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There has been lots of chatter in the past few years about the benefits of a shorter workweek, as some companies have tested out four-day work schedules and other variations on the traditional workweek. Back in 2021, on the heels of the pandemic, California Congressman Mark Takano even introduced a bill to enshrine a 32-hour workweekthough it never garnered enough bipartisan support to progress further. In surveys, a majority of workers have expressed interest in a four-day or 32-hour workweek (with no reduction in pay, of course). Even as some leaders increasingly see the evolution of the workweek as an inevitability, were still a long way from ushering in sweeping changes across the workforce. But a recent report revealed that many employees may already be leaning into a shorter workdayor at least a more flexible workweek. Corporate workers in the U.S. are now clocking out at 4:39 p.m. on average, according to data from the workforce analytics platform ActivTrak. The report found that while employees still log on by 8 a.m., they seem to be working less on average. The average length of the workday is now eight hours and 44 minutes, a decrease of more than 40 minutes from two years ago. However, ActivTrak’s findings also reveal a broader shift in how we work today: More people are logging hours over the weekend, especially at larger companies; and hybrid employees seem to have longer workdays, which could mean they’re wrapping up their work after hours. Many employees, especially caregivers, have said hybrid work enables greater flexibility in their workdays and allows them to set their own schedule. Perhaps the solution to our frustrations with rigid work schedules is a shorter, more flexible workdaynot necessarily a truncated workweek. The challenges of a four-day workweek At tech companies like Bolt and Kickstarter, the shift to a four-day workweek has been popular with employees and a selling point for prospective talent. Still, while a four-day workweek can help alleviate certain workplace challenges, it isn’t a viable option in every job or industry. There are some types of businesses that simply cannot shut down for a full day each week. Also, this type of restructuring may have little benefit for shift workers with long hours. Even among knowledge workers, there’s a risk that cutting a full day would simply result in employees scrambling to cram their work into a shorter week. “Simply shortening the number of days we work wont solve our problem,” wrote Mathilde Collin, CEO of the customer communication platform Front. “In fact, it might even increase stress and burnout: Squeezing more meetings into a shorter number of days means theres even less time to focus and get creative, thoughtful work done.” Why flexible workdays could help Reframing this shift as a shorter workweek, whether that means four full days of work or five truncated workdays, could be a more effective approach. After all, much of the resistance to return-to-office mandates has stemmed from employees wanting to preserve the flexibility they had when remote and hybrid work was the norm. Employees are often just looking for more flexibility in the workday rather than fewer working hours, whether they’re trying to accommodate doctors’ appointments or school pickupsor simply want to take a proper lunch break. That’s why Collin’s company implemented flexible Fridays. “The team felt relief to have a day where they could work if needed, yet nothing was expected of them,” she wrote. “If you need focused time, youve always got it. And if you want to spend time with your kids or take a bike ride or go to a dentist appointment, you can do that guilt-free.” There’s also plenty of research that indicates workers are not necessarily more productive simply because they work longer hours. Adopting a shorter workday or workweek requires a shift in mindset from companies and employees alike, to ensure that they measure output rather than hours logged; it could also mean cutting back on superfluous meetings to give employees time back. And for companies that view a four-day workweek as a drastic measure, giving employees some flexibility to set their own working hours might actually be a better compromiseand a more realistic step in the right direction.
