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A Four-Day Work Week?

The joys of snapshot management

June 2008 By Denny Hatch
10

In the News

Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast
SAN FRANCISCO — The onslaught of cellphone calls and e-mail and instant messages is fracturing attention spans and hurting productivity. It is a common complaint. But now the very companies that helped create the flood are trying to mop it up. Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers—theirs and others—cope with the digital deluge.
—Matt Richtel, The New York Times, June 14, 2008
The idea that Microsoft, Intel, Google and IBM have banded together to figure out how to deal with the information overload they made—the glut of e-mail, instant messaging and cell phoning that we’re all drowning in—is fascinating.

Great military, political and civilian leaders are successful when they can concentrate on strategy and delegate the tactics—the implementation of strategy—to subordinates.

What seems to be happening is that 24/7 access to our e-mail and cell phones is causing all of us to lose control of our careers and our lives, and turning us all into involuntary workaholics. We no longer own our jobs.

In business, it’s possible to delegate tasks to others. But you can’t delegate e-mails.

From my recent (and current plunge) into World War II—our trip to the Normandy beaches and the hallowed American cemetery, plus a bunch of reading on the subject—one thing is clear: World War II was won by what I call snapshot management.

It worked then. Why not now?

The New Wall Street Journal Spam Filter
Yesterday I hit my vestigial AOL inbox. It’s vestigial because I keep it around only as a backup, having migrated to Yahoo a couple years ago. I consigned 62 e-mails and 22 Spam messages to oblivion in two minutes and five seconds.

All filters are turned off on my e-mail accounts. Being in marketing, I want to see what’s out there.

In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Lee Gomes reported on the new internal Dow Jones spam filter system. He wrote:

When the service was first turned on, Outlook inboxes were suddenly free of offers for prescription medicines, mortgage refinances, crude erotica and all the other mainstays of the spam economy. Regular e-mail life could resume—spam-free. It looked like another victory for technology in the hands of the good guys. If it seemed too good to be true, well, that happens all the time in the tech world.

Nervous about what he might be missing, Gomes asked the Dow Jones IT folks to let him see what had been quarantined. It turned out that out of 150 reader letters that came in as a result of a column, “20% were sent to the spam bucket and would never have been seen by me if I hadn’t bothered to ask to take a look.”

Takeaway Points to Consider:

* A four-day work week where everybody works smarter, not longer, and deals with the e-mail glut over the long weekend.

* George Marshall suggested that Eisenhower should be able to run the war working four hours a day. How many hours a day are you productive—really?

* Is snapshot management doable in this transactional age where 24/7 information glut forces us to continually question and rethink our decisions? What’s your opinion?

Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:

“Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast”
http://tinyurl.com/5zq6f6

