikes of Barnes and YANG---messages that are not wrong, but are siren songs to those who are afraid of an emergency and disuprtive drop in economic cycle stability which will eventually cause political instability-----these policies include MORE free stuff, MORE LIESURE time and MORE of everything in so far as it can be provided by the state.
but here is the age old flip side. PEOPLE NEED TO SPEND THEIR TIME MORE HUMANELE WITH OTHER PEOPLE. all we have is a discussion of 4 days of work...BUT WHAT DO PEOPLE DO WITH 3 DAYS OF NON WORK?
YEA they relax? they take care of kids? they go to church? they do whatever "they want'.
but that's the issue, THE TOP DOWN WAY OF THINKING can never think that people are independent of the control mechanism. and by pretending this is SO, you have a problem.
people NEED to feel meaning in their life. if you don't keep them busy, and htey don't keep themselves busy with social productive PRIVATE bheavior such as church, or other 'social' groups of meaning, such as boy scouts, or volunteering , or family activity, then you encourage a society of self centered individuals who need to watch more entertainment because they are bored. a society of obese 'foodies'. a society of consumers CONSUMPTING.
this is going to lead to TOTAL SOCIAL ROT. and THAT IS A HUGE PROBLEM. you cannot just talk about advocating policies of more top down granted leisure time without both asking what will people do? and how will tax payers respond?
I wish Andrew Yang was president 😢
If everyone in the world moves to a 4 day week, including teachers, that father would not be able to pick up his kid from school again. It's only cool when some people work 4 days and others work 5. When everyone are on the same schedule, some of the benefits would likely be neutralized.
You are assuming that everyone would be working the same 4 days. Many companies have assigned different employees to a M-TH or Tues-Fri model.
In Capital, Karl Marx ridicules the pompous and grandiloquent bourgeois-democratic great charter of liberty and the rights of man, ridicules all this phrase-mongering about liberty equality and fraternity in general, which dazzles the petty bourgeois and philistines of all countries, including the present despicable heroes of the despicable Berne International. Marx contrasts these pompous declarations of rights to the plain, modest, practical, simple manner in which the question is presented by the proletariat-the legislative enactment of a shorter working day is a typical example of such treatment.
( a great beginning- LENIN)
This is insane. This guy have no idea about industries and their revenue cycles.