essay on 4 day work week

The Four-Day Workweek and Its Positive Effects Essay

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Introduction

The positive effects of the four-day workweek, experiment in japan, the negative effects of the four-day workweek, works cited.

Various organizations and companies have always been looking for a way to increase the productivity of their employees. One of these methods is to reduce the working week to four days. In connection with such a decision, people were divided into two camps. Some believe that a four-day working week will do more harm than good, and therefore such an experience should not be adopted. Other people are sure that such an approach has many undeniable advantages and is worthy of further consideration and application. The author of this work believes that a four-day working week is a promising and prosperous method, which, despite some shortcomings, will positively impact companies’ economy and the condition of employees.

Nowadays, the day of an ordinary person is painted literally by the minute. According to analytical data, the number of cases of burnout of employees of various companies is gradually increasing. Burnout often leads to health problems, which is bad not only for the employees themselves but also for the companies in which they work – they suffer losses. Burned out or just tired employees are less proactive, less productive, and the quality of their work is worse. Therefore, it is desirable to find an optimal balance between work and personal life. According to doctors, on average, a person can productively perform their duties for no more than 4-5 hours during the working day (Evans). The rest of the time is creating the appearance of work, smoke breaks, conversations, and coffee. Increasing the number of working hours, as a rule, does not lead to a rapid increase in the efficiency of the company.

It is advisable to consider the advantages of such a schedule in more detail.

• Some employees may be motivated by the idea of three days off and increase their productivity on working days (Evans).
• Employees are less likely to be distracted from the work that needs to be done in a week and try to solve all the day’s tasks without postponing tomorrow. The work should be done efficiently and on time because there will no longer be the fifth day to revise and correct errors.
• Due to three days off, employees get more time for their hobbies, creative development, additional training, and self-improvement.
• A four-day working week helps reduce traffic in cities and harmful emissions and fuel and travel costs (Evans).

Thus, a four-day work week provides employees with more time for families and hobbies and reduces stress levels while increasing productivity and efficiency.

In 2019, Microsoft Japan, the Japanese division of the American corporation, introduced a four-day working week. As part of the Work-Life Choice Challenge project, 2,300 employees began working from Monday to Thursday, and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, they rested. The company then presented the results, comparing them with August 2016-2018, when there were no such experiments (International Business Times). As it turned out, employees began to go on sick leave less often, the number of days off decreased by a quarter, paper consumption fell by half, and electricity consumption decreased by about a quarter. Labor productivity increased by 39.9%, even though employees spent less time working (International Business Times). The company explained the increase in productivity, including a decrease in the number of working meetings and a reduction in their holding time. Thus, the experiment conducted in Japan ended successfully and demonstrated various advantages of a four-day working week.

Nevertheless, speaking about the advantages and positive aspects of such a schedule, it is necessary to mention the negative aspects that are undoubtedly present.

• Not everyone can switch to such a schedule, which includes four-working days a week. It is difficult to imagine a metallurgist, a seller in a store, or a public utility representative moving to a four-day working week. In most cases, only office employees can switch to a shortened week (Ovais, Bharatan and Shrivastava).
• After leaving for a four-day working week, the increase in labor productivity may fall after a while because, at first, a person experiences the joy of shortening the working week and then gets used to it.
• Shortening the working week without reducing the number of working hours leads to an increase in the level of fatigue on working days (Ovais, Bharatan and Shrivastava).
• Employees may experience significant stress from completing a task in just four days instead of five.
• Companies that have offered a shortened working week, in some cases, proportionally reduce employees’ salaries.
• The reduction in the average length of the working week is equivalent to the loss of several hundred thousand private jobs in the non-agricultural sector (Lazear).

Based on all of the above, it can be noted that such an initiative has some severe drawbacks that need to be taken into account during the transition to a four-day working week.

A shortened working week has real prospects for many companies, as it allows for positive changes in the economy and the condition of employees. This method increases the amount of free time that employees can spend on themselves, their families and hobbies, and raises their motivation level in the workplace. Although the shortened working week has an impressive number of positive aspects, it is impossible not to note the disadvantages that it also has. Nevertheless, this initiative is effective for many companies, as it has a beneficial effect on their corporate culture.

“4-Day Workweek Experiment Boosted Microsoft Japan’s Productivity By 40%.” International Business Times [U.S. ed.], 2019, p. N.A. Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints, Web.

Evans, Joseph. “It’s Time to Retire the Five-day Workweek.” Marriott Student Review 4.2 (2021): 15.

Lazear, Edward Paul. “The bad news in the good jobs numbers: the economy is creating more jobs, but shorter workweeks have wiped out the gains.” Hoover Digest, no. 3, 2014, p. 56+. Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints, Web.

Ovais, D., Bharatan, S., & Shrivastava, G. (2020). Four Day Workweek A Magic Trick or A False Impression: Sustainability Analysis In The Digital Era. In AU Virtual International Conference Entrepreneurship and Sustainability in the Digital Era (Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 89-103).

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What Does the Four-Day Workweek Mean for the Future of Work?

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The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people’s working lives, most recently advancing a shift toward flexible work arrangements and making ideas like a four-day workweek commonplace. Under these modified schedules, employees typically work four days and get a three-day weekend — with, it’s critical to note, no reduction in pay.

Advocates have long suggested that having employees work four days instead of five increases productivity, and the supporting evidence is indeed overwhelmingly positive. For example, last year in Iceland, researchers found that a four-day workweek without a pay cut improved workers’ well-being and productivity . And when parliamentary elections were being held in Scotland last year, first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign included the promise of 10 million pounds for companies to pilot a four-day week , an experiment that’s currently underway . Ireland, too, will test out a four-day workweek for six months this year , and Spain has launched a three-year 32-hour workweek experiment as part of the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

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Businesses across the globe are becoming increasingly interested in the benefits of giving employees an extra day off, encouraged by Microsoft’s August 2019 trial of a four-day workweek in Japan, which resulted in a 40% rise in productivity . Since then, many other organizations have followed suit. The British arm of camera company Canon is among the latest to try a four-day workweek without a pay cut. In the U.S., Kickstarter and Bolt are among the many companies experimenting with four-day weeks , as is Unilever , which announced last November that it would be piloting such a schedule in New Zealand.

A shorter week could also lead to a flood of job applications, as Atom Bank discovered; almost immediately after announcing a four-day week for its 430 staff members, the company saw a 500% increase in job applications . The bank’s employees will now work 34 hours over four days (down from 37.5 hours in the past), taking either Monday or Friday off.

What Does This Mean for the Future of Work?

According to new research from Henley Business School, more than two-thirds of companies believe that offering a four-day week will be essential for future business success. Following the release of their 2019 white paper titled “ Four Better or Four Worse? ,” which explored attitudes toward flexible work and the four-day workweek, the researchers revisited the subject in November 2021, with quantitative surveys of over 2,000 employees and 500 leaders in the U.K. Their findings concluded that the four-day week positively affects well-being : Seventy-eight percent of employers said that their employees feel less stressed at work, an increase of 5% from 2019.

Interestingly, the pandemic changed many people’s opinions about the most significant benefits of an abbreviated workweek. A clear majority (70%) agreed that a shorter workweek would improve their overall quality of life, and more than two-thirds thought their mental health would improve with greater work flexibility. Furthermore, 69% of employees believe their family life would improve with fewer workdays. When asked how they would spend their extra day off, meeting up with family was the most popular activity across all generations (66%). Shorter workweeks could also positively affect retail, with 54% of people saying they’d use the extra day to go shopping. Charities could benefit as well, given that a quarter of respondents said they’d use the time to volunteer.

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Of businesses already implementing a four-day workweek, 68% (up from 63% in 2019) said flexible work arrangements are helping them to attract the right talent by demonstrating the organization’s forward-thinking approach to work, such as greater autonomy stemming from meeting-free days . These businesses also recognize that their potential employees expect the norm to be “portfolio careers” of more than one job.

Indeed, in the 2021 Henley survey, 37% of employees indicated that a career in which they had multiple jobs or employers (also known as gig work ) would be a “desirable way to live,” up from 30% in 2019.

In the wake of the great resignation, organizations should embrace the four-day week to retain staff and attract new talent. The pandemic has permanently altered how employers and employees approach their work arrangements, so calls for a four-day workweek will only grow louder.

About the Author

Benjamin Laker ( @drbenlaker ) is a professor of leadership at the University of Reading’s Henley Business School and coauthor of Too Proud to Lead: How Hubris Can Destroy Effective Leadership and What to Do About It (Bloomsbury, 2021).

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Is the Four-Day Workweek the Next Frontier? Questrom’s Constance Hadley Weighs the Pros and Cons

Questrom’s constance hadley weighs the pros and cons of working fewer days with the same productivity levels.

From US companies to European nations, employers are test-driving the idea of giving workers a four-day workweek. Photo by ZSun Fu /Unsplash

Is the Four-Day Workweek the Next Frontier?

Rich barlow.

When Henry Ford gave his workers a five-day week in 1926, having Saturdays off was seen as a revolutionary shift to the typical workweek. The United States officially codified the five-day week for all workers in 1932. Now the United Kingdom has launched the largest test of its kind to see if five days is too long and four days makes more sense.