“Governments look for ways to cut energy costs”
http://tinyurl.com/6gkptc

“Real Message About Spam”
http://tinyurl.com/5t2cuu
 

Companies Mentioned:
10

COMMENTS

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Most Recent Comments:
Jane Wilkinson - Posted on June 20, 2008
Denny,
Outstanding article. I have heard the concepts before, but I needed just this reevaluation now. Success depends more on what you actually DO that what you carry around in your head. It feels invigorating and challenging to carve out more time for refreshment rather than find ways to stuff things in. Thanks
Bob Scott - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, as usual, another good piece. In your enumeration of office machines that helped to win World War II, however, you neglected to list Photostats. The huge Photostat machine, which traveled with all Army HQs, produced a negative print and required another pass through to yield a positive version. Its wide rolls of sensitized paper were especially useful for reproducing maps.
Wade Shilts - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, Great article. (I'm tempted to add, "as always," but I know that no one hits a home run every time.) You ask whether snapshot management is doable or not. It had better be, because short of apocalypse, the world isn't going to go back to the pre-information glut days. The key question, though, is how we develop the means to filter that information. Back in the days of D-Day, we only needed Marshall and a relatively small number of those "bright young men." In the nice hierarchical world circa 1940 (or 1980 for that matter), one only needed on the order of 1-10% of the population with those high-level filtering skills. Today, however, where the information doesn't just trickle down from above but comes at us from dozens of directions at once, we need 50-90% of the population to have them. And, unfortunately, easily 50-90% of our educational "institutions," be they traditional higher education or "professional development" in the private sector, are designed to build those skills in a proportion far smaller than the proportion of bright young men required for Marshall's army. Can I be a snapshot manager of my time? Yes. Will "we" as a system develop enough the snapshot managers we need? I dunno.
Alison Taylor - Posted on June 19, 2008
Four-day workweek? YUCK! I hope it never comes to pass. Your last paragraph foreshadows what will come of that: "...take a couple of hours over the long weekend to deal with e-mail..." Next thing you know, a couple of hours turns into all weekend long. I want my weekends free. Most folks I know don't have to check e-mail over the weekend, and I hope I never have a job that requires me to! Once you start doing that, your clients will forever be entangled in your personal life. A 4-day workweek is not the answer to e-mail overload. Our clients are too needy. At my company, too often, employees trying to take a long weekend end up getting sucked into jobs they tried to hand off to someone else. We have clients asking for employee cell phone numbers and snorting when they find out "so-and-so doesn't have a Blackberry?" The answer is for everyone to work smarter. Hey kids, why don't we all slow down and actually work efficiently instead of in "crisis management mode"? I wish my clients read your column, but I already know they're too bogged down in e-mail to read it! LOL!
Wash Phillips - Posted on June 19, 2008
A thought-worthy piece, Denny. Suggest you return to Gloucester Township in a year to see how this works for the town and its citizens. Might herald a new age of laid-back (yet more efficient) government?for a valid reason, this time. Service is the key here. But your most salient point was not workday length 4 days vs. 5. It?s the concept of ?snapshot management.? If we can pare down our info handling and second guessing, and still make valid decisions (micro and macro), that?s the kernel that makes a shorter?and more effective?work week possible. Thanks for the idea, basic though it seems. Now, if I can just resist the temptation to pass along all those amusing emails?
Jim McQuillan - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, we're already on it here in British Columbia, Canada. 'Workers of the World Relax' -- Vote for the Work Less Party. www.worklessparty.org. Cheers,
denise williams - Posted on June 19, 2008
Hi Denny --I started my 4-day work week (from home) in February 08. I am well rested, more creative, less stressed about commuting and fuel prices and get more done than I ever have before. There are Fridays that I must be present on calls / servicing clients, but it's brief and productive and it's understood that "it will get done." Long live the 4-day work week! Denise Williams, Director of Marketing, Goodman Marketing Partners
Clement Lisi - Posted on June 19, 2008
I have been saying for the last 5 years, we would conserve a ton of energy, if the retail sector would eliminate 24/7 operations, and go back to closed Sunday's. People would get accustomed to the strange "family" day off or being together.
Arnold Howard - Posted on June 19, 2008
Hi Denny, The company where I work has been on the four-day week since the 70s. There is very little employee turnover, because having Fridays off is like taking a holiday every week. And it doesn't take long to get used to 10-hour days. After a few weeks 10 hours seem like eight. The factory starts at 7:00 a.m. and leaves at 5:30 p.m. Because we arrive early and stay late, we avoid some of the heaviest traffic. The factory overtime is on Fridays, which gives employees the weekend to make extra money in part-time work if they need it. To handle customer calls, we have two people in the office on Fridays. They go home at noon. For most businesses, the 4-day work week is definitely viable. It is an easy way to save gasoline. Sincerely,
Arnold Howard, Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
Tom Cannon - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, The flood of information we deal with these days is merely the current challenge to separate the truly important from the merely "urgent." Marshall had it right; Eisenhower had worked for MacArthur for 8 years and some of that rubbed off on him. He recovered and his leadership from D-Day on to the end of the war and on to the Presidency was exceptional. Later, Tom
