The latest act for the non-traditional chief executive of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.: Promoting the four-day work week.
Adam Aron, who has embraced his company’s meme-stock status and even bought a gold mine, is now charging headlong into the latest work-life balance debate.
“Post-COVID, companies have grappled with how to encourage workers to return to offices — facilitating spontaneity and creativity. It may be time for America to formally adjust to a 4-day work week, instead of 5,” he wrote on a Twitter in a poll to his 2750,000 followers. “Good for AMC too if every weekend is 3 days long,” he added.
The poll received a resoundingly positive response: So far, over 85% have said it’s a fabulous idea. Less than 8% disagreed, saying a five-day workweek is necessary.
Aron is popular with retail investors, building support for his beleaguered company with his social media antics and loyal following. He pitched himself as the four-day workweek movement’s new spokesman in a follow-up poll on Twitter.
“It’s a dramatic change to the traditional U.S. work patterns of the past,” he wrote. “Should I be out front in urging a 4-day U.S. work week?”
So far, over 80% have said yes.
The four-day workweek has gained traction amid fierce debates about work-life balance and burnout. A high-profile pilot program launched in the UK this summer. Other studies are underway in the US, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and Canada. While about one in five employers drop out, most often in the planning stage of the experiment, almost 90% of the employers in the UK that stuck with the trial said the new schedule is working well.
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But many doubt the idea will take root in the US. “Never say never. But I’m not anticipating it happening anytime soon,” Wharton professor Matthew Bidwell said in the school’s business journal on Aug. 22. “We are a bit of a workaholic nation, and we don’t even take very much holiday.”
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