For the next six months, 70 UK companies spanning industries will put 3,300-plus workers on a Monday through Thursday schedule, maintaining current pay levels in exchange for current productivity levels. Activists, a think tank, and universities are overseeing the experiment, and participants include food and beverage companies, a robotics software developer, financial and consulting firms, building and construction recruitment companies, and digital marketing places.

In the United States, many employees reported burnout from working longer hours from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, some companies and nonprofits have moved to a four-day workweek. The UK test is one of several in Europe, where the Spanish and Scottish governments will pilot their own four-day workweeks later this year. 

Almost 100 years after Ford’s experiment, should the four-day workweek become the next evolution of working time? We asked Constance Hadley , a Questrom School of Business lecturer in management and organizations. Hadley researches and writes about workplace burnout and loneliness , the pros– and cons– of teamwork , excessive meetings , and the growing interest in “third spaces”: working neither from office nor home, but from cafés, friends’ homes, and offsite coworking places. 

with Constance Hadley

Bu today: do you think the four-day workweek is a good idea, either wherever possible or in tandem with some people continuing the traditional, five-day pattern.

Hadley: I think the idea is interesting—but the parameters need to be made clear. Some key issues to define and consider are (a) how much time it takes to achieve productivity, and whether there are any time savings by compressing the workweek, and (b) how much work is dependent upon collaborative work that requires coordinating schedules across individuals on one less day a week. I worry a lot about creating even longer, more hectic days, with spillover effects on the three days off, like you spend the first half of that fifth day just recuperating and cleaning up your inbox. There will also be knock-on effects on the rest of the team if everyone is just shifting their meeting times to one less day a week, or worse, if people are taking different days off from each other. It could mean longer stretches of meetings on those four days, which are also a cause of burnout and dissatisfaction.

BU Today: What are other pros and cons?

Hadley: It may hurt the organization’s accomplishment of its goals. For example, Poll Everywhere [an online service for classroom and audience response that’s going to four days this summer] sent an email to customers notifying them of their four-day workweek experiment this summer in case there were impacts on customer service. On the plus side, people might really welcome having only four days of intense work obligations a week, plus three days free to use as they choose. Going from the standard two days off to three days—statistically, that’s a 50 percent increase! They might travel more, save more on commuting and parking, and get more time with friends and family. So I get the appeal. I just hope it is executed in a way where the benefits can be fully realized and people’s, teams’, and the organization’s viability do not suffer.

I get the appeal. I just hope it is executed in a way where the benefits can be fully realized. Constance Hadley

BU Today: The UK test commits employers to continue 100 percent pay for four days in exchange for maintaining 100 percent productivity. Will many employers find that agreeable? And presumably, wouldn’t certain industries—line-work production, for example—be unable to get the same productivity out of workers over just four days?

Hard to say if many employers will find that structure agreeable. Everyone is watching these kinds of experiments and learning. Plus, it depends on how the economy and workforce evolve and whether these become new expectations from the vast majority of the workforce—as being able to work at least part-time remotely has become for most knowledge workers. In other words, if the UK experiment seems successful from a productivity standpoint—and if employees still have a lot of power in the marketplace and decide this is something they want—you could see more patterns like this elsewhere. Certain frontline industries, like oil drilling and nursing, already have that kind of nontraditional workweek schedule. So this is certainly a possibility in more than just knowledge work industries. I think the bigger challenge for frontline workers is less whether they can work four days a week and more about whether they can work remotely at all . We are starting to see some glimmers of how that might be possible .

BU Today: How did the pandemic spur experiments like this?

The pandemic really shook up our assumptions about how work needs to be done and also triggered a recognition that for many people, their well-being at work was not high before the pandemic. Now, people—and employers, I am glad to say—are prioritizing employee well-being more than ever.

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Pros and Cons of the Four-Day Workweek

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Rich Barlow is a senior writer at BU Today and  Bostonia  magazine. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N.J., who will volunteer his birthplace without police interrogation, he graduated from Dartmouth College, spent 20 years as a small-town newspaper reporter, and is a former  Boston Globe  religion columnist, book reviewer, and occasional op-ed contributor. Profile

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There are 8 comments on Pros and Cons of the Four-Day Workweek

Why is working such a bad thing that we need to do less of it? I think personal productivity and self-worth are inseparably linked. If you ask most people, “Who are you?” they will answer with what they do. People who are proud of doing less — or doing nothing — can only take pride in their own empty shell (such ‘pride’ as it would be).

I’d like to know more about the mental health effects of working remotely, i.e., working at home. Really, the person working at home has no escape from an unchanging environment. Work becomes home; home becomes work — there is no refuge from either. The at-home worker is more of a slave than if they went to a factory, store, or office and punched a time-clock, because they never punch out. Work is interrupted by family matters, and family matters are interrupted by work. One is never free from either, and neither gets the full attention it deserves. I think the ancient Hebrews had it right: work hard six days a week and then take one day off and be serious about it.

I am also beginning to sense a rising alienation from the lack of personal interaction. We’ve created a realm of artificiality through zoom, facebook, twitter, and so on. We are not genuinely relating to each other, hence the growing hostility in our society. Reduced work-week and remote working are major contributing factors.

I believe you may be coming from a position of truly enjoying the work you do. My work is personally fulfilling as well, but that cannot be said for everyone (for a variety of reasons) and so- the restorative power of more time to live life is increasingly beneficial to those who don’t wake up excited to get to a full filling job. The ability to spend more time with family, friends, and to pursue personal passions most certainly would improve a person’s overall well-being. You and I must just be lucky enough to have our personal passion be linked to our jobs and service to our colleagues.

The lack of separation between work and life (due to working in home offices) is not new for some- but was entirely new for many- like myself. Like all things, it takes time to adapt to new circumstances. I initially felt constantly exhausted – constantly working – with no line between work and life- but now I feel a complete and natural separation when I leave the room with my work materials (even though it is just 5 feet from my kitchen.) I am overwhelmingly grateful to have the ability to work from my home, as it frees up commute time and expenses, allows for me to see more of my family, and take care of life logistics more easily. Simple tasks like… getting through my laundry, meeting the kids at the bus stop, being home for parents who are no longer fully independent. These things add up quickly to an improved sense of self and stability. I would be extremely interested in testing out a condensed work schedule as well. Though, that might not translate to my particular field… I would like to test it out to see.

There are are far more benefits than drawbacks for me. This may not be true for everyone but, finding the balance for our own lives and careers will take some time and trial. For so many- flexible work hours and locations are a huge relief to everyday struggles. Personally, I do not want to see us slip back into the old ways of doing things. That would be a shame.

But why must we BE our employment? I am a statistician, but I do that because I’m good at it, I enjoy it, and it brings money. But I don’t want to be JUST a statistician: I am a father, a husband, a painter, a traveler, a photographer, a son, a brother, a pet parent – and sometimes work does not allow me to be all these other things I want to be! And that is not even including the commute! Why should I put work ahead of all these other things I also am?

Regarding your question about the effects of mental health in a work-from-home environment, I recognize this is my personal experience, but I’m doing great! My productivity has risen through the roof, and most importantly, my satisfaction as well. Family matters do not interrupt my work, and vice versa. The lack of commute means I get to have breakfast with my partner and kids at 7 am. I start work promptly at 7:30 am and I log off by 3:30 pm. At that time I have plenty of time for mundane tasks such as laundry, grocery shopping, etc. I come to the office once a week, and between that and Zoom meetings, I get plenty of personal interaction with my coworkers. My coworkers are my coworkers, not my friends, their purpose is not to fill in the needs for company, but rather to get tasks done and move projects along. Working from home has allowed me to also be able to focus more on other personally satisfying activities, such as exercise, painting, and traveling – which does provide the opportunity for me to interact with people with common interests and whose company is more satisfying on a personal level than my coworkers’. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with my coworkers, but I like keeping my personal life and my work life separate.

Personal productivity does not always mean paid employment; and as someone else mentioned, we are defined in so many ways, not just by our paying jobs or careers. Stepping off of the hamster wheel can allow for productivity in new and exciting ways!

“The at-home worker is more of a slave.”

Please do not equate working from home to slavery. If its not for you, then so be it. There is no reason to throw shade onto people who can manage work and home life while being MORE productive in the home office.

I for one appreciate that most of us are offered a choice of working form home. I enjoy not having to take an extra 2 hours every day to come into campus, that extra two hours is spent with my family all while being just as productive (if not more) at home. I’m also of the thought that we could do a little more for people that are required to be in office to lessen the burden of commutes and travel expenses.

“work hard six days a week and then take one day off and be serious about it.”

“We are not genuinely relating to each other, hence the growing hostility in our society.”

Yeah, that’s all zooms fault, not rising inequality and injustices all while working ourselves to the bone. People are can and should still relate to their friends and family just fine.

I’m more convinced that people work becoming their identity is really the issue behind most of our woes. Work is just a part of who you are, it shouldn’t even be close to all consuming.

Prior to the pandemic, I spent 3-4 hours a day sitting in traffic to get to a job that I can easily do from my desk at home. I now spend those lost hours with my kids. You may be assuming that everyone has the same personality, experiences, and motivations that you do. I work just as hard as I did pre-pandemic and I love what I do for a living. But, I don’t define myself by my job. I’m much more than that. My mental health has vastly improved now that I work remotely a few days per week. Just ask my wife and kids.

