research 4 day work week

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.

clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

A four-day workweek pilot was so successful most firms say they won’t go back

15 percent of employees who participated said that “no amount of money” would convince them to go back to working five days a week.

If the idea of working four days a week for the same pay sounds like music to your ears, the results of a pilot program from the United Kingdom may give you cause for hope.

Dozens of companies there took part in the world’s largest trial of the four-day workweek — and a majority of supervisors and employees liked it so much they’ve decided to keep the arrangement. In fact, 15 percent of the employees who participated said “no amount of money” would convince them to go back to working five days a week.

Nearly 3,000 employees took part in the pilot , which was organized by the advocacy group 4 Day Week Global , in collaboration with the research group Autonomy, and researchers at Boston College and the University of Cambridge.

Companies that participated could adopt different methods to “meaningfully” shorten their employees’ workweeks — from giving them one day a week off to reducing their working days in a year to average out to 32 hours per week — but had to ensure the employees still received 100 percent of their pay.

At the end of the experiment, employees reported a variety of benefits related to their sleep, stress levels, personal lives and mental health, according to results published Tuesday. Companies’ revenue “stayed broadly the same” during the six-month trial, but rose 35 percent on average when compared with a similar period from previous years. Resignations decreased.

Of the 61 companies that took part in the trial, 56 said they would continue to implement four-day workweeks after the pilot ended, 18 of which said the shift would be permanent. Two companies are extending the trial. Only three companies did not plan to carry on with any element of the four-day workweek.

The results are likely to put the spotlight back on shorter workweeks as a possible solution to the high levels of employee burnout and the “Great Resignation” phenomenon exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, amid a global movement calling for businesses to ditch the in-office, 9-to-5, five-day workweek and adopt more flexible working practices instead.

The world’s largest four-day workweek pilot just launched in the U.K.

Increased revenue, improved employee well-being

The findings from the U.K. trial build on the results of an earlier, smaller pilot published in November and also coordinated by 4 Day Week Global. That experiment, which involved about 30 companies and 1,000 employees in several countries, resulted in increased revenue, reduced absenteeism and resignations, and improved employee well-being. None of the participating firms planned to return to five-day workweeks after the pilot ended.

The 4 Day Week Global group is coordinating these pilot programs as part of its global campaign to encourage more firms to switch from the standard 40-hour workweek to a 32-hour model for the same pay and benefits.

The U.K. pilot program involved twice as many companies and nearly three times as many employees as the earlier pilot and is the largest of its kind. The benefits to participants extended beyond the office and into employees’ personal lives.

Those who took part were less likely to report that they felt they did not have enough time in the week to take care of their children, grandchildren or older people in their lives. The time men spent looking after children increased by more than double that of women, pointing to positive effects of a shorter workweek on gender equality — though there was no change in the share of housework men and women reported taking on.

A majority of employees who experienced the four-day workweek didn’t want to go back: At the end of the pilot, they were asked how much money they would have to receive from their next employer to go back to a five-day week. Nearly a third said they would require a 26- to 50-percent increase and 8 percent said they would want 50 percent higher pay.

Four-day weeks and the freedom to move anywhere: Companies are rewriting the future of work (again)

Better work-life balance

A better work-life balance is the reason Michelle, a 49-year-old media executive who asked to be identified by her first name so she could speak candidly about her past employment, insisted on a four-day workweek when she applied to her current position. After working three- and then four-day weeks when she returned from maternity leave in 2015, she noticed a “stark” difference when she shifted back to five-day weeks working for a different company during the pandemic.

“Suddenly, it felt like my entire life was about work,” she says. She came “close to burnout” and, when her contract at that company ended, she was clear with prospective employers that she wanted to work four days a week. In her current position, she has Fridays off and is paid 80 percent of what she would earn if she worked five days.

“It feels like I can breathe,” she said. “It feels like I’m not constantly behind with my family life and feeling guilty and like squashing all of the jobs and errands and everything into two days.”

The extra time off is particularly helpful for child care, she says. She co-parents her 9-year-old son, who is autistic. In her previous job, when she worked three- or four-day weeks, the extra time “meant I could pick him up from school, we could spend more time together,” she says. “It makes a huge amount of difference to parents.”

A four-day workweek in Maryland? Maybe. Bill would set up a pilot program.

While the four-day workweek model has gained some steam, it’s still not standard practice globally, and much of the research on the policy is limited by size. Most of the companies that took part in the U.K. trial were small — 66 percent had 25 or fewer employees — and predisposed to exploring the concept of flexible work. Ninety percent of the participating employees were White, and 68 percent had at least an undergraduate degree.