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The last year has seen a global reckoning with the effects of social media on kids. Australia banned children younger than 16 from using social media platform. Jonathan Haidts The Anxious Generation became one of the most purchased books of 2024. And former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for these platforms to create warning labels akin to those on tobacco products. Despite wide acceptance that social media can contribute negatively to childrens social and emotional well-being, families, schools, and governments have no interest in pretending these platforms will eventually fade into obsoletion. Instead, many of these entities are interested in reevaluating and placing guardrails around how children engage with online platforms. At the Fast Company Grill at SXSW earlier this month, executives from Life360, Yondr, and Yotoall tech companies that emphasize finding balance between the online and offline worldaddressed the nuances of when and how children should engage with social media. Tom Ballhatchet, vice president of creative, UX, and innovation at Yoto, is adamant that his business is not anti-tech. The companys signature product, the Yoto Player, is an audio-forward device that users can insert physical cards into to listen to stories, podcasts, music, and more. Other than a tiny display which might show illustrations or cartoon figures, the gadget is completely analog, allowing children to engage with content without the distraction of a screen. Were trying to put kids in control of their listening and learning and education, Ballhatchet said. Parents often tell us that because their kids are in control, that actually gives them a bit of independence back.” Lauren Antonoff, the chief operating officer of Life360, a platform that allows families to keep track of one anothers whereabouts, echoed the idea that technology can be used to facilitate independence. Life360 isn’t designed to be used actively on your phone,” Antonoff said. “It’s designed so that you can put your phone in your pocket and go out and play ball, or go to the store, and your parents can keep an eye on you.”Jennifer Betka, the chief marketing officer of Yondr, a company that makes pouches used to store phones for schools and event venues, wants children to learn about the digital world and what it looks like to practice safe behavior, while preventing overexposure and addiction to these platforms at a young age. The next generation should really be able to live life untethered and strike a healthy balance between their screens and the world around them, she said. Watch the full panel below:
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E-Commerce
Filling an empty gas tank in an SUV might take five or six minutes. A new electric SUV from Chinas BYD can charge its battery in roughly the same amount of time, using one of the companys new EV chargers. Thats a major step forward. It is certainly a feat of engineering to design a battery that can handle this kind of charging speed, says John Helveston, an engineering management professor at George Washington University who studies technological change in China’s EV industry. Tesla does not have battery technology anywhere near this. (BYD’s charger has twice the power of Teslas latest supercharger.) The tech inside BYD’s newest cars, which will soon roll out, can handle 1,000 volts of power. The company’s new EV chargers, meanwhile, are designed to match that, so 249 miles of range can be added to a vehicle in five minutes. BYD now plans to build 4,000 of the new chargers across China. [Image: BYD] In the U.S., many consumers still say theyre hesitating to buy an electric car because of the time they take to charge. Of course, for daily use, many drivers could charge at home, and the range on current EVs is far greater than the typical commute to work. But until a shift happens in consumer perception of how to use a carand for longer-distance drives, or anyone who lives in an apartment without easy access to chargersbetter charging options could be crucial in helping EVs scale up more quickly. China is far ahead of the rest of the world on EV battery tech. “It’s the result of a series of different factors, including strong industrial policy support by China’s government to build out the upstream material supply chain for over a decade now,” says Helveston. (Trump’s current anti-EV policy, meanwhile, is likely to push the U.S. farther behind.) Innovative companies like BYD, he says, are also at the forefront of battery science. The technological development is happening incredibly quickly. “The comparison I hear is that if you have a new charging platform or a new battery chemistry, Volkswagen and BMW will say, ‘Well hustle to put this into our systems, and well put it in five years from now.’ Tesla might say, ‘Well hustle and get it in a year from now.’ China can say, ‘Well put it in three months from now, Dan Wang, a researcher of Chinas technology industry and a fellow at the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School, recently told Heatmap. Installing new tech is also faster. “In China, it is much easier to get approvals and install chargers that can handle these kinds of high-power chargers more quickly, mostly because you only have one entity to work witha state-owned power company,” says Helveston. In the U.S., by contrast, installing high-powered chargers takes more coordination between different players, which means it takes more time and ends up costing more. Chargers that use so much power could put a strain on the electric grid if they’re not managed correctly. If everyone charges at the same time when they’re headed home from work, that could be a problem. On the other hand, if some people use an ultrapowerful charger in the middle of the day, that could actually help grids with extra solar power that might otherwise go unused. As with the charging tech itself, what’s happening with grid management in China could also be a model for the U.S. “Certainly, it is in general better and easier to manage if most EV owners slow charge over longer periods of time, but we are moving to a future where fast charging is just going to be part of the ecosystem,” says Helveston. “Given the level of innovation happening in China’s EV sector, I expect the Chinese grid to be able to develop the technology and processes to better handle these kinds of demands on the grid much more quickly than places like the U.S.”
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