I completely understand that some people are extroverts, workaholics, or define themselves by what they get paid to do. You are obviously one of those people, and that’s great. You should do something that requires you to work 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week. It sounds like that would make you happy. It would be soul-crushing for me. I would never see my family, and when I did, I would be a burned-out crank. I know this because I was. Spending 15-20 hours per week surrounded by millions of other angry and stressed out drivers will do that to anyone. Endless in-person meetings that are unnessessary and unproductive does the same thing. Most of the meetings I was in pre-pandemic were spent chatting about nothing of any particular importance for 30+ minutes, with the final 10-15 minutes being used for the stated purpose. If we booked an hour of time, we were going to be there for an hour whether we needed it or not. My meetings now are more intentional and more productive.

I’m an introvert. I enjoy being home. I can concentrate better when I don’t have to interact with people physically all day. I like being able to see trees out my home office window while I work, instead of brick walls and air conditioning ducts. It’s fascinating how humans can have a different experience of the same environment. You clearly define yourself by what you produce in the workplace. I definitely do not. My self-worth is not linked to what I produce. My life after work hours is not an empty shell. Far from it. But, I appreciate that working is how you find value in living. You should definitely work a lot. For sure. But those of us who find value in other things should not be forced to live your experience.

As for hostility in our society, I think that might be a completely different debate and involves many more variables than whether I’m working remotely or not.

I like all the comments above. You make some good points. The two that resonate most with me are about enjoying life outside of work and avoiding the time and stress involved in commuting.

One summer in college I worked on a loading dock in Boston. The hours were long and the pay was great. I was getting overtime after 7hrs/day & 35hrs/week — and I was working 55 hours. In today’s money that would be circa $1300/week. Not bad money for a college kid. I also commuted an hour each way and barely had time for a set of tennis before dark.

The money paid for my college, but I was miserable. However, there are people who made a career of what I did that summer. When I see people driving their RVs or pulling their ATVs up to NH or Maine, I realize they earn their vacation times and experiences.

With many jobs you just can’t fit five days work in a four day bag.

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The four-day work week: a chronological, systematic review of the academic literature

• Published: 13 April 2023
• Volume 74 , pages 1791–1807, ( 2024 )

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• Timothy T. Campbell   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5173-8086 1  

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Despite having been propounded for at least 50 years, the four-day work week (4DWW) has recently attracted global attention. The media headlines are dominated by the positive outcomes that can be expected by converting to a 4DWW. However, on examination the claims often have foundations that derive from reports published by advocacy groups and organisation’s self-reported results rather than scholarly research. This paper turns to the academic literature and uses a chronological, systematic review method to address the questions of what positives and negatives can be attributed to the 4DWW? Does the scholarly research support the popular contemporary claims? And what can be learned from more than 50 years of scholarly 4DWW publications that can inform future research? Drawing on 31 academic articles that specifically researched the 4DWW, the conclusions found that the majority demonstrated favourable results such as increased morale, job satisfaction, cost reductions and reduced turnover whilst negatives included performance measures and monitoring being intensified, scheduling problems, and that benefits may fade over time. The impact on productivity and the environment were inconclusive. Overall, the scholarly research paints a more complicated and ambiguous picture compared to that presented by 4DWW advocates and the media. More contemporary research utilising rigorous methodologies is required.

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The case for a 4-day work week

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March 7, 2023

A Four-Day Workweek Reduces Stress without Hurting Productivity

The results of a test involving dozens of employers and thousands of employees suggests that working only four days instead of five is good for workers’ well-being—without hurting companies

By Jan Dönges & Sophie Bushwick

Jose Luis Pelaez/Getty Images

Working four days instead of five—with the same pay—leads to improved well-being among employees without damaging the company’s productivity. That’s the recently reported result of a four-day workweek test that ran for six months, from June to December 2022, and involved a total of 61 U.K. companies with a combined workforce of about 2,900 employees.

During the COVID pandemic, many workers experienced increased stress and even burnout, a state of exhaustion that can make it difficult to meet work goals. “It’s a very huge issue,” says independent organizational psychologist and consultant Michael Leiter, who was not involved in the new report. “You see it particularly in health care, where I do a lot of my work. It’s making it much more difficult to hold on to talented people.” He explains that stress in the workplace makes it difficult for companies in health care and many other fields to recruit new hires and keep existing employees. But a greater awareness of burnout and related issues can have a positive effect, Leiter adds. “People are demanding more changes in how the work is organized,” he says.

That demand is what led the independent research organization Autonomy , in conjunction with the advocacy groups 4 Day Week Global and  4 Day Week Campaign and researchers at the University of Cambridge, Boston College and other institutions, to publish a report on what happens when companies reduce the number of days in a workweek. According to surveys of participants, 71 percent of respondents reported lower levels of burnout, and 39 percent reported being less stressed than when they began the test. Companies experienced 65 percent fewer sick and personal days. And the number of resignations dropped by more than half, compared with an earlier six-month period. Despite employees logging fewer work hours, companies’ revenues barely changed during the test period. In fact, they actually increased slightly, by 1.4 percent on average.

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Even before the COVID pandemic, companies tried to enhance employee well-being with interventions such as wellness programs. The new report suggests that a four-day workweek could be a tool for this purpose. “We think this is a far more effective and powerful way to have an impact on employees,” says report co-author Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Unlike most wellness benefits or flexible-hour schedules, which are typically options for individuals, the four-day week would be an organization-wide policy. As a result, Schor says, making that change would not harm workers’ career prospects or income.

When it comes to helping workers in distress, “so much of the effort goes into making them feel better rather than actually changing the nature of work,” Leiter says. “The kinds of results that [the researchers are] reporting are more substantial than many of those [wellness] programs. Because again, a lot of what these programs are doing are helping people tolerate the situation that they’re in rather than changing [that situation]. It’s a much more profound thing to do—to change the nature of work—than it is to help people put up with what they’ve got.”

This is not the only test of a shorter workweek. In 2008, for example, Utah  started a program to try to save building energy costs by closing state employees’ offices on Fridays, although that program kept employees working for 40-hour weeks and merely redistributed the hours over four days instead of five. Other researchers have studied workweeks or days with fewer hours, although those assessments have often included workers at only one organization. “Prior to 2022, which is when 4 Day Week Global began running trials of companies doing four-day weeks ..., to our knowledge, there were no multicompany studies of the four-day week,” Schor says. The organization has conducted multiple studies on the shortened week’s impact in other countries. The recent one in the U.K. was its largest effort thus far, however.

In addition to surveys, the researchers performed in-depth interviews with participants in the new report. From those interviews, it emerged that employees used the additional day off mostly for organization and everyday tasks. This, in turn, allowed them to reserve the weekend primarily for recreation, so they could spend time with their families and hobbies.

The test included companies from a variety of industries, including online retailers, financial services firms, animation studios and a fish-and-chips store. Each company chose how to implement its four-day week—making Friday a day off for everyone or allowing employees to choose any day off, for example. Participants also reduced hours by eliminating time-wasting tasks such as overlong meetings, the surveys found. Ninety-two percent of the companies that took part in the pilot program said they would continue to test the four-day week, and 18 companies decided to keep their reduced working hours permanently.

The test period of six months was relatively short, so it remains unclear whether the favorable impact on well-being will persist in the long term. Employees might become accustomed to the reduced working hours over time, and the lighter workweek would begin to have only a limited effect on stress levels. The researchers plan on conducting a follow-up survey with the participating companies that are maintaining a four-day workweek at the one-year mark in order to see if these positive results continue—and Schor expects they will. “One reason we think they will is that we did a midpoint survey on all of these,” she says. Key outcomes such as stress and burnout “improved in the first three months, and that improvement was maintained. So we do know that in months three to six, we didn’t get regression.”

Leiter would have preferred the team to have used a more established measure to assess burnout. The surveys asked questions related to exhaustion and frustration, he explains, rather than using an assessment like the Maslach Burnout Inventory , which is currently considered the gold standard. “There’s a colloquial idea of burnout, which is that it’s being tired, and it’s being really frustrated with work,” he says. In Leiter’s research , that state would be called “overextended,” he notes. “Burnout has that quality but is also being very cynical and discouraged and depersonalizing things and really losing your sense of accomplishment, which is a much more dark place to be.” Still, he says that the four-day workweek is likely to reduce this more rigorous definition of burnout as well, “because it gives people more control over their life and their relationship with work.”

Companies may be more willing to try out a four-day workweek after seeing new work-from-home policies succeed. “When companies switched to work from home because of the pandemic, this was something they had the technology to do all along and just were really reluctant to let people do it,” Schor says. “And so that really changed employers’ point of view. I think it opened their minds.” Leiter agrees. “I think people were very much into a rut about how work has to be organized,” he says. “What’s come out of the pandemic for a lot of people was reflection, saying, ‘It really doesn’t have to be that way. We can change things drastically—because we just did.’”

A version of this article originally appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft and was reproduced with permission.

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What would you do with a three-day weekend? You might spend more time with your family, catch up on a hobby or project, or learn to cook something new. The popularity of remote and hybrid work has many employers reexamining what styles of work make for the happiest and most productive employees. Many of those employers have decided to try something that would have been considered radical just a few years ago: a four-day workweek. 