Opponents of the four-day workweek say while the policy may benefit some workers, it is not feasible for many , including workers in key industries such as child care and health care , which already face widespread staff shortages. Some workers would rather work more and earn more. And some skeptics believe that employees’ productivity would eventually decrease if the four-day workweek was made permanent.

Proponents of the policy emphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all and that the benefits of a shorter workweek could reverberate throughout society, lowering health-care costs and reducing emissions from daily commutes. Their ideas are becoming more mainstream . Several large-scale trials of shorter workweeks are underway globally. In 2021, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced a bill that would reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours and mandate overtime pay for work done beyond that limit.

There is precedent for a large-scale change in the standard workweek: As The Washington Post has previously noted , before the Great Depression, it wasn’t uncommon for employees in the United States to work six-day weeks. The 40-hour workweek was first codified into U.S. law in 1938. The argument put forward by groups such as 4 Day Week Global is that “we’re overdue for an update.”

Rachel Pannett contributed to this report.

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

• Published: 13 April 2023

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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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Campbell, T.T. The four-day work week: a chronological, systematic review of the academic literature. Manag Rev Q (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-023-00347-3

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Once seen as an impossible fantasy, the four-day workweek has slowly begun to gain traction in recent years. Though it might still seem like a distant dream for many workers, some forward-thinking companies have already adopted shorter working weeks to keep their employees happier and more productive.

The world’s most extensive four-day workweek trial to date — in which 2,900 workers from 61 companies in the U.K. participated from June to December 2022 — has released its full findings. Various four-day-week models, such as Fridays off, staggered, decentralized, and annualized, were followed. The trial found that the four-day workweek significantly increased job satisfaction, improved work-life balance, and reduced employee stress. The results also showed improved product quality and customer service, and a significant reduction in absences and sick days.

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These findings support the idea that the four-day workweek is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for employers looking to reduce costs, retain staff members, and enhance workers’ well-being. This could possibly become the new standard, given that more companies are now considering offering their employees four-day weeks permanently — not just on an experimental basis.

Of the 61 companies that took part in the experiment, an impressive 92% are continuing with the four-day week, and 18 of those organizations have declared that it will be a permanent change. The research conducted before and after the trial revealed that 39% of employees experienced lower stress levels and 71% noticed less burnout while working shorter weeks. Anxiety, fatigue, and sleep issues all decreased while physical and mental health significantly improved.

During the trial period, work-life balance improved in many ways. Specifically, it became easier for 54% of employees to balance their jobs with household duties and responsibilities. In addition, satisfaction regarding both financial stability and relationships increased due to people’s ability to better manage the amount of time allotted for each activity. Similar experiments in Belgium, Spain, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand have produced equally impressive results .

Although the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of a four-day workweek, the reality is that not all industries are currently able to make the switch. For example, the health care industry must ensure that staff members are always available, given that many medical conditions require around-the-clock care and emergencies can happen at any time.

Another issue many employers worry about is how their business could be affected by such a change. Although several prominent worldwide companies, such as Microsoft in Japan and Unilever in New Zealand , have conducted trials for the four-day workweek with positive feedback, many large organizations have been slow to embrace this trend, partially because their complex, inflexible structures can impede progress.

Although the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of a four-day workweek, the reality is that not all industries are currently able to make the switch.

So while the evidence in favor of a four-day workweek is strong, some challenges still need to be considered before it can become widely adopted. Organizations need to weigh the pros and cons while considering their staff members’ individual needs when deciding whether this would be the best option for them.

Fortunately, we’re seeing small and midsize businesses take the initiative to experiment with the shortened workweek, since they are much more adaptable and able to quickly act on ideas sponsored by their CEOs or founders. In addition, leaders at small companies likely encounter less bureaucracy. As a result, they can better anticipate the effect that widespread change will have on their entire organization and more easily implement such changes than large, multinational corporations with less flexible structures can.

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Instead of reducing their employees’ hours, some companies may soon shift to more creative means of promoting work-life balance, like no-meeting days . I anticipate that changes will occur gradually as more large and small companies begin experimenting with the four-day workweek. While there may be a few bumps in the road, I firmly believe we’re on the brink of a significant shift. With so many successful tests conducted around the world, the proof is in the pudding.

For now, the shorter workweek may not be widespread, but there’s momentum around the globe to keep the experiment going. Small and midsize businesses are leading the charge, and large companies are beginning to take notice. It’s up to everyone — employers, employees, and leaders alike — to continue pushing for change if we want to see more widespread adoption of the four-day workweek.

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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Trial Run of 4-Day Workweek Wins Converts

Of 61 British companies that participated in a pilot program, 56 said they would continue. Both employers and employees reported benefits.

By Lora Kelley

The pandemic changed how (and where) many people work. It has also given momentum to the question of whether the five-day week is standard because it’s best — or whether it’s just the way things have long been done .

