The benefits of a four-day workweek, according to a champion of the trend [Video]
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Remote Working Psychology

The benefits of a four-day workweek, according to a champion of the trend [Video]

Companies exploring the option of letting employees work four days a week hope to reduce job burnout and retain talent seeking a better work-life balance, according to the chief executive of an organization that promotes the idea.Video above: Many Americans think they’ll never retireThe trend is gaining traction in Australia and Europe, says Dale Whelehan, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, which coaches companies through the months-long process of shortening their employees’ work hours. Japan launched a campaign in August encouraging employers to trim work schedules to four days.American companies haven’t adopted four-day weeks as broadly, but that could change. Eight percent of full-time employees polled by Gallup in 2022 said they work four days a week, up from 5% in 2020.The Associated Press spoke with Whelehan about the reasons why companies might want to consider the change. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.Q: Why should organizations switch to a four-day workweek?A: The bigger question is, why shouldn’t they? There’s a lot of evidence to suggest we need to do something fundamentally different in the way we work. We have issues of burnout. We have a recruitment and retention crisis in many industries. We have increased stress within our workforce, leading to health issues, issues with work-life balance, work-family conflict. We have people sitting in cars for long periods, contributing to a climate crisis. We have certain parts of the population that are able to work longer hours and therefore be rewarded for that, creating further inequity within our societies. Lastly, we look at the implications that stress actually has on long-term health. We know that it’s linked to issues like cardiovascular disease, to cancer, to diabetes. So stress is something not to be taken lightly, and it’s only rising in our world of work.Q: Why is the 40-hour workweek so common?To understand where we are now, let’s take a step back into pre-industrial times. My granddad was a farmer, worked seven days a week and was required on-site all the time. It was a lot of long hours, but also he had a lot of autonomy.By the time my dad entered the workforce, he was a technician in a mechanical role. And he was expected to produce products on a large scale. As a result he wasn’t given the rewards from farming, but was given a salary. That change from my grandfather’s time to my dad’s brought about the birth of a discipline known as management. And management, led by Frederick Taylor, was looking at the relationship between fatigue and performance. A lot of scientific studies were done to try to understand that relationship, leading to the need for a five-day week as opposed to a six-day week. By the time I entered into the workforce, we no longer had a very physical, laborious workforce. It’s highly cognitive and highly emotional.The fundamental physiological difference is that our brain as a muscle can’t withstand the same level of hours of work as our muscles in our body might be able to. So it’s that mismatch between an outdated work structure of 40 hours, rooted in very physical labor, and what is now a highly cognitive workforce.Q: How can companies increase revenue while employees work fewer hours?A: The reduction of working time brings about productivity gains by people having naturally more time to rest and recover, allowing them to come back into a new week more engaged and well-rested. That’s one way in which you see productivity gains. The second is the fundamental shift that organizations undergo while transitioning to a four-day week.When we work with organizations, we use what’s called a 100-80-100 principle. So 100% pay for 80% time for 100% output. We ask organizations to design their trials in that sort of philosophy: How can you keep your business at the same level or improve while working less? The fundamental change we see is, let’s move away from thinking about productivity as how much time it takes to get something done, versus focusing on what outcomes we know drive businesses forward.Q: How does a four-day workweek support equity?A: Disproportionately high amounts of part-time workers are female. As a result, women typically take a reduction in pay. That’s despite the fact that, based on the evidence that we’ve seen in trials, those part-time workers are producing the same output as their five-day-week counterparts.In four-day week trials, everyone embarks on the journey. So we see men taking on greater levels of responsibilities in household or parenting responsibilities.The alternative situation is women take part-time work, reduce their pay. Men have to work longer hours at a higher salaries and more stressful jobs in order to make up the deficit. … It just creates this vicious cycle.Q: What kinds of work could potentially be dropped to increase productivity?A: Meetings. We are addicted to meetings. It’s just gotten worse and worse since the pandemic. I think a lot of that comes from a culture of indecisiveness. There’s a sense of not wanting to make decisions, and therefore delaying the process or involving many people in the process so that everyone has a responsibility, and thus no one has responsibility. And that is not good when it comes to the greater issue of productivity.

