Is the Philippines Ready for a Four-Day Workweek?

(SPOT.ph) It’s been more than a year since Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua proposed a four-day workweek amid soaring fuel prices to former President Rodrigo Duterte. In his proposal, employees would have to work 10 hours per day in exchange for having one work day off.

“Each Filipino will still work 40 hours per week. But instead of five days, it will be four; instead of eight hours a day, it will be 10 hours a day,” Chua was quoted as saying in Inquirer.net. His ask never came to fruition (except in Iloilo City), but serious considerations of a four-day workweek remain in several workplaces.

The benefits of a four-day workweek have been established for years based on pilot testing in other countries: improved work-life balance, lower costs, increased productivity, and fewer absenteeism. Chua’s proposal isn’t new. In fact, the House of Representatives has approved the third and final reading of a bill with this same proposal of a four-day workweek back in 2018, but to no outcome.

But all this chatter about a four-day workweek should come with a solid game plan, according to Mendiola Teng-Calleja, Executive Director for Ateneo’s Center for Organization Research and Development (CORD). CORD is the research and training arm of Ateneo’s Department of Psychology that helps organizations with human resources and management.

“I think that one day off from work will balance things out,” Teng-Calleja said in an interview with SPOT.ph. “But in principle, what’s the logic behind it? That’s the question that the government and organization leaders have to ask themselves. Why will you do it? How does this setup align with your strategies and philosophies as an organization?”

Also read: 4-Day Workweek Gets DOLE Support, How Will It Work?

The case for other countries

Discussions on this kind of setup re-emerged after a recent study in the UK found that half of employees who took part in the pilot run for a 32-hour workweek experienced less stress and better sleep. Of the 61 companies involved in this trial phase, 56 said they would continue with this setup.

It’s exciting to fantasize a future where the Philippines could pattern after this reality, but the case for other countries can’t be the same for us. If anything, calling it a four-day workweek is a misnomer. What we really mean is a compressed workweek, where employees are tasked to retain the same 40 hours of work per week.

With this said, is compressing 40 hours of week in four days manageable for the Filipino worker? For Teng-Calleja, it’s an easy yes: “10 hours would not be that big of a deal as long as organizations would really consult employees before they implement this…If you know what’s expected of you, those two extra hours will really be able to cover the one day [lost].”

However, it’s not that simple—and Filipino workers know it. There are various contextual factors that make it impossible for everyone to get on board with this proposal. Others aren’t so thrilled with the idea of sleep being the only thing you can do once you get home from 10 hours of work in the office when factoring in the hell that is commuting in the Philippines.

“Those advantages and disadvantages will persist if this will be implemented. We also have to think of how work is done in the private sector, especially now that there are a lot of individual contributors that are not monitored in terms of work hours,” Teng-Calleja said.

Challenging work norms

The truth of the matter is that work does not stop the moment we step out of the office. The same can be said for remote and hybrid workers, where working from home usually leads to an increase in working hours.

“One thing that is different in the UK and the Philippines is that our work norms are not European. In Europe, they’re very strict about work hours; in the Philippines, you really work beyond eight hours. That’s part of our work norms,” Teng-Calleja said. “It’s even difficult to get people to go on vacation.”

The introduction of hybrid work has also made it more complicated for us to pursue a true four-day workweek. Without a proper clock-in and clock-out system, remote workers are almost expected to be on-call 24/7. This is reflected in one of CORD’s researches during the pandemic, which found that there are no actual “work hours” in the Philippines. It’s common for bosses to contact workers on a weekend, and even more common for on-site or online meetings to extend past working hours.

“The challenge is…we have to be mindful that if it’s a day away from work, dapat day away from work talaga,” Teng-Calleja said. “You don’t email people and expect a response. ‘Yan ang worry ko.”

Teng-Calleja explained that the compressed workweek in a post-pandemic world is contingent on so many factors, especially since we’re so used to giving work online: “That has no physical boundaries.” It’s not so much if employees can do the whole ten hours, but if there are systems in place to make sure that work distribution in this proposed setup is fair to employees.

At the end of the day, implementation of this revised work schedule is still the prerogative of employers. This is why there should be a proper recalibration and reassignment on workforce plans.

“You have to think about how to do it. Do you do this by team? Will it be the same for all? Four days operations mo, one day closed office mo? Will there be shifts when people will be at work? If not everyone on the team will be onsite at the same time, what will happen to supervisors who will not see employees? How do you now manage this? A lot of supervisors [still have] the mindset that you’re only working if I see you working in the office.”

Also read: More Working Hours Equals More Productivity?

Conclusion on the four-day workweek

So, is the Philippines ready for a four-day workweek? Teng-Calleja is proposing a three-point checklist that every organization should complete before even considering the possibility of this setup:

• Do we respect people’s time away from work?
• Are we able to plan employee work output efficiently and effectively? 
• Is this something our employees would like or find helpful?

Unless we change our work norms, Filipino workers won’t be experiencing less stress and better sleep anytime soon, even with the offer of a compressed workweek on the table.

“Before mo sabihin na ready tayo, this has to be reflected on and reviewed. Employees have to be consulted,” Teng-Calleja said. “Ang mahirap kasi sa atin, we dive into things without much preparation. In the end, it’s the employees that suffer. That’s the sad part.”