A new report offers one answer.

In the second half of last year, 61 businesses in Britain offered their employees a four-day workweek as part of a pilot program. Researchers found that employers and employees noticed benefits.

Fifty-six of the companies, or 92 percent, said they would continue with a four-day week, according to the new report, and 18 confirmed that the change would be permanent. The study also found that companies’ revenue stayed broadly the same on average over the trial period — and that attrition among employees dropped significantly. In a survey about halfway through the study, most of the companies reported no loss of productivity during the trial.

“Taken as a whole, results from the U.K. trial therefore make clear that the four-day week is ready to take the next step from experimentation to implementation,” the report concluded.

“I think the four-day workweek essentially accelerates the effectiveness of both hybrid and flexible working,” said Dale Whelehan, the chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit group that conducted the study with researchers at Cambridge University and Boston College as well as Autonomy, a think tank. “Overworking ourselves leads to lower productivity and lower well-being,” he said, even if that work happens at home.

For decades , politicians and other leaders have talked about the possibility of a four-day week. Vice President Richard M. Nixon predicted it in the 1950s. In the 1970s, Douglas Fraser, the president of the United Auto Workers, said a shorter week was “ absolutely inevitable .” But for various reasons — including inertia — the idea never took hold.

The British study isn’t the only one to look at whether a four-day workweek works. Experiments have also been conducted in the United States, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia.

Not everyone is sold. Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford, said that while the British study raised interesting questions for managers to consider, paying workers full-time salaries for four days of work was “a tough sell to managers and investors” because “most businesses are already trying hard to operate efficiently.” He also noted that the study had involved a small number of firms and that they had volunteered to participate.

Some 3,300 workers from banks, marketing, health care, financial services, retail, hospitality and other industries participated in the pilot program. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive: 90 percent of those employees said they definitely wanted to continue with a four-day week. None said they definitely did not want to. And 15 percent said no amount of money would motivate them to accept a five-day schedule at their next job.

The effects that workers reported on their well-being were striking: The study found that levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health improved. About 70 percent of employees said they had reduced levels of burnout by the end of the trial.

Lora Kelley reports on business for The Times. More about Lora Kelley

The world’s biggest trial of the four day work week has come to an end. These are the results 

Companies across the UK have been testing out the four day work week. Image:  Unsplash/Campaign Creators

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This article has been updated. It was originally published on 21 June 2022.

• Workers at more than 60 UK companies trialed a four day work week between June and December 2022.
• More than 90% of participating businesses have opted to continue with the four day week, with 18 adopting it permanently.
• Similar experiments have taken place elsewhere in the world with positive results.
• Supporters say the four day work week boosts productivity, but critics say it is impractical in certain sectors.

Is the four-day work week a good idea, or is it unworkable for many industries – and even many people? The UK has been finding out in what’s been heralded as the biggest ever experiment based on this working model.

UK four day work week: The results so far

The majority of employers who took part in the project say they've seen productivity levels maintained, and improvements in staff retention and well-being. Business revenue stayed broadly the same, there was a 65% reduction in the number of sick days and 71% of employees reported lower levels of burnout.

The pilot project ran between June and December 2022 and was based on the 100-80-100 model : this means workers got 100% pay for working 80% of their previous hours in exchange for a commitment to maintain 100% productivity.

Of the 61 companies that took part, 56 say they will continue trying out the four-day week following the pilot, while 18 say they will make the change permanently.

Around 2,900 employees took part in the trial, in sectors from marketing and advertising, to finance, digital manufacturing and food retail. It was run by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign and researchers from the University of Cambridge and Boston College.

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"This is a major breakthrough moment for the movement towards a four day work week. “Across a wide variety of different sectors of the economy, these incredible results show that the four-day week with no loss of pay really works," says Joe Ryle, Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign.

Pros and cons of a four day work week

More than 80% of people in the UK would prefer a four-day work week , according to a survey in 2021 by recruitment company Reed. It lists the advantages of the four-day model as:

Improved morale and fewer absences: A shorter working week leads to less burnout, making staff happier and more focused in their roles.

Helps recruitment: Offering potential and existing employees a flexible working pattern will help attract and retain talented professionals.

However, there are also some potential disadvantages of the four-day work week, the recruitment agency says:

It doesn’t suit all industries: Some sectors require a seven-day-a-week presence, which could make a short working week impractical. Examples include emergency services, public transport networks and logistics.

It doesn’t suit all workers: Some employees prefer the structure of a five-day week, and some like working overtime.

It can increase costs: Some sectors, such as healthcare, require staff to work long shifts. Companies in these areas may have to pay more overtime or draft staff in to make any shortfalls.

The Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production pioneered the Global Lighthouse Network in 2018. Now, 69 factories / sites are a part of the network, prioritizing workforce and skills development to protect jobs and build resiliency

A new report launched in March 2021 also shows that despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s unprecedented disruption, 93% of Global Lighthouse Network factories achieved an increase in product output and found new revenue streams.

The future belongs to those companies willing to embrace disruption and capture new opportunities. The lighthouses are illuminating the future of manufacturing and the future of the industry.

The Global Lighthouse Network an initiative of the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production , is conducted in collaboration with McKinsey & Company.

Companies can apply to join the Global Lighthouse Network via the Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production .

Four day work week experiments in other parts of the world

Belgium: Belgian employees recently won the right to work a full week in four days without loss of salary. People will be able to decide whether to work four or five days a week.

New Zealand: Consumer goods giant Unilever says that following encouraging results from an 18-month pilot in New Zealand, it is expanding a four-day week trial to its business in Australia. "The New Zealand trial showed strong results against business targets, including revenue growth, with the vast majority of staff reporting feeling engaged, and absenteeism dropping 34%," the firm said.

Iceland: The country ran a four-day work week trial between 2015 and 2019. It found that the well-being of 2,500 workers who took part increased in terms of health and work-life balance.

Appetite for a more condensed work week also appears to be strong in the United States. A 2019 poll of 36,000 Americans carried out by YouGov America found that two-thirds of respondents would prefer a four-day work week – regardless of whether that meant longer working hours on those days.

Shorter working weeks are nothing new

The five-day week is often credited to Henry Ford , who in 1914 proposed that his car production switch from a six-day to a five-day rota. The creation of unions in the 20th century helped to make a five-day week and two days’ rest the norm.

Four-day work weeks became three times more common in the United States between 1973 and 2018, with an additional 8 million employees working such a pattern, according to research by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. The rise wasn’t due to changes in demographics or industrial structures, but more a result of workers’ and employers’ preferences, the study notes.

New thinking is needed

The traditional nine-to-five, five-day work week “looks more old fashioned than a Ford Model T”, said global staffing company Manpower Group’s Chairman and CEO Jonas Prising, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos in May 2022.

All the signs point to an evolving definition of work , he added, flagging the need for companies to listen, learn and adapt to what employees want. He believes a four-day work week is the latest positive change in this area.

What does a four-day work week mean for the future of work? 

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Four-day week made permanent for most UK firms in world’s biggest trial

Research shows 51% that took part permanently adopted the change, while 89% still operating policy one year on

Most of the UK companies that took part in the world’s biggest ever four-day working week trial have made the policy permanent, research shows.

Of the 61 organisations that took part in a six-month UK pilot in 2022, 54 (89%) are still operating the policy a year later, and 31 (51%) have made the change permanent.

More than half (55%) of project managers and CEOs said a four-day week – in which staff worked 100% of their output in 80% of their time – had a positive impact on their organisation, the report found.

For 82% this included positive effects on staff wellbeing, 50% found it reduced staff turnover, while 32% said it improved job recruitment. Nearly half (46%) said working and productivity improved.

The report’s author, Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, said the results showed “real and long lasting” effects. “Physical and mental health, and work-life balance are significantly better than at six months. Burnout and life satisfaction improvements held steady,” she said.

But Matthew Percival, a director at the Confederation of British Industry, said the four-day week was not a “one size fits all answer” and would be “unlikely to pay for itself in many industries”.

He said: “If businesses have the budget to add to their offer to employees, then they will be considering the relative merits of reducing working hours compared to increasing pay, pensions or paid parental leave, as well as better supporting health and wellbeing.”

The four-day working week report, by the thinktank Autonomy and researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Salford and Boston College in the US, found that “many of the significant benefits found during the initial trial have persisted 12 months on”, although they noted that it was a small sample size.

Almost all (96%) of staff said their personal life had benefited, and 86% felt they performed better at work, while 38% felt their organisation had become more efficient, and 24% said it had helped with caring responsibilities.

Organisations reduced working hours by an average of 6.6 hours to reach a 31.6-hour week. Most gave their staff one full day off a week, either universal or staggered. The report found that protected days off were more effective than those on which staff were “on call” or sometimes expected to work.

The most successful companies made their four-day week “clear, confident and well-communicated”, and co-designed their policies between staff and management, thinking carefully about how to adapt work processes, the authors wrote.

Challenges encountered by some companies included working with clients and stakeholders where four-day weeks were not the norm, or where the policy was implemented unevenly, leading to resentment among some staff.

This month, the Scottish government launched a four-day working week trial for some public services. Autonomy is calling for the Westminster government to introduce policies that would enable its wider take-up, including giving workers the right to request a four-day week with no loss of pay, a public sector trial, and funding to support the shift in the private sector.

