“This wage war isn't winnable.” Those are the words of Ann Harten, human resources chief for Holland, MI-based corporation Haworth. She was describing the challenges of finding good employees to Wall Street Journal columnist John Stoll. Haworth's solution has so far been nicer amenities along the lines of better bathrooms, along with work options that include Friday's off.
Readers can rest assured that Haworth won't be unique in its offering of a four-day workweek. The bet here is that the latter will become very common in the coming decade as a consequence of worker-productivity surges (thank you, automation) alongside intense competition for human capital. The other bet here is that this profound change whereby 3-day weekends become the norm will birth what will be called “The Entertainment Economy.”
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