The concept of the four-day workweek has become increasingly popular, and not just among small businesses. Amazon, Microsoft, and Panasonic are all currently running four-day workweek pilot programs. In the U.K., 61 companies tested a four-day workweek for what was supposed to be a six-month trial; more than a year later, 54 of those companies have kept it. 

Andrew Barnes , the author of The 4 Day Week , said, "By focusing on productivity and output rather than time spent in a workplace, the four-day week allows for better work-life balance, improved employee satisfaction, retention, and mental health."

What is a four-day workweek?

A four-day workweek is just what it sounds like, but its implementation can vary. Some plans compensate workers for five days worth of work , even though they're working a four-day workweek, while others only compensate workers for four days worth of work. Employers who implement a four-day workweek might require each workday to be ten hours long, rather than the standard eight-hour day. Each plan is unique to each organization and its policies, so there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

There's a rising call for a four-day workweek, driven by several factors. Over the years, workers have been able to accomplish more within their work hours. However, the compensation hasn't seen a similar increase, leading to a discrepancy between productivity and pay. As a result, many are advocating for a shorter workweek to ensure fair compensation for their efforts and time.

Companies can also save money by using fewer resources when employees spend less time in the office. They won't have to pay for electricity and utility usage when no employees will be in the building. Office resources like paper and custodial services are also not used or needed on those off days, saving money. Companies also look for increased productivity from workers as they're more refreshed and ready to work from long weekends and better work-life balance .

A good case study of the benefits of a four-day workweek was done by Microsoft Japan in the summer of 2019. Employees there worked four days a week while receiving their normal five-day paycheck. The results that they saw speak for themselves.

They reported increased efficiency across the business. Decreased electricity usage, fewer meetings held, and fewer pages printed helped contribute. The company says this all resulted in a 40% productivity boost across the business.

The four-day workweek is quite popular in Europe as well. The UK Labour Party adopted the four-day workweek as an official policy. The Netherlands' average weekly working hours are about 29 hours, which is the lowest of any industrialized nation . This was implemented to ensure work-life balance for workers regardless of industry. Belgium recently became the first European country to actually legislate a four-day workweek , and others may soon follow suit. Germany started a pilot program in February 2024 testing a four-day workweek with 45 companies. 

All these policy changes are signs of increasing interest in finding new ways to work that provide increased benefits to workers.

Four-day workweek pros + cons

While a four-day workweek has many benefits, it also has some drawbacks. Balancing both is essential for the successful adoption of this workplace practice.

• Better work-life balance : Giving employees an extra personal day allows them to work on personal projects, hobbies, and spend more time with their families. Working long hours contributes to stress, which in turn can have negative health effects on workers. Improved work-life balance helps employees be healthier and ready to work.
• Increased productivity : Surprisingly, a shorter workweek can lead to increased productivity. With fewer days in the office, employees are often more focused and motivated to complete their tasks efficiently, reducing procrastination and time wasted during the workday.
• Competitive advantage for hiring : A four-day workweek is also a competitive advantage for employees. Employees value work-life balance and flexible scheduling. Companies that offer plans like this can advertise themselves as leaders in that space. Offering hybrid schedules and a four-day workweek is one of the most effective ways of giving employees the flexibility they crave while maintaining productivity. 
• Enhanced employee satisfaction : Offering a four-day workweek can significantly boost employee satisfaction and morale. Employees appreciate having an extra day off to pursue personal interests and hobbies, leading to higher levels of job satisfaction and loyalty to the company. Employees enjoy working at a company where management places employee satisfaction first.
• Complex to implement : Changing from a five-day to four-day workweek isn't easy to do. Schedules have to be changed, policies adjusted, and workers briefed about the change. This adjusts the way all aspects of your business function, so it can take time to roll it out. Consider whether your employees need to be in the office, remote, or hybrid. These policies may have to change if you transition to a four-day workweek. 
• Increased pressure with deadlines : Workers will have fewer days to complete projects while working reduced or the same number of hours per week. This can put increased pressure on employees to get things done when they have less time. Work from outside organizations can still come in on days that aren't worked, creating additional stress.
• Doesn't work with every industry : Not every industry can switch to a four-day workweek as well. Doctors and nurses need to be on call during the week, and giving them a day off can have severe consequences for their employer. Customers expect some stores to stay open five days a week, making switching team schedules hard.
• Potential decrease in work hours : While a four-day workweek may seem appealing, some employees may be concerned about a potential decrease in work hours and subsequent impact on their income. Companies must carefully consider how to maintain employee compensation while implementing a shorter workweek.

Four-day workweek statistics

• 59% of companies are open to a four-day working week ( Tech.co Impact of Technology in the Workplace Report )
• A quarter of survey respondents (25%) would even take a 15% pay cut for a four-day workweek. ( Owl Labs State of Remote Work )
• More than 95% of those with four-day workweeks reported healthier, happier work environments. ( Financial Times )
• The average U.K. office worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes on a normal workday. ( Vouchercloud.com )
• One in four (28%) workers said [a four-day workweek] would be appealing in a future employer, with non-managers being 40% more inclined to want it than managers. ( Owl Labs State of Remote Work )
• 73.1%, of teammates stated that they feel more energized [with a four-day workweek], while 26.9 percent don’t feel particularly different. ( Buffer Survey )
• Over 50% of professionals in the USA feel burnt out. ( LinkedIn Research )
• 56% of workers said that their level of work-related stress has increased since last year. ( Owl Labs State of Remote Work )
• 77% of workers reported increased productivity when working a four-day week. ( DriveResearch Study )
• 19% of workers selected a four-day work week as a top 3 benefit that would be most appealing in a prospective employer. ( Owl Labs State of Remote Work )

How to write a 4-Day workweek proposal

1. determine what business needs will be met by a four-day workweek..

Thinking of the reasons why you're changing your policy will pay off when you're writing it. Find things that are inefficient and think of how a four-day workweek will solve them. Run through as many as you find and then look back on them. This will stop you from writing up a plan only to discover that you don't need to change your workweek to gain some benefits.

Take into account the work style your organization currently offers. Are a substantial number of your employees hybrid workers? If so, are you going to allow them to continue their hybrid schedule when the four-day workweek is implemented? There is no right or wrong answer here, but you need to find what works best for your company and your team's goals. 

This will also help you find areas that are going to need more detail in writing. The ones that experience the biggest shifts to a four-day workweek such as scheduling, benefits, and payroll sections should be the most detailed to account for the change.

2. Consult with different areas of your business on what they need.

When you're writing this policy, you should be working with every area of your business for their input. The legal team will help clarify what language you can and should use, while your HR managers will help you compile resources that employees will need.

These changes impact every business area, so work with them to write the policy that works most fairly for everyone. You'll also see areas that should be written with more detail for workers so it's easy to pitch to your boss.

3. Be clear about what's changing and staying the same.

The policy should be easy to read and understand what will be happening. A shift like this is big, so it should be spelled out clearly what will be changing and staying the same. It's easier to weigh the risks when the pros and cons are easy to understand, so your boss will be more likely to approve it if it's clear.

One helpful way would be to go through each part of the organization and discuss the changes and what will be done to make sure things still work. This can be done from a top-down approach, going from the highest levels of the organization down to individual teams and workers. Your boss will be able to see how things will change and who will be most impacted.

4. Clearly label the intended benefits of the change.

The most important part to highlight is the benefits of this change. We know that changing to a four-day workweek has its benefits, so those must be the crux of the proposal. Without making the benefits clear, your manager probably won't read past the first page. Accompany each benefit with a plan to make sure it happens as well. If you're explaining how worker productivity will be increased, explain how you plan to make sure it happens if it doesn't occur at the expected level.

The Advantages and Disadvantages Of The Four-Day Work Week

Advantages of a Shorter Work Week

Here’s what supporters of the four-day work week say are some of the biggest advantages of the concept:

• Fewer Distractions at Work: Andrew Barnes, the owner of New Zealand law firm Perpetual Guardian, launched a four-day work week in 2018. Employees opted to install lockers for their phones, soundproof meeting spaces, and shorten meetings. Barnes found that even though workers were working less time, employees spent 35% less time on nonwork websites. Because employees had more time to manage their household and life responsibilities outside work, nonwork responsibilities were much less likely to intrude on the workday.
• Longer Hours Does Not Mean More Output: Supporters of shorter working weeks say that the current work environment is defined increasingly by long hours and the “always-on” mentality. But that’s not necessarily the best way to support productivity, according to Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. The success of companies shaving hours – or days – off the workday points to a failure of imagination on the part of managers.
• Increased Mental Wellbeing and Physical Health: Workers who have been working fewer days a week report a number of positive side effects, from exercising more to finishing a Master’s program early to volunteering more to simply finding time to cope with the effects of the pandemic. This, in turn, has a net positive impact on a workers’ productivity at the office. “I like to take walks … just wander and let my brain breathe,” Natalie Nagele, the Wildbit CEO, told The Atlantic. The company has a shorter working week.
• Lowering Our Global Carbon Footprint: Studies have shown that American employees drive 17% fewer miles on a weekend compared to a weekday. A four-day work week would reduce reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. by 45 million metric tons—more than the total emissions of U.S. states Oregon and Vermont combined. Parents will also have more time to make meals for their families, leading to healthier and more sustainable choices.