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Paul Oliver, chief operating officer at Citizens Advice Gateshead, said that a four-day week helped his employees cope with a “demanding role”, and improved retention as the charity was unable to pay high salaries. “We wanted to see a way to improve staff conditions so they would be better rested and could give more to work,” he added.

The greater efficiency introduced by the pilot meant it exceeded its targets, including improving the quality of advice and the number of clients spoken to, expanding to a seven-day service thanks to greater flexibility, increasing profitability and reducing levels of staff sickness. “We’re breaking out of the nine to five model, which doesn’t work for our society or our clients,” Oliver said.

Mark Downs, chief executive of the Royal Society of Biology, said his organisation was keeping the policy – in which staff divvied up Mondays and Fridays off between them – because it had been positively received by staff and external partners.

One unexpected benefit he encountered was that days when he was working and most other staff were off were much more productive. He also felt it made RSB a more attractive employer, with applicants citing the four-day week as a draw.

Anthony Painter, director of policy at the Chartered Management Institute, said he was “following the four-day week trials with interest” since CMI research had shown that employees valued flexible working above all else, including pay rises.

He added that managers would need to be better trained to implement the changes. “They will need the very best managers in place to ensure that flexibility and productivity can be two sides of the same coin – better ways of working,” Painter said.

A government spokesperson said: “We have no plans to introduce a four-day working week. Ultimately it is for employers and employees to agree what working arrangements work best for them, and we will be making changes to our flexible working legislation in April, including the right to request flexible working from day 1 of a new job.”

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‘The council should be setting an example’: Cambourne’s experiment with the four-day week

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‘I had a very welcome lie-in on Friday’: the joys and challenges of switching to a four-day week

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Four-Day Work Weeks Are Good for Your Health, a Large Study Finds

A four-day work week improves employees’ health in numerous ways, from reducing anxiety and stress to enabling better sleep and more time for exercise, according to a large new report .

“It genuinely has, even with our academic skepticism, been a really positive outcome,” says report co-author Brendan Burchell, a social sciences professor at the U.K.’s University of Cambridge who studies work’s effects on psychological well-being.

The report builds upon previous studies on the lifestyle and health benefits of working less by summarizing the experiences of 61 companies—and a total of about 2,900 employees—that piloted shorter work weeks from June to December 2022. Companies were recruited to join the study by advocacy groups 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week Campaign and workplace research group Autonomy, and researchers from Boston College and the University of Cambridge, including Burchell, oversaw participant interviews, data collection, and analysis.

Companies in the study, most of which were based in the U.K., were free to set their schedules however they wanted, as long as they “meaningfully” reduced working hours without docking pay. More than half of the companies that completed the researchers’ surveys gave all employees either Monday or Friday off, while others tried solutions like staggered schedules or shorter days throughout the week. Over the course of the six-month pilot period, employees’ average weekly working hours fell from 38 to 34—a bit shy of the target 32, which suggests some people either worked more on the days they were in the office or worked some on days off. Still, 71% of respondents said they were working less after the trial ended than before.

For many workers, a four-day week translated to better health. About 40% of respondents said they experienced less work-related stress, and 71% reported lower levels of burnout . More than 40% of employees said their mental health had improved, with significant portions of the group reporting decreases in anxiety and negative emotions.

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Almost 40% of employees also said their physical health got better during the pilot period, perhaps because they had more time for hobbies, exercise, cooking, family time, and other leisure activities. Nearly half of workers also said they weren’t as tired as they were before the experiment, and 40% said it was easier to get to sleep.

Burchell feared that shorter weeks would force people to work at a higher pace or intensity when they were on the clock, which could have been stressful enough to negate the wellness benefits of having extra time off. But, he says, that doesn’t seem to have been the case. “People found all sorts of ways of working more efficiently, cutting out lots of the time they were wasting,” he says.

In the end, 96% of employees said they preferred four-day schedules.

The shift was positive for employers, too. Among companies in the study, revenue increased by an average of about 1% during the pilot period, and employee turnover and absenteeism went down. Almost all of the businesses in the program said they planned to continue the four-day work week experiment, in some cases indefinitely.

That’s a good thing, because most employees said they’d need a significant pay bump to go back to working five full days per week, and 15% said no amount of money would convince them to go back.

Researcher Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College who studies working hours, says she’s optimistic that other companies, including those in the U.S., are waking up to the benefits of shorter work weeks. The growing trend of “summer Fridays” and periodic days off throughout the year, she says, points to a growing acceptance of working less—one that may culminate in four-day work weeks adopted at a wider scale.

The pandemic also made people reimagine what the workplace can look like , Burchell adds.

“When I told people I was looking at work time reductions three years ago, people thought I was a bit utopian, a bit of a dreamer,” he says. “Now, everyone’s talking about it like, ‘This is happening.’”

