Short Work Weeks, Twitch Parents, and St. Patrick's Day

This week has been filled with mixed weather patterns, social media drama, and even some St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Amidst all the chaos, you might have missed some key customer engagement news. Don’t worry, CEI has you covered with this week’s weekly wrapped.

1. Free Fridays with a Four Day Workweek

There’s been quite a bit of buzz lately about a shortened workweek. Nearly two dozen countries are toying with the idea of switching to a four-day work week including Japan, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.

The home of modern-day capitalism hardly seems like a place that would commit to a shortened workweek, but after a lengthy pandemic, the idea is getting more buy-in. Despite the traction, CEI Analyst Phil Mandelbaum calls the idea “completely unnecessary.”

Why? Because, he says, “With a post-pandemic employee-centric, DEI-oriented HR strategy, your employees don’t need a four-day work week because they already have the flexibility to work where, when, and how they want — as long as they’re efficient, productive, effective, and healthfully managing their work/life balance.”

Read more about how you can improve your HR strategy to make employee lives better without a four-day work week in Mandelbaum’s article, “Why a 4-Day Work Week is Completely Unnecessary.”

2. The Reason for Twitch CEO’s Resignation May Surprise You

After nearly two decades leading the successful streaming service, Twitch, Emmett Shear has announced his resignation. Amid high turnover in the tech industry and mass layoffs across the board, this news may sound alarming to many fearing their own company’s demise. However, Shear has a different reason for leaving Twitch in his successor’s hands: He just had a child.

In a recent blog post, Shear says, “Twitch often feels to me like a child I’ve been raising as well. And while I will always want to be there if Twitch needs me, at 16 years old it feels to me Twitch is ready to move out of the house and venture alone.” The CEO goes on to say that for many years he felt, without his guidance, Twitch would quickly go under. However, with recent growth in leadership roles, he no longer has this fear.

As the US moves toward supporting more parents with paid leave and childcare, this departure has impressed many, but many more are asking questions about the possibility of a work-life balance for parents. Learn more by reading Shear’s blog post or through the New York Times article, “Twitch’s Chief Executive Says He is Resigning.”

3. Customer Trends Change St. Patrick’s Day

Nearly since its inception, St. Patrick’s Day has been a holiday that involved drinking—and quite a bit of it. But now that the percentage of drinkers (particularly young drinkers) is on the decline, some of the day’s most classic celebrations are taking a 180-degree turn.

CEI Analyst Christine Ducey analyzes some stats on the subject: “According to NIQ, a company dedicated to identifying consumer buying trends and behavior, ‘Non-alcohol products are seeing a 19% increase in dollar sales, whereas total alcohol sales are down 6.7%. Within this new year, non-alcohol products are already showing a heightened share with 0.5% share of total alcohol sales, compared to 0.4% during the same time last year.’ Those percentages may not seem like much, but they were rates that were, until very recently, consistently in the negative. This change is telling.”

Brands that are using these stats to steer their celebrations in a less intoxicated direction teach us all a lesson: it doesn’t matter how long a tradition stands, if the customer wants to change it, successful businesses will follow suit.

Learn more about the history of St. Patrick’s Day and how customers spearhead new traditions in CEI’s article, “Sobering Lessons From St. Patrick’s Day.”

Header photo: Photo by Magdalena Smolnicka on Unsplash  

Photo 1: Photo by kate.sade on Unsplash  

Photo 2: Photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash  

Photo 3: Photo by Autumn Martin on Unsplash