The legendary investor of Fatherless Chase, Steve Cohen, made his bold assumption on Wednesday during CNBC’s Squawk Box while suggesting that the 5-day working calendar may become a thing of the past after most people have decided to work non-traditional hours. Cohen, the founder of Point72, who owns the NY Mets, predicts that the AI-driven workforce will become bolder with a 4-day workweek as a norm in the workplace.
Cohen’s vision for the future of work
Cohen expressed his thoughts during his appearance at the 2024 Sohn Investment Conference. He has unveiled a vision for the future of production, which stipulates that implementing AI technologies would ultimately lead to an increase in productivity in the workplace and that shorter work weeks would become the norm. Mr. Hunt claims there will be just enough shift workers to allow employees from the current three-day cycle to have longer weekends, thus achieving work-life balance.
By highlighting that this whole process can radically disrupt how people utilize their free time and increase the number of people who can now enjoy additional free time, the billionaire investor clarified that a new era is at hand. What’s worth mentioning is Cohen speaking about his family office’s recent investment in the golf league TGL, which is a good example of how travel and leisure sectors could benefit from people’s increasing demand for amusement after they switch to a four-day working week.
Cohen suggested investors look at stock picks in the travel and leisure sector, namely Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. and Booking Holdings, Inc. He also mentioned Invesco’s Power Shares Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF for broad exposure to these industries to give investors multiple choices in one go.
On the other hand, the main character advised that not everyone may be lucky to have a lean working week. For instance, he wants to keep his trading team on the normal schedule so it will work during all trading days, including Friday’s fourth day.
“I will have a portfolio that I want to monitor on Friday, and I am available to run errands,” she responded.
Implications and considerations
Although Cohen’s forecast suggests a gigantic change in working culture, it leaves open some questions, like the difficulty of a four-day working week and the possible negative outcomes of implementing this across various industries. As a result, companies can have to rethink their processes and decide how to embrace AI solutions to maintain productivity, while office employees will have condensed schedules.
Apart from that, the introduction of the four-day workweek may require needful revisions of employment contracts, labor laws, and organizational structures to ensure the fair and equal treatment of employees and, if possible, mitigate potential discrepancies arising from differences in leisure time.
Steve Cohen’s prediction of the mainstream adoption of the four-day workweek has twofold meaning for the modern workplace – it is not only about how the technology drives the work environment development, but it also reflects the key dynamics of this type of work environment. As AI continues democratizing the means of production, businesses and policymakers need to effectively plan for the shifts in the workforce and their needs and demands.
In spite of the manifold potentials of Cohen’s view on work-life pace adjustments and more spare time, this objective will have to be pursued prudently to avoid raising logistical, legal, and societal issues. The stakeholders open up about how a shift in working from four days to three days a week mulls over the challenges of productivity, well-being, and what will be the future of work in the era of technological advancements.
