Most Employees Prefer Four-Day Work Week, Indians Work Hardest in the World: Report

In global workforce, only one in four employees is content with working five days a week, according to a recent study. It also marks Indians as the hardest working employees, with 69 percent of Indian full-time workers saying they would prefer to work for five days even if they had an option to work for fewer days a week on the same wages, the culture study survey, done by Future Workplace on behalf of the United States-based multinational workforce management company Kronos Incorporated, said.

India is followed by Mexico, with 43 percent of employees saying they were content with working five days a week, PTI reported, citing the report. The United States stood at the third place, with 27 percent employees, while the United Kingdom (16%), France (17%) and Australia (19%) emerged as the least content with working five days a week, it added. 

The survey reported different preferences of employees regarding the length of their ideal work week. When they were asked about the ideal length of work week, keeping the salary constant, 34 percent of global respondents wished to work for four days a week, while 20 percent wanted to work for only three days a week on the same salary. 

Only 28 percent of the global workforce showed eagerness with working for five days a week, and opted for it over fewer working days, keeping the salary unchanged.  

However, 35 percent of global employees were ready to take a 20 percent deduction in salary, if they had an option to work a day less.  

While 50 percent of employees in Mexico, 43 percent in India and 42 percent in France agreed for a pay-cut to work a day less, only 29 percent in Canada and 24 percent in the United States were in favor of the option. 

The survey was conducted between July 31 and Aug. 9, 2018, among 2,772 part-time full and part-time employees in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

The survey also found that 75 percent of full-time employees globally said that they find enough time in a workday to finish their major tasks, while 71 percent said that their work interferes with their personal lives.  

When it comes to overtime, the United States leads the list, with 49 percent employees working more than 40 hours a week. America is followed by India (44 percent), Mexico (40 percent) and Germany (38 percent). 

“It’s clear that employees want to work and do well by their employers, and many roles require people to be present or on call during specific hours to get the job done such as teachers, nurses, retail associates, plant workers, delivery drivers, and nearly all customer-facing roles,” PTI cited Joyce Maroney, executive director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, as saying. 

She added that organizations must help their employees to eliminate distractions, inefficiencies and administrative work, so that they can give their 100 percent at work.