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More companies are trying out the 4-day workweek. But it might not be for everyone

Jeevika Verma

LaDonna Speiser has been working four days a week since February. She says she's not ready to give it up. Kyle Green for NPR hide caption

LaDonna Speiser has been working four days a week since February. She says she's not ready to give it up.

On a recent summer Friday, 59-year old LaDonna Speiser takes her grand-nephew to the pool and helps her mother-in-law with errands. She visits the eye doctor and makes an appointment with a physical therapist. She even spends some time reading on the patio. She's able to do all this because her employer, a company called Healthwise, offers her a four-day workweek.

With the pandemic and the " Great Resignation " making it harder for companies to attract and retain talent, a growing number of white-collar employers like Healthwise are exploring new avenues to make work life more appealing. One of them — the four-day workweek — considers if workers really need to be working 40 hours a week. As part of its Work Life series, NPR's Morning Edition looked into how realistic this actually is.

Speiser's company started experimenting with four-day workweek last year. Based in Boise, Idaho, the company produces health education materials for hospitals and health plans. It recently completed a pilot trial run by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global , which helps organizations with the transition away from the traditional five-day workweek.

LaDonna Speiser is pictured outside of her company, Healthwise, on June 29. The Idaho-based company experimented with four-day workweeks last year and made it permanent in February. Kyle Green for NPR hide caption

For some companies, the benefits are clear

For Healthwise, cutting back to four work days was actually good for business.

"Our revenues went up this year more than we had budgeted," says CEO Adam Husney. "We've delivered on products on time or ahead of where we have done. I would say the things we are able to measure have all been positive."

What's more, these positives are tied to one of the objectives of the trial — which was to learn how a four-day workweek can help employees with burnout.

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"There are many people who are spending more time at the office than they need to," says Juliet Schor, an economist and sociology professor at Boston College. Schor is the author of the book The Overworked American , and leads research at 4 Day Week Global.

"If work were organized more efficiently," she says, "[employees] could get it done in a shorter period of time, go home, and have a better life."

Companies that join the pilot program are asked to test a four day workweek for six months. The requirement for participation is no reduction in pay but substantial reduction in hours. The vast majority of participants have gone to four days with 32 hours of work, with Friday as the most common day off. So far, 22 companies in the U.S. and 70 in the U.K . have enrolled in a trial this year. Companies in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are also involved.

Depending on the job, it might not be a realistic option

Juliet Schor, an economist and sociology professor, sits for a portrait at her office at Boston College on June 27, 2022. Vanessa Leroy/NPR hide caption

To be sure, the experiment isn't for everyone.

"If you look at the companies that are pioneering the four-day week, tech is very much at the forefront," says Schor. Kickstarter, with roughly 100 employees, is a notable company in the trial. "White collar work is the sort of dominant work at the moment," she notes.

Indeed, it seems that it may be easier to try out a four-day workweek in an office environment, where there is often more flexibility when it comes to schedules, than in other industries. When NPR called a manufacturing plant in the northeast that makes steel products, a floor manager who answered the phone said he didn't have time to grab a supervisor to speak on the record. Before hanging up, he said the plant was so slammed because of supply chain shortages and backlogged orders, that there's no way they could make a four-day workweek happen.

But when it comes to white-collar work, one of Schor's objectives is to see if a reduction in work hours is actually feasible. She brought up an experiment with health care workers in Sweden, where nurses were given six hour days instead of their usual eight hours to combat stress.

"There are many people who are spending more time at the office than they need to," says economist Juliet Schor. "If work were organized more efficiently," she says, "[employees] could get it done in a shorter period of time, go home and have a better life." Vanessa Leroy/NPR hide caption

"What these experiments showed is that the nurses getting the six hour days, as we would expect ... were happier," says Schor. "But the care facilities had to hire people for those extra hours. And what they found was although there was a small increase in costs, a lot of those additional salaries were offset by lower health care costs and lower unemployment for their existing workforce."

In the end, Schor says the four-day workweek ends up being less costly for employers – not just in revenue, but also in productivity.

"And of course, the patient outcomes improved," says Schor about the Swedish trial. "So I think we are going to start to see more of this in health care precisely because they are suffering a lot of burnout. The other thing in health care, of course, is mistakes. When you've got tired and stressed employees, you're more likely to make mistakes."

Some HR professionals see downsides

Some experts say there are clear downsides of the four-day workweek that are important to consider. While Healthwise gives employees Fridays off, some human resources professionals say that can create a scheduling challenge.

David Lewis, CEO of the human resources consulting firm OperationsInc, says the post-COVID-19 workplace has already made it difficult for employees to unplug.

"I keep hearing more and more that 'I work at home' or 'I live at work'," says Lewis. "People don't turn their laptops off, they don't disconnect their telephones."