Disadvantages of a Shorter Work Week

Those who oppose a four-day work week highlight some of the following arguments:

The Cost: Those against the four-day work week point to the cost of recruiting employees. In the U.S., and in other countries, full-time employees cost more than their annual salary: employers also cover the cost of benefits like pensions and health insurance. Employers may not be able to hire more people to cover decreased working hours. In addition, in many countries, workers prioritize a higher pay to working fewer days a week – or fewer hours. In a 2014 YouGov and HuffPost poll, approximately 50% of American workers said they would work an additional day a week for 20% more pay. Part-time workers were even more likely to make the trade.

The Equality: If a four-day work week starts to seriously gain traction, one of the biggest disadvantages could be that it might widen existing inequalities. Such a concept might widen existing inequalities between knowledge workers and flexible or manual workers who are usually paid based on the time they spend working.

Not All Industries Can Participate: Some industries require a 24/7 presence or other similar scheduling for optimal flow, making a four-day work week hard to implement. For example, if your business revolves around customer service, opponents have pointed out that it may be difficult to manage problems that arise with customers during four-day week. It can be important for companies to address issues during the weekdays and weekends, no matter the industry. Making sure each area of the business is covered during the workday can require more effort scheduling and forethought.

The Risk Is Expensive: Opponents say the most glaring drawback for employers is the cost risk associated with a four-day work week, especially if employees fail to meet work requirements. In Sweden’s two-year trial of a reduced working week (from 40 hours a week to 30 hours a week), they found higher worker satisfaction, but the experiment became far too costly to continue successfully.

Workers May Put In The Same Hours Anyways: Certain jobs just take time to do completely, and some jobs may not be suited to reduced hours. In one four-day work week experiment in France, they found workers ended up putting in the same hours anyways. The only difference? The company had to pay overtime, an added expense for the company.

Difficult Team Management: Managing multiple teams on a four-day work week can be challenging, especially if the business runs 24/7. If these employee days off are scattered, it can be difficult to set up team meetings and it can be difficult to manage projects. Employees may also feel pressured to tune in on their days off, so they don’t miss anything important.

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Why we need to consider switching to a 4-day workweek — now 

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Iceland has made recent headlines by declaring the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector a resounding success. After more than 2,500 workers moved to a 35- or 36-hour workweek and declared themselves happier, healthier and less stressed, the country is now moving to make this an option for the majority of its workforce.

This, of course, goes against today’s always-on, 24/7 global economy, where long hours can seem inevitable, inescapable and natural. Years of “rise and grind,” laser-like focus and unrelenting labor, we are told, are behind the success of tech billionaires, professional athletes, “unicorn” companies and even entire economies.

Yet the four-day workweek isn’t just for the public sector — many private companies are discovering that by switching to a four days, they can protect time for undistracted work and give people more time for leisure. The results: Increased productivity and creativity; improved recruitment and retention; less burnout for founders and leaders; and more balanced and sustainable lives for workers — all without cutting salaries or sacrificing customer service.

My book about the move towards four-day workweek, Shorter , was published in the US in early March 2020. The next day, my home state of California reported its first coronavirus death, and a week later, schools, businesses and public spaces across America began closing.

At first, I worried that it was exactly the wrong time to publish a book on the four-day week. But it soon became clear — once the initial confusion over shutdowns and remote work settled — that the global movement to shorten the workweek wasn’t slowing down. In fact, the pandemic was making it possible for more companies to shorten their working hours, highlighting the urgent need to redesign how we work, and teaching me some new things about the four-day week as well as the future of work.

The four-day week before the pandemic

Before the pandemic, hundreds of companies around the world, including in Korea and Japan, two countries whose languages have invented words for “death by overwork”, had moved to four-day weeks, six-hour days or other shorter workweeks. Most were small companies with fewer than 100 people, and they included creative and professional service firms but also software startups, restaurants, factories and nursing homes — industries where overwork is common and deadlines can be inflexible.

Almost all these companies were led by seasoned founders who were now facing burnout or some existential threat to their company. They had concluded that ever-longer hours were unsustainable.

Why did they do it? For many, it was a question of change-or-die. Almost all these companies were led by seasoned founders who found themselves facing burnout or some existential threat to their company. They had concluded that ever-longer hours were unsustainable and thought they could invent a better way of working. For everyone, the benefits of a three-day weekend were obvious: Better work-life balance; more time for “life admin” and family; and more energy for professional and personal development, restorative hobbies and exercise.

No company just lopped a day off their calendar. Instead, they had to meaningfully redesign how they worked. The key to unlocking a shorter workweek without reducing productivity lies in three areas: 1) tightening meetings; 2) introducing “focus time” when everyone can concentrate on their key tasks; and 3) using technology more mindfully.

For example, Flocc London digital consultancy ELSE holds their internal meetings on hard chairs to encourage people to be brief, while at Copenhagen-based IIH Nordic, they use countdown timers to keep meetings short. Studies show that while technology has made knowledge work much more productive, office workers are wasting two to four hours a day thanks to outmoded processes, multitasking , overly-long meetings  and interruptions . Deal with those, and you go a long way towards making a four-day week possible.

Having more focused time also gives companies space for dedicated social time during the day. Flocc alternates heads-down “red time” with Swedish fika ( a coffee break), while Glasgow call center Pursuit Marketing offers workers free breakfast before they hit the phones.

Companies aren’t losing out on their bottom line, and they have happier, healthier and better workers.

Many companies found they could be just as productive in four days as in five, and a few even saw employee productivity go up dramatically. What’s more, revenues and profits rose because four-day weeks were cheap to implement and actually attracted new customers.

As a result, companies didn’t cut salaries when they reduced hours. This, in turn, boosted retention rates and attracted more experienced workers, and plucky startups and small-town firms could now compete with established companies in London or Silicon Valley for senior talent. Rich Leigh, whose Gloucester firm Radioactive PR moved to a four-day week in 2019, told me, “I can’t move for great resumes from great people” who were wanting to escape London but remain  in the industry. A few years ago, Korean e-commerce company Woowa Brothers used a shorter workweek to lure people from Samsung and LG; it’s currently  valued at more than US $4 billion. Companies aren’t losing out on their bottom line, and they have happier, healthier and better workers.

Synergy Vision, a London-based medical and health care communications company, introduced a four-day week in late 2018. After six months, in a company-wide survey, 51 percent of employees said they were “very happy” at work (up from 12 percent) and 88 percent said they had enough time for personal tasks (up from 54 percent). Incredibly, 79 percent said they had enough time to get all their work done — even though they were working one day less.

“[M]y life is better off, thanks to the 4-day work week,” one employee wrote . “I spend extra time doing things for myself, like walking in Hampstead Health, getting through the pile of unread books and planning my wedding.” Another observed , “Everyone spends their time differently — some people have taken up a new hobby, some people do bugger-all and use it to recharge, and a lot of people use it to ensure their weekends are free to be properly enjoyed with friends and family.”

Working hours, innovation and the pandemic

Companies that moved to four-day weeks before the pandemic were able to respond quickly to the challenges of lockdowns. At Copenhagen-based software and design agency Abtion, employees had learned how to redesign working hours, meeting schedules and adopt new technologies when they chose to adopt a 4-day week. When the pandemic hit Danish businesses, “we did not dictate solutions” to employees, chief production officer Bo Konskov told journalist Pernille Garde Abildgaard — the leadership knew that workers already had the skills to adapt. And once they were working from home, nobody had to “constantly document that one is at work,” Konskov said. “It would be a waste of time, because we know that all our employees are on and working.”

The impact on morale of switching to a four-day week was immediate. “Instantly, you see happier people,” says Paul McNulty, whose online publishing company adopted this schedule in mid-2020.

Companies that made the shift to a shorter week during the pandemic often did so because they found that efficiencies of remote work and better use of technology created more free time, which they could in turn give back to employees who were feeling stressed or overworked because of pandemic life. If a company in early 2020 wasn’t already using tools like Google Suite, Asana, Trello and Slack to let workers collaborate and communicate  online and serve customers remotely, they quickly learned how to use them when they went remote.

After a few months, this meant that workflows became better-documented and -routinized, pushing hourly productivity upward. At the same time, the challenges of managing life under lockdown were growing, as workers juggled home-schooling, the disappearance of work-life boundaries and longer working hours. The solution: Share those productivity gains with workers, in the form of a shorter workweek.

After months of adapting to work from home and the uncertainty of living in the shadow of a pandemic, the impact on morale was immediate. “Instantly, you see happier people,” says Paul McNulty, whose online publishing company 3D Issue moved to a four-day week in mid-2020. “That’s really great to see.”  Before making the change, he gave staff the option of a pay rise or shortened working hours, and they voted in favor of the latter.

Employees with children “see this a day to themselves,” and everyone feels more loyal to the company. Shortening the workweek also encouraged people to be more thoughtful about how they worked. At Uncharted, a Denver nonprofit, “Giving people the space to figure out their working style has been an important optimization,” Banks Benitez tells me.