Alcohol-free beer is gaining popularity, even at Oktoberfest [Video]
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Work from Home Lunch

Alcohol-free beer is gaining popularity, even at Oktoberfest [Video]

The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, has a secret: He really likes alcohol-free beer.Even though he’s quick to say he obviously enjoys real beer more, Tobias Zollo says he savors alcohol-free beer when he’s working or eating lunch. It has the same taste but fewer calories than a soft drink, he said, thanks to the brewery’s process of evaporating the alcohol.”You can’t drink beer every day unfortunately,” he joked last week at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, about 20 miles north of Munich.Zollo isn’t alone in his appreciation for the sober beverage. Alcohol-free beer has been gaining popularity in recent years as beer consumption shrinks.At Weihenstephan, which was founded as a brewery in 1040 by Benedictine monks, non-alcoholic wheat beer and lager now make up 10% of the volume. The increase over the last few years, since they started making alcohol-free drinks in the 1990s, mirrors the statistics for the rest of Germany’s beer industry.”The people are unfortunately I have to say that as a brewer unfortunately drinking less beer,” Zollo said Friday, the day before Oktoberfest officially started. “If there’s an alternative to have the crisp and fresh taste from a typical Weihenstephan beer, but just as a non-alcoholic version, we want to do that.”Even at Oktoberfest arguably the world’s most famous ode to alcohol alcohol-free beer is on the menu.All but two of the 18 large tents at the festival offer the drink through the celebration’s 16 days. The sober beverage will cost drinkers the same as an alcoholic beer between 13.60 and 15.30 euros ($15.12 and $17.01) for a 1-liter mug (33 fluid ounces) but save them from a hangover.”For people who don’t like to drink alcohol and want to enjoy the Oktoberfest as well, I think it’s a good option,” Mikael Caselitz, 24, of Munich said Saturday inside one of the tents. “Sometimes people feel like they have more fun with alcohol, which is not a good thing because you can also have fun without alcohol.”He added: “If you want to come and drink alcohol-free beer, nobody will judge you.”This year marked the first time an alcohol-free beer garden opened in Munich. “Die Null,” which means “the zero” in German, served non-alcoholic beer, mocktails and other alcohol-free drinks near the city’s main train station this summer but was scheduled to close a few day before Oktoberfest opened.Walter Konig, managing director of the Society of Hop Research north of Munich, said researchers have had to breed special hops varieties for alcohol-free beer. If brewers use the typical hops for alcohol-free beer, the distinct aroma gets lost when the alcohol is reduced during the brewing process.But customers don’t care about that, Konig said Friday as he prepared for Oktoberfest.”They only want to know that what they are tasting is as good as traditional beers with alcohol,” he said.

Kentucky judge had lunch with the sheriff now arrested in his killing, court clerk says [Video]
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Work from Home Lunch

Kentucky judge had lunch with the sheriff now arrested in his killing, court clerk says [Video]