The 40-hour workweek isn't working. Reducing it could help with productivity

For Lewis, the fundamental aspects of work-life balance are at play. In one recent study , researchers in New Zealand found that while employees were attracted by the four-day workweek, in practice several aspects of their work intensified after the change, including pressure from managers around things like performance.

"How exactly are you going to move people in the exact opposite direction to think about three days versus two days being disconnected when [they're] struggling to disconnect for even a couple of hours during the course of an entire seven-day week?"

Similarly, for Lindsay Tjepkema, the CEO of a marketing technology company called Casted, Fridays off is an exciting bumper sticker of an idea but it doesn't necessarily make her employees' lives any better.

Casted CEO and cofounder, Lindsay Tjepkema leads a senior leadership meeting at the Casted office building in Indianapolis on June 29. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

"Real flexibility is being able to say, 'Hey I want to start my workday late' or 'I want to cut out early on Wednesdays for kid reasons, for friend reasons, for personal reasons, for pet reasons,'" says Tjepkema. "So if I mandate that flexibility at our company means you get Fridays off, that's not flexibility. That's mandating a day off."

Casted CEO Lindsay Tjepkema says the four-day workweek may not create as much flexibility for employees as some may think. Kaiti Sullivan for NPR hide caption

The trials that Schor is helping lead are still ongoing, so there isn't enough final data to draw conclusions about how much companies can save or how much better employee performance and satisfaction are because of a four-day workweek. And of course, this is all happening in a tough economy. Inflation is hurting companies and workers alike. Interest rates are one the rise, leaving many business leaders bracing for a recession . Even so, Schor is convinced the four-day workweek has irreversible momentum.

"If you think about things like ... Friday off every other week, Fridays off in the summer, no meeting Fridays ... Friday is just gradually becoming a day in which people are less plugged in to their job," says Schor. "And one of the things we know is that once people have something like this, it's very hard to take it away."

LaDonna Speiser is living this. She's been working a regular four-day week since February. When we asked her if she'd be willing to give that up for a different job somewhere else, she sort of laughed and said her life has changed with this new schedule. She has more of it now and she's not so ready to give that up.

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

• Emma Russell,
• Caroline Murphy,

Without adjusting workloads, a schedule change can make burnout worse.

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.

• ER Emma Russell is a Chartered and Registered Occupational Psychologist, Co-Lead of the Data Observatory and Mid-Early Career Research stream at the ESRC-funded Digit Centre, and a Senior Lecturer in Occupational and Organisational Psychology at the University of Sussex.
• CM Caroline Murphy is a Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, and Director of the MSc in HRM at the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick.
• ET Esme Terry is a is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), Leeds University Business School. Her role is funded by the ESRC-funded Digit Centre.

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Economics of a four-day working week: research shows it can save businesses money

Lecturer in Finance, ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading

Disclosure statement

Miriam Marra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Reading provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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The idea of a four-day working week is gaining momentum. The Labour Party has included it in its 2019 electoral manifesto, and Microsoft Japan announced positive results from a trial run earlier in 2019. Some fear it will “wreck” the economy .

But, colleagues and I have found in our research that the benefits of a four-day working week, without loss of pay, can outweigh the cons for both businesses and staff. We surveyed a number of businesses that have already adopted the four-day working week and found that they were making savings of almost £92 billion (around 2% of total turnover) each year.

Just over half (51%) of the respondents thought that the four-day working week enabled them to save costs. Of those, 62% say their staff take fewer days off sick, 63% say they produce better quality work, and 64% are more productive. Our research also outlines that the businesses who haven’t yet implemented a four-day week could save around £12 billion by moving to one. If we add this to the savings made by businesses that already implement a four-day week, we’d get a total combined saving of roughly £104 billion a year.

It is interesting to note that our positive results square with the evidence provided by Microsoft Japan. In its trial in August 2019, 2,300 employees were given a paid Friday off each week. The company reported an impressive 40% increase in the productivity of employees in the month (measured against August 2018). But other measures were also adopted to improve productivity, for example a significant reduction in the time and number of meetings and encouragement to use online platforms for collaboration.

On their day off, workers were encouraged to volunteer, learn and train. Or simply rest to improve their productivity and creativity. After five consecutive Fridays off the company reported a sales rise by nearly 40%, the company’s electricity consumption dropped by 23% and there was a 59% reduction in the printing of paper pages. This experiment suggests the arrangement might be applicable to larger corporations and in one of the countries most affected by a workaholic culture .

Other companies have implemented the four-day working week and also reported an increment in staff productivity. One example is Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand estate management firm that adopted the policy in November 2018. The company ran a pre and post-trial survey across employees and found that productivity was unharmed by the shortened work week, while staff work-life balance had improved by 24%, sense of empowerment by 20%, leadership and commitment levels respectively by 22% and 20%, and stimulation by 22% .