The four-day week and the future of work

An economic and public health crisis might not seem like a good time for businesses to try a 4-day week. So far, however, every company has survived a crisis unprecedented in recent history. Soon they’ll need to become more flexible, more agile with their time and less beholden to convention, as they redesign workplaces and routines for a workers newly accustomed to flexible work, reopen offices and stores, figure out what work must happen face-to-face and what can be done remotely, and prepare for the next pandemic or economic downturn.

Many companies have already made the kinds of technology investments necessary to implement a shorter workweek, so the 4-day week is more accessible than ever.

This will demand resilience, reflection and problem-solving among employees and in organizations. The four-day week provides an incentive for companies to develop those abilities, and it can play a role in helping companies deal with the practical problems of reopening and reforming work. And because many have already made the kinds of tech investments necessary to implement a shorter workweek without cutting salaries or sacrificing service, the four-day week is more accessible than ever.

A recent survey by Be The Business, a London-based nonprofit, found that 18 percent of companies in the UK were open to moving to a four-day work week after the pandemic ends, and 5 percent already offer a four-day week to workers.

Growing interest among politicians and governments is also raising the prominence of the four-day week in the post-pandemic workplace. In recent months, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon , New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern  and Japanese politician Kuniko Inoguchi have all expressed support for a four-day week. Mayoral candidates in Seoul, South Korea, promised to launch programs to encourage companies to experiment with four-and-a-half-day weeks. In the US, I am currently working on a campaign to encourage companies to adopt a four-day week; it launched in late June 2021.

Job losses in 2020 erased decades of gains made by women in the workplace, and the 4-day workweek could help them recover.

Some local governments have implemented a four-day week, or they’re contemplating it. The Danish kommune (or province) of Odsherred began a three-year trial of a four-day week in 2019; in the US, Morgantown, West Virginia , and Colorado‘s Jefferson County adopted it in 2020; and in 2021, Valencia, Spain, announced plans to trial it.

The four-day week can also help us address structural inequalities that the pandemic threw into sharp relief. Job losses in 2020 erased decades of gains made by women in the workplace, and the four-day week could help them recover. In my interviews with companies who’ve adopted this model, I found they often prefer working mothers whom they value for their experience, organizational skills, collaborative ability, time management and ruthless ability to prioritize.

Labor markets that reward staying late and not having a life end up charging a penalty for motherhood; in contrast, companies that work shorter weeks pay a premium for it. Working mothers “are actually the kinds of people that we want to attract,” Anna Ross, CEO of Australian beauty products company Kester Black, tells me.

A report published by UK’s 4 Day Week Campaign shows that shifting to this work pattern could reduce the entire country’s carbon footprint by 21.3 percent per year — the equivalent of taking nearly every car off the road.

Shorter working hours also translate into lower energy consumption, less carbon emissions and less commuting time. A report published by the 4 Day Week Campaign in the UK shows that shifting to this work pattern could reduce the entire country’s carbon footprint by 21.3 percent per year — the equivalent of taking nearly every car off the road. As has been the case during the pandemic, the report also found evidence that people are more likely to spend their non-work time engaged in less carbon-intensive activities, like preparing their own meals and walking or cycling instead of driving.

A shorter workweek could also benefit regions and countries trying to become magnets for global talent or attract young people to move back home. An economy in which workers have a bigger voice in how work is automated and get a bigger share of the benefits of increased productivity is one which is less likely to suffer huge disruptions from automation and AI.

Finally the four-day week can help us develop a healthier vision of work and time. In recent decades, globalization, outsourcing, automation, digitization and, most recently, the rise of the gig economy have created an economy in which we are encouraged, or required, to work ever-longer hours in the name of “doing what you love,” bringing your whole self to work or avoiding redundancy.

But one of the most important lessons companies that adopt four-day weeks can teach us is that — with the right incentives and culture — workplaces can replace the worship of destructive creativity with a vision of sustainable creativity, in which work and life are better balanced, rest fuels creativity, and companies tap into employees’ passions. The four-day week is within our grasp. We just need to see it, and be bold enough to seize it.

Watch Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s TEDxYouth@Monterey Talk here: 

Watch this TEDxAuckland Talk on the four-day workweek now: 

About the author

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is the author of "Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less", and "Shorter: Work Better, Smarter and Less". His consultancy Strategy + Rest helps companies move to 4-day weeks. You can follow him at @askpang or visit his website www.strategy.rest.

• alex soojung-kim pang
• business advice
• future of work
• the way we work
• work life balance

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Learn how a shorter week can lead to greater efficiency and job satisfaction.

4-Days Work week: The Pros and Cons of a New Normal Working Culture

The 4-day workweek is emerging as a potential new norm in work culture:

• Pros: Increased productivity, improved employee well-being, environmental benefits.
• Cons: Potential for increased workload, customer service challenges, and implementation difficulties.
• The blog covers important factors and steps to adopt a shorter workweek.

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Introduction

In the ever-changing economy of today, there’s one certain thing, and that’s working smarter than harder has become normal. 

New cultures, such as working in an open space office, working from home, or building a digital nomad company, all contribute to this new normality. 

With technology providing more efficient ways to work, there’s no end to opportunities for people to find out what works best for them. 

With ample options, it is up to each person what they feel most comfortable with and how productive they can be with different setups. 

One experiment worth mentioning is the four-day working week, where workers are required to work four days instead of 5 with 12 hours a day rather than 9, which makes them satisfied with the fact that they have 3 days off every week and their productivity remains the same. 

The rise of the 4 day work week has been fueled by the rise of automation and data analytics , as well as companies’ desire to give their employees more free time outside of work hours, which helps both companies and employees to maintain a healthier lifestyle.  

Multiple successful start-ups worldwide are operating solely on a 4 day work week, including Teksavvy, Panasonic, and Google, setting up new standards of maintaining work-life balance with better productivity and growth.  

However, as we all know, everything with some benefits also carries disadvantages. The same goes for the 4 days working week as it brings challenges and risks that can affect the company if not managed properly. 

In this blog, we will understand the 4 day work week advantages and disadvantages . We will also understand how to make it work for you so that you can make the most out of this working culture. 

Let’s dive in-

What is the 4-day Workweek?

A 4-day workweek option can be defined as a work schedule proposal in which employees conduct business activities for 4 days in one week instead of the conventional 5 days. This, however, does not eliminate the various hours that one has to spend at work; it only entails condensing the working hours into fewer days. 

For instance, instead of employees working eight hours each day, five days a week, they will now work ten hours each day, four days a week. However, some organizations reduce the total working hours in a week, either or all the above options.

Different Models

• Compressed Workweek: Suppose total working hours are similar to the standard workweek but are condensed into fewer days. For instance, working 10 hours a day for 4 days in a week or 40 hours in a week.
• Reduced Hours: This implies that the overall working hours provided in a specific week are reduced. For instance, the employees could be required to work 32 hours, which are distributed over four days instead of 40 hours.
• Hybrid Models: Regarding flexible working arrangements, it is also important to know that some organizations implement the 4-DWG with home working or flexible working time to meet a company’s needs.

The Rise of the 4-Day Workweek

The concept of working only four days a week is slowly spreading around the global population. This is not only about granting people more free time; it is also about making work more efficient and enjoyable. Various organizations realize that a shorter workweek is a great way of making employees happier and more competent. 

Here are some reasons why the 4-day weekend work is catching up:

• Happier Employees

When people work fewer days, they have more time to rest, be with their family, and do things they love. This extra time off reduces stress levels and prevents exhaustion from work. Employees who are happy at work are always more productive or focused, hence enhancing performance.

• Increased Productivity

It has been found that productivity increases when people reduce their work hours. Employees with a four-day workweek are more alert and use most of their time productively. They also take fewer sick leaves since they are less pressured, happier, and healthier than their traditional counterparts.

• Better Work-Life Balance

In this case, a flexible workweek is a four-day workweek that enables employees to balance work and other activities. Employees can attend their events, have their hobbies, and run their errands, thus leading to a more fulfilled life outside the working world. Combined with no conflict, it benefits physical, mental, and social health and long-term career satisfaction.

• Attracting Talent

Employers who propose the 4-day work week are attractive to job candidates. A shorter workweek is another advantage, especially in today’s commerce world, where competition has reached high levels regarding securing employment. This erases the aspect of the employees’ speculation that the company does not care about their welfare, hence improving their hold on the best talents.

• Positive Business Outcomes

As do businesses, employees are also known to benefit from a 4-day work week. Less stress and higher satisfaction mean decreased employee turnover, which minimizes costs associated with recruiting and training. Further, a happy workforce that is seemingly more skillful and focused is definitively more effective, which can improve the overall team performance .

Common Challenges Of A 4-Day Workweek

Here are some common challenges of a 4-day workweek: 

• Potential for Increased Workload

Reducing the time from five days to four means longer working hours and more work per day, which, if poorly planned, may lead to higher stress and rates of employee burnout .

• Customer and Client Service Issues

Some businesses, such as health facilities and retail shops that rely on constant service provision, might face challenges in meeting the expected service standards. It may be necessary to perform work in shifts or coordinate working days, which can be challenging.

• Implementation Challenges

Moving to an expanded 4-day workweek requires setting up, and redesigning workflows and Opposition from those who fret over efficiency and power.

