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Billionaire NY Mets owner believes AI will quickly usher in a four-day work week as the norm

April 5, 2024 | | Print Article

Billionaire investor and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen believes the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will lead to 4-day workweeks.

“My belief is that a four-day work week is coming,” he said this week to CNBC. “Between the advent of AI, generally we hear from people that people are not as productive on Fridays. So I just think it’s an eventuality. When it happens, it’s hard to know.”

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He added that his belief in an upcoming 4-day workweek inspired his investment in a startup golf league known as the Tomorrow Golf League (TGL).

Why exactly? Because he believes the advent of the 4-day workweek will lead to more people playing golf.

“That should fit into a theme of more leisure for people, which means golf rounds would go up, and interest will go up — I guess courses will be more crowded,” he explained.

That said, he predicted that portfolio managers and traders would likely still continue to work Fridays.

“If they’re taking off Friday, and they have a portfolio, that’s a problem if the markets are open,” he said.

But for most workers, he believes a 4-day workweek and 3-day weekend will soon be the norm.

“The vast majority of people will get an opportunity, I think at some point, to have a three-day weekend,” he said.

Responding to Cohen’s remarks, some predicted 0-day workweeks, while others predicted that a 4-day workweek or better won’t appear for hundreds of more years.

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Cohen isn’t the only one to make this prediction. Also speaking with CNBC this week, businessman Barry Diller, the chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group, vouched for the idea as well.

“It’s madness,” he said in reference to all the people working from home these days. “Which is what is going to lead to — I think sensibly — not necessarily a four-day work week, but four days in the office, and Fridays you can work from home or work at your own schedule.”

These remarks come the same week the The Guardian ran a report about a recreational vehicle manufacturer, Advanced RV,  that implemented a 4-day workweek in 2020.

“The upside was huge,” the company founder and owner, Mike Neundorfer, reportedly said of the change. “I thought that the probability that we’d be successful was less than 50% – but that the outcomes and implications for the people that work here were unbelievable.”

While Neundorfer expected profits to drop by 20 percent because of the 4-day workweek plan, things haven’t been so bad.

“In that first year we were probably at 96 percent efficiency that we had before,” he said. “We’ve gained another 4 or 5 percent since then.”

Other companies are beginning to follow suit, but why?

“There is a very broad set of labor market pressures that are not only putting [better working schedules] in the minds of workers but forcing companies to do whatever they can to secure manufacturing talent,” Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro, said.

“The four-day work week is a signal of the kind of flexibility and creativity that’s going to be needed to keep [manufacturing] plants humming,” he added.

But there’s more.

“A UK report published in February 2023 found that companies trying out four-day work weeks – Advanced RV being one – reported that 46% of them experienced an increase in productivity,” according to The Guardian.

“The non-profit 4 Day Week Global, based in Auckland, New Zealand, says it has worked with more than 200 companies around the world, creating 2,431 years of free time as a result,” The Guardian notes.

It helps that most of these companies are “technology- and online-centered,” meaning employees can work from home.

That being said, while smaller operations like Advanced RV have fared well with the 4-day workweek, larger operations are reportedly struggling, though Neundorfer is confident their time is coming as well.

“Neundorfer admits that it may have been easier for his company to pivot since he is the only shareholder and runs Advanced RV himself, meaning decision-making is a more straightforward process. However, he thinks a four-day work week for the wider manufacturing industry isn’t impossible,” The Guardian notes.

Vivek Saxena
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