See You at the Office on Friday?

Abstract

The content, form and function of work and labour have been discussed for several decades. Within the last couple of years, concepts like work-life balance, hybrid work and remote work have created new ways of looking at our working lives. Now another phenomenon, a four-day workweek, has started to gain traction. Several studies have shown how a four-day workweek increases the well-being of workers. But will an organization always cherish the implementation of a four-day workweek? In Denmark, the accounting industry is known for anything but working four days a week. Most commonly, accountants are more prone to working six rather than five days a week due to overtime hours. Despite this, several audit firms have begun to implement a four-day work week. This paradox sparked our curiosity.

So, what is at stake when audit houses start implementing a four-day workweek? This paper aims to investigate and answer the following question: In the accounting industry, what kind of interpretations and reactions do people have regarding the implementation of a four-day workweek? And how does these interpretations and reactions relate to the ability of achieving a four-day workweek?

The scientific theory of this paper is philosophical hermeneutics. Based on qualitative methodology, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders and employees from three audit firms.

Based on different theoretical conceptualizations of change, we find that people interpret the implementation of a four-day workweek in several ways. We find that employees and leaders have both negative and positive reactions towards the implementation. Additionally, we find that their reactions can be conceptualized as being threefold. We conclude that especially leaders’ interpretations and reactions are important for achieving a four-day workweek. This is so, as leaders’ interpretations and reactions relate to their ability to acknowledge and proactively use employee resistance to improve the implementation of a four-day workweek.