• Uneven Benefits Across Sectors

The four-day workweek may be adequate for white-collar workers but may not be practical in blue-collar and service sectors. Some workers may not receive these benefits to the same extent due to the nature of their work arrangements. Part-time and gig economy workers, for example, may need sector-specific modifications.

• Legal and Regulatory Considerations

The lack of a legal basis for a four-day workweek means that current labor laws and contracts might contain provisions that do not allow such an organization to implement the policy to deal with overtime and compensation issues appropriately.

• Communication and Collaboration Issues

Less working days make it difficult to arrange meetings and propose strategies for the crew’s coming together, especially for the international crews. Organization and implementation of all resources and technologies are critical to effective planning.

3 Pros of 4-day Workweek 

Many companies are abandoning the conventional 9-to-5 schedule and moving towards a four-day workweek or other compressed schedules. It also appears that employees are getting the better end of the deal.

Reducing the number of hours worked within a week may also improve productivity because people with more days off are more satisfied with their work. Moreover, the organizations where these workers are employed have lower weekly working hours than other organizations, and the workers are more productive.

• Happier and More Satisfied Employees

It also reduces turnover as researchers have found that workers who work 4 days a week hardly contemplate switching employers, which is cost-saving.

Furthermore, they report reduced stress levels, as they are off three days a week, which is sufficient for the rest of the week.

They are happier with their careers because they can practice proper health habits, which produces better results than working five days a week.

Furthermore, happier and more satisfied employees perform better by delivering quality work and sharing better ideas to improve and increase a company’s competitiveness.

• Higher Productivity

Suppose your company faces competitiveness issues or difficulty achieving certain business objectives, such as cutting operational costs while enhancing profitability. In that case, the solution is as simple as shifting to a four-day working week schedule.

One can observe that such employees are often more productive and do more work during the day because they have an extra week to rest and devote time to necessary tasks such as chores or shopping.

Shorter work days are compensated for efficiency and output to achieve and sometimes surpass their earlier project turnover rates.

Whenever it is implemented, a four-day workweek means that workers can be off for three days in the middle of the week, thus getting time to do their hobbies, be with the family, or do chores at home.

They can even read books or just go out for coffee, which allows them to start the next working week with a healthy mind and body. They adopt healthier lifestyles instead of working on the weekend and burning out.

Also, improved work-life balance generates better employee satisfaction and decreased burnout levels, which results in more satisfied employees and lower turnover rates.

3 Cons Of 4-Day Workweek

Supporters of a four-day workweek state that this increases free time, time with friends and family, and, therefore, time for hobbies and exercise, all of which are positive.

However, there are also some negatives to this, especially if one has to come to work only four days a week. For this reason, before you introduce the four-day workweek concept, the following are three major drawbacks that should be balanced against a new, absolutely free day in the middle of the week.

• You Work Longer Hours Than Usual

Mondays to Fridays are the working week, meaning you must make up the extra hours daily to accomplish what you need when you work four days a week.

Such additional time and commitment may result in additional stresses and a higher likelihood of burnout that can potentially reduce the effectiveness of employees in this company and the quality of the material they produce, causing a decreased efficiency on the whole.

3. More Challenges In Setting Up Of Routines

One of the main grievances when working four days a week is how practically impossible it is to have a daily routine when time is as crucial as it is in the modern world.

With an increase in the number of hours worked in a day, one has to work very late into the night to complete whatever is necessary in a day.

This causes fluctuations in certain schedules, such as the wake-sleep cycle, which definitely has adverse effects on the body’s well-being and can lead to several illnesses. In essence, this lowers efficiency and productivity.

These were the pros and cons of a four-day workweek. Next, let’s cover how to manage a four-day workweek.

3 Tips For Managing Your 4-Day Workweek 

Setting up a 4-day working week can seem like a daunting task to get started with, but here are some tips to help you manage your new schedule.

1. Set Time Limits

It’s essential to set time limits for tasks and projects and carve out blocks of time where you can relax, as this will allow your employees to meet deadlines while also maintaining a sense of balance.

Employers can use time-tracking software such as Workstatus to track the time spent by their employees on every task and ensure that they’re completing their projects promptly and achieving maximum productivity and output.

2. Prioritizing

Making the switch to a 4-day workweek does not mean the workload of the employee changes, nor should it. 

With less time available, it becomes critical to prioritize and identify which tasks need to be completed urgently and which can wait until tomorrow.

Setting specific goals and breaking them down into smaller objectives will also go a long way toward achieving maximum output during shorter workdays. 

This way, employees can still accomplish everything they need during the week and feel accomplished after putting in their best effort.

3. Establish Routines

When it comes to establishing a 4-day workweek, employers must be mindful that it can take time for employees to adjust and find a rhythm. 

To prevent disruptions in their daily routine and sleep patterns, managers should provide ample opportunities for their employees to adjust and transition gradually.

For instance, the company can start by gradually introducing a 4-day workweek over several weeks before finally implementing this type of work culture as the standard. 

Employees also need to understand that they still need to accomplish everything they usually do within shorter workdays, so establishing habits early on will be key to sustaining productivity in the long run.

Final Thoughts 

The four-day workweek is the new normal. As a company, you need to decide whether or not you want to be on the ground floor of this change or risk being left behind. 

There are many benefits and drawbacks of moving towards a four-day workweek, which is essential to consider before implementing such a shift as it will significantly impact your employees individually and as a team. 

However, with the right planning in place, it could prove to be an extremely worthwhile investment, so it’s up to you to weigh the pros and cons of four day work week and make a decision that is best for your business. 

That’s all for today

We hope you’ve found our blog post insightful. 

If you have any comments or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to leave them below. We would love to answer your queries.  

 In addition, small businesses are usually able to handle a change easier than larger corporations since they have more room for flexibility and can adapt quickly. 

Don’t forget to share this post with others who may benefit from the information. 

We will catch you soon.  

Until then, keep learning. 

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Days of Work Over a Half Century: The Rise of the Four-day Week

We examine patterns of work in the U.S. from 1973-2018 with the novel focus on days per week, using intermittent CPS samples and one ATUS sample. Among full-time workers the incidence of four-day work tripled during this period, with over 8 million more full-time workers on four-day weeks. The same growth occurred in the Netherlands, Germany, and South Korea. The rise was not due to changes in demographics or industrial structure. Four-day full-time work is more common among less educated, younger, and white non-Hispanic workers, among men, natives, and people with young children; and among police and firefighters, health-care workers, and in eating/drinking places. Based on an equilibrium model of its prevalence, we show that it results more from workers’ preferences and/or daily fixed costs of working than from employers' production costs. We verify the implication that the wage penalty for four-day work is greater where such work is more prevalent, and we show that the penalty has diminished over time.

We thank Jacob Bastian, Francine Blau, George Borjas, Wolter Hassink, Philipp Kircher, Lea-Rachel Kosnik, Peter Kuhn, Kyungtae Lee, Lester Lusher, Kusum Mundra, Stephen Trejo, Wim Vijverberg, David Weil, and participants in seminars at several universities for helpful comments; IPUMS University of Minnesota for the ATUS data; the Centre for Time Use Research for the Dutch time-use data, and Jagriti Tanwar for clarifying their characteristics; the Data Archiving and Network Service of the Netherlands for the OSA data; Alexander Bick and Adam Blandin for the RPS data; Florian Griese and Jürgen Schupp for information from the GSOEP, and the staff of the Korean Labor Institute for the KLIPS data. Joe Pinsker spurred our initial interest in this subject. No funding was received in support of this project. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

No additional disclosures. Letters from both Hamermesh and Biddle are being sent as attachments in one minute.

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What Leaders Need to Know Before Trying a 4-Day Work Week

by Emma Russell , Caroline Murphy and Esme Terry

Summary .   

While there is no easy way to address concerns about how (and how much) we work, research tells us that no matter what we do, taking a holistic, long-term focus on the well-being of the workforce is the best path to both happiness and prosperity. Maybe the answer is a four-day workweek. Or maybe it’s something else. But we must start with an honest appraisal of how productivity and time trade-offs impact the well-being of workers. Before trying a four-day workweek, employers need to be aware of two important factors. First, a reduction in hours must also be accompanied by a revision of or even reduction in workload. Second, time at work could become even more intense and stressful for workers, even if there are productivity benefits to be had.

Despite the gains workers have made through the Covid pandemic in increasing flexibility in where they work, bigger workloads have meant that there is little slack in the system for people to take time out and recover. The effects are obvious. In 2020, 62% of people reported that they had experienced burnout “often” or “extremely often” in the previous three months, and in 2021, 67% of workers reported that stress and burnout had increased since the pandemic. Perhaps it is no surprise then that initiatives such as the four-day workweek , remote and hybrid working , unlimited paid time off , and right-to-disconnect have been gaining in popularity in an attempt to tackle these high-workload, always-on cultures.

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Achieving the Four-Day Work Week: Part 1 Essays

This is the first part in a new series of essays to be published by the Fraser Institute over the coming months focused on policy reforms that can improve productivity growth and lay the foundation for a four-day work week.

Putting Government on a Financial Diet: The Role of Statutory Fiscal Rules , written by the University of Calgary’s President’s Fellow Jack Mintz, finds that because of Ottawa’s significant budget deficit and mounting debt, the federal government should adopt a rule—legislated by Parliament—to push the government towards budget balance.

