4-Day Work Week Trial Feedback and Rethinking Degrees: TOP 5 Trends From The World Of Work

“Life-changing.”

“Genuinely chaotic.”

“The five-day working week is a 20th century concept, which is no longer fit for the 21st century.”

The first feedback from the world’s largest 4-day work week experiment is here, and it’s giving us an inside look at the future of work. Would you switch to a 4-day work week?

What else matters this week?

Wanted: a bookseller for a year on a luxury island in the Maldives.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri to relocate to London.

BP boosts dividend after profit hits 14-year high.

Why do recruiters ghost candidates?

Apple, Amazon defy economic gloom.

Is your smartphone ruining your memory?

We’ve got a full breakdown of all the top headlines you can’t miss this week.

What remote work debate? One category of office workers have been back at the office for a while.

In some parts of the U.S., the return-to-office debate has been settled: workers are returning. The competition for parking spaces is heating up again and workplace lounges are packed again as people socialize. More than two years into the pandemic, American corporate workplaces stand divided. Some are nearly as full as pre-pandemic, while others sit completely abandoned.

“I know almost nobody in Columbus who is fully remote,” said Grant Blosser, 35, who works at a financial services firm. It seems that workers in America’s midsize and small cities have returned to the office in far greater numbers. Read now.

Rethinking college degree requirements

Are required college degrees a relic of the past? Several companies have begun to ditch the requirement for some of their entry-level jobs upon examining the skills needed for these jobs. What’s replacing these degrees? Apprenticeship programs or practical experience. A growing number of companies are looking to answer their skills shortage woes and talent shortage woes by apprentice pathways and upskilling. Read more at Forbes.

First findings from the 4-day work week trial.

The largest trial of the four-day work week is taking place in the UK, and workers are sharing their thoughts about the trial almost halfway through the experiment. The verdict?

One bank lending manager calls it “life-changing,” giving her more time to manage chores while caring for her son and elderly parents.

Another PR executive says it was a “genuinely chaotic” adjustment at first, and they’re “fighting incredibly hard” to keep the schedule going.

The six-month pilot brings together 3,300 workers across 70 companies. Read more on CNN. 

#4. Amazon’s carbon footprint grows.

Amazon’s relentless growth is making it increasingly harder for the company to clean up its environmental impact. In 2021, the company’s carbon emissions jumped 18% year-over-year, the result of the organization’s logistics and warehouse footprint growing to keep up with ecommerce demand. Those emissions are up 40% since 2019. Amazon has plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, but its rapidly growing business is making it tricky. Read more at CNBC.

#5. Life after cookies: Google delays rollback of third-party cookies

Google’s decision to delay its rollback of third-party cookies is causing chaos. Advertisers and digital publishers are nowhere near an agreement on how to replace third-party cookie tracking. The current patchwork of solutions is confusing, insufficient, and disorienting for marketing team around the globe. Read more at  Axios.