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Jane Wilkinson - Posted on June 20, 2008
Denny,
Outstanding article. I have heard the concepts before, but I needed just this reevaluation now. Success depends more on what you actually DO that what you carry around in your head. It feels invigorating and challenging to carve out more time for refreshment rather than find ways to stuff things in. Thanks
Bob Scott - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, as usual, another good piece. In your enumeration of office machines that helped to win World War II, however, you neglected to list Photostats. The huge Photostat machine, which traveled with all Army HQs, produced a negative print and required another pass through to yield a positive version. Its wide rolls of sensitized paper were especially useful for reproducing maps.
Wade Shilts - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, Great article. (I'm tempted to add, "as always," but I know that no one hits a home run every time.) You ask whether snapshot management is doable or not. It had better be, because short of apocalypse, the world isn't going to go back to the pre-information glut days. The key question, though, is how we develop the means to filter that information. Back in the days of D-Day, we only needed Marshall and a relatively small number of those "bright young men." In the nice hierarchical world circa 1940 (or 1980 for that matter), one only needed on the order of 1-10% of the population with those high-level filtering skills. Today, however, where the information doesn't just trickle down from above but comes at us from dozens of directions at once, we need 50-90% of the population to have them. And, unfortunately, easily 50-90% of our educational "institutions," be they traditional higher education or "professional development" in the private sector, are designed to build those skills in a proportion far smaller than the proportion of bright young men required for Marshall's army. Can I be a snapshot manager of my time? Yes. Will "we" as a system develop enough the snapshot managers we need? I dunno.
Alison Taylor - Posted on June 19, 2008
Four-day workweek? YUCK! I hope it never comes to pass. Your last paragraph foreshadows what will come of that: "...take a couple of hours over the long weekend to deal with e-mail..." Next thing you know, a couple of hours turns into all weekend long. I want my weekends free. Most folks I know don't have to check e-mail over the weekend, and I hope I never have a job that requires me to! Once you start doing that, your clients will forever be entangled in your personal life. A 4-day workweek is not the answer to e-mail overload. Our clients are too needy. At my company, too often, employees trying to take a long weekend end up getting sucked into jobs they tried to hand off to someone else. We have clients asking for employee cell phone numbers and snorting when they find out "so-and-so doesn't have a Blackberry?" The answer is for everyone to work smarter. Hey kids, why don't we all slow down and actually work efficiently instead of in "crisis management mode"? I wish my clients read your column, but I already know they're too bogged down in e-mail to read it! LOL!
Wash Phillips - Posted on June 19, 2008
A thought-worthy piece, Denny. Suggest you return to Gloucester Township in a year to see how this works for the town and its citizens. Might herald a new age of laid-back (yet more efficient) government?for a valid reason, this time. Service is the key here. But your most salient point was not workday length 4 days vs. 5. It?s the concept of ?snapshot management.? If we can pare down our info handling and second guessing, and still make valid decisions (micro and macro), that?s the kernel that makes a shorter?and more effective?work week possible. Thanks for the idea, basic though it seems. Now, if I can just resist the temptation to pass along all those amusing emails?
Jim McQuillan - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, we're already on it here in British Columbia, Canada. 'Workers of the World Relax' -- Vote for the Work Less Party. www.worklessparty.org. Cheers,
denise williams - Posted on June 19, 2008
Hi Denny --I started my 4-day work week (from home) in February 08. I am well rested, more creative, less stressed about commuting and fuel prices and get more done than I ever have before. There are Fridays that I must be present on calls / servicing clients, but it's brief and productive and it's understood that "it will get done." Long live the 4-day work week! Denise Williams, Director of Marketing, Goodman Marketing Partners
Clement Lisi - Posted on June 19, 2008
I have been saying for the last 5 years, we would conserve a ton of energy, if the retail sector would eliminate 24/7 operations, and go back to closed Sunday's. People would get accustomed to the strange "family" day off or being together.
Arnold Howard - Posted on June 19, 2008
Hi Denny, The company where I work has been on the four-day week since the 70s. There is very little employee turnover, because having Fridays off is like taking a holiday every week. And it doesn't take long to get used to 10-hour days. After a few weeks 10 hours seem like eight. The factory starts at 7:00 a.m. and leaves at 5:30 p.m. Because we arrive early and stay late, we avoid some of the heaviest traffic. The factory overtime is on Fridays, which gives employees the weekend to make extra money in part-time work if they need it. To handle customer calls, we have two people in the office on Fridays. They go home at noon. For most businesses, the 4-day work week is definitely viable. It is an easy way to save gasoline. Sincerely,
Arnold Howard, Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
Tom Cannon - Posted on June 19, 2008
Denny, The flood of information we deal with these days is merely the current challenge to separate the truly important from the merely "urgent." Marshall had it right; Eisenhower had worked for MacArthur for 8 years and some of that rubbed off on him. He recovered and his leadership from D-Day on to the end of the war and on to the Presidency was exceptional. Later, Tom