In mid September 2024, Amazon announced that it will end its hybrid work policy and require staff to return to the office five days a week.

Amazon is not the first company to revert to pre-Covid attendance standards, with many citing a need for increased efficiency and in-person collaboration.

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A negative view of hybrid working will hinder workers’ hopes for other flexible working schemes, including the four-day workweek.

Covid-19 normalised hybrid working

During the pandemic, hybrid working offered employees the opportunity to return to the office two to three times per week and work remotely for the remainder of the week.

The policy was first introduced to accommodate employees contracting Covid-19, giving them the flexibility to work from home instead of having to call in sick. Quickly, the policy became a sought-after employee benefit, enabling employees to reduce the time and cost associated with commuting and achieve a better work-life balance.

Hybrid work has remained an attractive proposition for many workers, however, the further we move away from the pandemic, the more companies have become increasingly critical of the policy.

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Several financial services giants, such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have been particularly outspoken about getting their traders and senior management back into the office full-time, with the tech sector following a similar trajectory. Amazon, UPS, and Dell have all reinstated full-time office policies in 2024.

Where is the four-day workweek?

During the pandemic, some companies recognised the high employee satisfaction with hybrid working and even started offering Friday afternoons off. At the time, this fuelled support for a four-day working week.

Advocates argued that a four-day workweek could help reduce employee burnout, increase retention, and improve employees’ mental and physical health. A trial run conducted by UK Research and Innovation—which involved 61 companies and more than 2,900 employees combined—found that 39% of employees were less stressed and 71% had reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial.

The study also found no drop in productivity, with some company testimonials even finding slight improvements in productivity. In August 2024, the UK government announced plans to give its full-time workers the right to request a four-day work week with compressed hours.

The four-day workweek will not be the norm just yet!

The five-day workweek was not always the standard. The US only officially adopted the five-day work week in 1932 to combat unemployment during the Great Depression.

The change in policy was pushed by Henry Ford, the legendary carmaker, who standardised the five-day 40-hour work week at Ford in 1926.

Despite the clear benefits for employees and the public sector’s partial adoption of a four-day workweek, we will not undergo widespread adoption until the private sector follows suit.

Growing negative attitudes towards hybrid working show corporations are not yet ready to accept flexible working policies, regardless of their potential benefits to productivity levels.

To a company’s balance sheet, four-day work weeks are still seen as a commitment to 100% compensation for 80% of the work.

Jeff Bezos will not be the Henry Ford of our generation, but attitudes toward work-life balance are subject to change, they just won’t change as fast as we might want them to.