A local sheriff ate lunch with a prominent district judge hours before allegedly shooting the judge in his chambers, according to a court official, who said the killing last Thursday has stunned the small community of Letcher County, Kentucky.Circuit Clerk Mike Watts saw District Judge Kevin Mullins and Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shortly before noon on Thursday, he told WKYT, describing the kind of encounter that might happen among coworkers in any workplace across the country.We were kind of joking around about national politics And then I talked to the sheriff about attending the sheriffs association (conference) last week in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and asked him how that went, Watts said. And then they went down the street to eat lunch.Later that day, Stines, 43 a man whose role made him responsible for judges personal security fatally shot Mullins, 54, inside the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, according to Kentucky State Police. Stines was arrested at the courthouse and is now facing a first-degree murder charge, authorities said.What transpired in the judges chambers moments before the fatal shooting that afternoon is unclear, though state police said the preliminary investigation indicated an argument took place between the two men inside the judges chambers.After the heated conversation, a 911 call reported shots fired on the second floor of the courthouse just before 3 p.m., then the district judge of 15 years was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead, Kentucky State Police said.The whole county is just devastated by this, Watts said, nodding to the void left in the local justice system. Weve not only lost our sheriff and district judge, but Ive lost two personal friends that I worked with daily.I dont know what happened or, or what the reason was, Watts said. I know Kentucky State Police are investigating it and I feel confident that they will hopefully provide some answers on, on why and maybe that will be able to help us all heal.But the entire county and community is just in shock.Letcher Countys sheriff of eight years is being jailed in Leslie County and his first court appearance is scheduled for September 25 before a judge in Carter County, said Jackie Steele, the Commonwealths Attorney assigned to the case. CNN is trying to determine whether Stines has an attorney.In Kentucky, sheriffs are responsible for security at courthouses including the personal security of judges according to Jerry Wagner, a retired sheriff who is now the executive director of the Kentucky Sheriffs Association.We have 120 sheriffs that work on a daily basis with our judges. We work more closely with them than any other elected officials, Wagner told CNN Friday. No one saw this coming.A funeral for Mullins was scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Jenkins, Kentucky, according to Hall and Jones Funeral Home. In remembrance of Mullins, flags at all Kentucky Court of Justice facilities will be lowered to half-staff through Monday.Speaking outside the funeral on Sunday, the towns former mayor and friend of Mullins, Garnard Kincer Jr. told WYMT that the judge had been dedicated to his job and a great person.He was kind, he wanted to help people and he spent most of his career doing that, Kincer said.He was a wonderful friend and there was no boundaries for what he wouldnt do for you.Kincer told WYMT that he was shocked by Mullins’ death and puzzled as to what could have led to the tragedy. I wouldnt have imagined that he would have ever been in a situation like that, he said. But of course, all judges and all people in the in the judicial system face that possibility every day.Mullins killing had brought a lot of negative attention to the community, despite the limited details available, Kincer said. Its been a like a big cloud, dark cloud over us that we, that we dont deserve.The former mayor said he would wait for the case to play out in court. Weve got a great governor, we got a great attorney general and weve got a great judicial office in Letcher County.Matt Butler, commonwealths attorney for the county, earlier also expressed confidence in his community: If you knew Letcher County, you would know that families stay tightly connected at all times and pull even more tightly together during times of unspeakable tragedy like today.Mullins is survived by his wife and two daughters, his obituary states. He died in his chambers of the courthouse where he spent his career working to help people, the obituary says.As a passionate advocate for recovery efforts across Kentucky, Mullins worked to address the opioid epidemic by providing access to treatment and helped those affected by substance use disorders, mental illness and disabilities, according to his obituary.We all know each otherIn Letcher County, we all know each other, Butler said. Thats why the killing involving two high-profile elected officials sent shockwaves through the community, and left friends of both the sheriff and judge struggling to understand why it had happened.Butler recused himself and his office from the sheriffs prosecution because he and the judge married two sisters and their children act more like siblings than cousins, he said in a statement Thursday evening. Butler added that he had a close professional relationship with both Mullins and Stines, he said in a video statement on Facebook Friday.Our community has suffered an act of violence that appears to be between two men that I have worked with for seventeen years and loved like brothers, Butler said in a social media post.Ben Gish, the editor of Mountain Eagle, a local weekly newspaper, told CNN none of us could imagine anything like this happening in this day and time, but the impact of the tragedy will be long-lasting.I cant imagine the scar this will leave on our community, Gish said.In the aftermath of the killing, Whitesburg residents are grieving the death of Mullins, who had a passion for helping others, the obituary said. He helped develop a program that links people involved with the justice system to treatment services, according to his obituary. In 2022, The Supreme Court appointed Mullins to the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health, where he worked to improve the courts approach to behavioral health.His colleagues deeply respected him and his loss will be profoundly felt throughout Kentuckys court system, the obituary said.For Butler, hell always remember Mullins as a family member who was fun to be around, he said.We have always got along. I always thought he was hilarious. I always thought he was very witty, he said in the video statement.Kentucky police search for motiveKentucky State Police are investigating how the deadly shooting unfolded and what the argument leading up to it was about. To do that, theyll be looking at footage from cameras inside the courthouse and interviewing all witnesses who were in the building, Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said.We know that it was an argument between the two that led up but what exactly transpired prior to the shots being fired, those are still things that were trying to get answers to, Gayheart said at a Thursday evening news conference.This is the first time a tragedy of this magnitude has afflicted the county, Gayheart said.Kentucky Attorney General Russell Colemans office will work with commonwealths attorney Steele as special prosecutors on the case, he said in a statement Thursday. We will fully investigate and pursue justice, Coleman said.As a result of the shooting, circuit and district courts, as well as the office of the circuit court clerk, will be closed until operations can resume, the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts said Thursday.Once the courts reopen, a retired judge will temporarily take over district court cases until a Judicial Nominating Commission selects Mullins replacement, spokesperson Jim Hannah told CNN Friday.On Monday, just days before the shooting, Stines was deposed in an ongoing federal lawsuit involving a former deputy who coerced a woman to have sex with him in 2021. The lawsuit alleges the sexual allegations against the deputy were not appropriately investigated by Sheriff Stines, who fired the deputy in 2022.Jonathan Shaw, the attorney representing Stines in his official capacity in the lawsuit, told CNN in an email he did not have the authority to speak on Stines personal behalf in the federal suit or the murder case.