The “balanced budget” rule should be legislated and possibly include annual federal deficit targets leading to budget balance.

The essay also shows that to ensure transparency, Parliament should establish a council—independent from the government—to monitor Ottawa’s fiscal process, or instead direct the Parliamentary Budget Office to closely monitor the fiscal plan.

And if the government fails to achieve its fiscal targets, politicians should be penalized with salary reductions.

A separate essay by Fraser Institute Senior Fellow Livio Di Matteo, Government Size and Economic Growth: An Overview , finds that governments in Canada substantially exceed the optimal size of government to maximize economic growth and increase the possibility of a four-day work week.

Based on data from 17 developed countries from 1870 to 2016, the optimal size of government for economic growth ranges from 24 per cent to 32 per cent (as a share of the economy). However, since the 1970s the total size of government in Canada has ranged from 35 per cent to 53 per cent.

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These nurse managers were burnt out. Then their hospital gave them a 4-day workweek

NURSE MANAGERS 4 DAY WEEK

Nurse manager Danielle DiLella sits in her office, with a long to-do list on her whiteboard behind her. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

The four-day workweek has won converts in offices , government agencies, even manufacturing . Now it's making inroads into health care.

Since the pandemic, a handful of hospitals, including AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in New Jersey, have begun offering a four-day workweek to nurse managers, who are akin to CEOs in their level of responsibility overseeing big teams of nurses and ensuring proper care.

The move to the shorter workweek was prompted by alarming rates of turnover since the pandemic. Ten months in, AtlantiCare has seen no negative impact on patient care. No nurse managers have quit.

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Instead, they are reporting greater job satisfaction and better work-life balance. After an extra day off, AtlantiCare's nurse managers report coming back to work feeling recharged, even smiling more.

Accountable 24/7

To understand why it's working, it pays to spend some time with a nurse manager.

On a recent afternoon, Danielle DiLella is cheerful but all business as she goes about her job overseeing 86 bedside nurses on her unit known as One Meadow.

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Her days are split between administrative and clinical tasks. She's responsible for all of the recruiting, scheduling and payroll of her large team. She’s also accountable for the care they provide, working to minimize falls, pressure injuries and infections, and handling patient complaints.

Throughout the day, she’s checking to ensure patients are getting discharged in a timely way, so that One Meadow can receive patients waiting in the emergency room.

The days are long and her to-do lists even longer. And because hospitals never close, the responsibilities never end.

“You are accountable for your unit 24/7,” says DiLella. “That weighs on me.”

'Like a godsend'

The vast majority of nurse managers come from the ranks of bedside nurses, who typically work three 12-hour days.

The move to a standard workweek can be a deterrent for those considering leadership roles.

Kathryn Dixon worked as a bedside nurse for 15 years before taking a job as a nurse manager. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

“Sometimes I say it was way more easier at the bedside in the ER which sounds bananas,” says Kathryn Dixon, the nurse manager on Two Meadow, who worked in the emergency room for 15 years prior to her current role.

As a single mom, Dixon says it's nice to once again have a day when she's home before her teenager.

“That extra day is like a godsend,” she says.

In a recent study by the American Organization of Nursing Leadership, two-thirds of nurse leaders identified their own emotional health as a major challenge.

It's no wonder turnover among nurse managers soared during the pandemic.

"We’ve seen that across the country. The pandemic was really, really crippling,” says AtlantiCare’s chief nursing officer Barbara Cottrell.

Barbara Cottrell, AtlantiCare's chief nursing officer, says the four-day workweek for nurse managers has not had a negative impact on patient care and none of them has quit. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

Before the pandemic, she says, nurse managers would typically stay in the job about five years. Cottrell herself did the job for eight. As of last fall, nurse managers at AtlantiCare stayed on average just two years.

That, in turn, was leading to high turnover among bedside nurses. Cottrell knew this was a serious problem.

“Ultimately, it would create an unsafe environment for our patients if we don’t stabilize the workforce,” she says.

A popular move that came with hesitation

When AtlantiCare decided to pilot a four-day workweek last September, the response from most of the nurse managers was jubilation.

But not everyone was immediately convinced, including a few senior nurse managers.

“There were some that were a little nervous,” recalls Cottrell.

Their main concern was quality could slip.

While enduring such growing pains might be the norm in other workplaces, it'd be unacceptable in a hospital.

“People’s lives are at risk,” says Cottrell.

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Even today, about a quarter of AtlantiCare's nurse managers have opted to stick with a five-day workweek.

Dedicated to making it work

The team at AltantiCare put a lot of thought and planning into the move to a shorter workweek, learning about how other hospitals, including Duke University Hospital and Temple University Hospital, had done it.

"I think our whole team was very, very dedicated to making it work," says DiLella.

Now, every couple months, the nurse managers split into pairs, sit down with calendars and coordinate which days they want off.

Each nurse manager then covers for their partner on those days off, responding to any immediate needs, such as a patient issue that the team cannot resolve on their own. They remain fully responsible for their own team of nurses, including their scheduling, payroll and quality of care.

“I think it has actually made us stronger, because when you're covering that other person's team, you have to build rapport with that team. You have to develop trust with that team,” she says. “So it kind of gives you a more global perspective of what's happening in the hospital.”

Having that extra day away from the hospital makes the administrative work seem more doable, DiLella adds. She has more energy and brain space on the four days she is there.

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DiLella uses her extra day off to catch up on personal tasks, such as going to the doctor, getting an oil change, or taking her dog to the vet.

“Just those things that you keep putting on back burner,” she says.

As a caregiver, she says it sometimes feels odd to prioritize herself and her own needs.

But the four-day week has led her to an important realization:

“You can't ever fill from an empty cup,” she says. “It's actually really beneficial when you kind of pull back and take care of yourself first, so that you can do a better job taking care of others.”

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• | People management
• > Employment law
• > Labour 4-day working week

Labour’s 4-day working week proposal, and some thoughts for UK businesses

Flexible Working Survey 2024

Following on from its ‘Make Work Pay’ announcement at the end of May, the Labour government has hinted that it may be about to give employees the right to request a 4-day working week in the UK. The plan, however, comes with a slight catch (for employees at least), insomuch as they would still need to work their current contracted hours. So, we’re looking at the option to undertake longer working days, with a day off in the standard working week.

In this article we’ll take a look at Labour’s 4-day work week proposal, what’s been said by the government so far, along with some thoughts on what this could all mean for small businesses.

• What’s been said on a 4-day working week in the UK so far

After a series of highly successful trials of a 4-day working week in the UK, this emerging flexible working trend is now being talked about at the highest levels, with plans for it to become a requestable right. The new Labour government’s plans on worker legislation so far have taken in talk of abolishing zero-hours contracts , banning fire & rehire as well as delivering a genuine living wage. Much of the legislation is a continuation of emerging talk from the last Conservative government, however it’s now looking a lot closer to coming to fruition.

Education minister Jacqui Smith has stated that the government thinks flexible working is good for productivity, including a 4-day week. She feels that it could help workers with children pay less for childcare, spend more time with family, and encourage more people into the workplace.

The government said that it would roll out this raft of new worker legislation in its first 100 days in office (which, at the time of writing, is very close to being up), however nothing concrete has gotten going just yet. We’d expect several rounds of consultation with businesses and trade unions, not to mention the usual Commons voting processes, before Labour’s 4-day working week proposal passes into UK legislation.

• Some thoughts on what this could mean for small businesses

It’s important to note the government has said they have “no plans” to impose a 4-day work week on employers or employees. They have said that any changes to employment legislation will be fully consulted on, working in partnership with businesses.

The previous government passed a new flexible working law (after concerted efforts from Labour) which means that employees are now entitled to request flexible working arrangements from day one of their employment.

These can include, as well as things like part-time or flexi-time requests, requests to work compressed hours. What this potential latest announcement would do is enshrine UK employees’ rights to request a 4-day working week specifically in law, meaning that businesses would be encouraged to accept a request (at the moment they are not required to do so).

So what small businesses can expect is a further shift in the balance of power towards the employee in terms of flexible working , and this represents a great opportunity to align with Gen-Z on what they truly want from work. With the demand for full flexibility so high, especially among younger workers, employers who are quick to adapt to this new UK 4-day work week mindset will set themselves apart, boost recruitment and retention efforts and drive up engagement.

Some other opportunities (and challenges) that a move to this proposed iteration of a 4-day working week in the UK might present to businesses are:

Opportunity: additional exposure on specialised 4-day work week recruitment sites;

Challenge: fulfilling 5-day hours in a 4-day week could actually negatively impact engagement, and lead to burnout.

How UK businesses can get on the front foot

Encourage managers to have discussions with their teams as to what their preferences would be, and if they might consider working a compressed hours 4-day week;

Consider whether it might be beneficial to start including the option to work a compressed 4-day week on job postings;

Start thinking about what a 4-day work week could look like for teams and projects, for example having staggered days off throughout the week, building in flexibility around which days might be taken off by whom, and how you can plan this around meetings and deadlines.

We here at PayFit will be keeping a close eye on developments, so stay close to both our blog and socials for updates on what is sure to be a major development in employment law and workers’ rights.

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