In our research we have also highlighted that the benefits of this arrangement aren’t just for businesses and the world of work. An extra day off could have a knock-on effect for the wider society. We found 54% of employees said they would spend their day shopping, meaning a potential boost for the high street, 43% would go to the cinema or theatre and 39% would eat out at restaurants.

We also see potential environmental benefits to a shorter working week. In addition to the reduction of energy and paper use experienced by Microsoft Japan, we think that fewer journeys to and from work provides a potentially large green dividend with less fuel consumption and a reduction in pollution .

Challenges remain

The hottest question now is: can this work arrangement be easily translated into a change in legislation such as the one proposed by the Labour Party? In its annual conference the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said that if the party wins the election, it will reduce the average working week to 32 hours within ten years .

One of the main challenges outlined by our research is that the four-day working week can be difficult to implement in service industries where customer demands need to be met, and particularly for smaller businesses. It would also imply a significant change in public services like teaching and nursing. But Labour did recognise that different sectors will need to respond in different ways.

Meanwhile, research by the Centre for Policy Studies , a centre-right think tank, also found that reducing the hours of public sector employees would mean at best a £17 billion cost for the Treasury and at worst a possible £45 billion cost, assuming no increase in productivity and a need to expand the workforce in public services.

But the main point is that any legislation change should not just focus on reducing time but also to find ways for employees to enhance their productivity when they are working. Time reduction should be seen as both the conduit and the outcome of increased productivity.

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The 4-day workweek could be here sooner than you think

• The four-day workweek has gained rapid momentum in recent years.
• The number of companies experimenting with variations of a flexible workweek is on the rise.
• Researchers predict shorter weeks could be normalized in the next five to 10 years.

The much-coveted four-day workweek is back in the news this month after Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced new legislation and held a congressional hearing calling for a 32-hour national workweek.

The concept has gained momentum in recent years, spurred on by a post-pandemic society grappling with its toxic relationship with work. Calls for a shorter workweek aren't new by any means — former US President Richard Nixon was an advocate at one point — but past attempts to implement it have failed.

This time, however, may be different. Researchers who study and advocate for the four-day workweek say the world is on the precipice of seeing flexible schedules normalized in the next five to 10 years.

Much of the early, knee-jerk resistance by CEOs and work devotees has softened in recent years and transformed from outright objection to cautious curiosity about how a shorter workweek might function in practice.

"We're haggling over logistics rather than debating philosophy," Alex Soojung-Kim Pang , the author of "Work Less Do More: Designing the Four Day Week," told Business Insider. "When you get to that stage you haven't won completely, but you're now on grounds where a four-day week can be taken seriously."

A brief history of the four-day workweek

The push for a four-day workweek first materialized in the 1960s and early 1970s , said Pang, who serves as director of research at 4-day Week Global, a nonprofit organization that helps facilitate large-scale trials of shorter workweeks around the world.

Most of the early experiments were done in the manufacturing industry to cut costs by decreasing factory operating hours. But those efforts were eventually killed off by the oil crisis and subsequent economic downturn, as well as growing resistance from labor unions who were concerned about longer days, according to Pang.

The push for shorter workweeks went largely dormant until around 2016 and 2017, when the movement once again started gaining steam, spurred on by younger generations in the workforce.

"You've got millennials reaching their 30s by this point, and they don't want to do this the way their parents did," Pang said. "They have a sense that there's an opportunity to fix what's broken."

The buzz around a shorter workweek became a certified boom with the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift to remote work forced people to start thinking about a future of work that might look different than the past, Pang said.

That shifting worldview is what inspired Phil McParlane, a developer in Scotland, to start 4dayweek.io , a job board exclusively for positions with flexible schedules, in 2020, he told BI. The site advertises open roles with shorter schedules worldwide and promotes many of the study-proven benefits of a shorter workweek , which include increased productivity, reduced costs, increased employee retention, and a reduction in the gender pay gap.

"When remote work became normalized, people started to question everything about the 9-to-5 schedule," McParlane said.

The four-day workweek has, in many ways, become shorthand for any shorter workweek, encompassing a wide variety of flexible schedules.

The four-day week is already underway

The number of companies experimenting with variations of a flexible workweek has been on the rise in recent years, Pang said. Some employers nix Fridays, others work five six-hour days, and others still enjoy a four-and-a-half-day week.

Pang has worked with more than 300 companies in his time at 4-day Week Global and interviewed another hundred for his book, he said. Meanwhile, McParlane's job board has exploded in popularity since he started it in 2020. Three hundred companies currently have profiles on the site, which garners up to 200,000 job seekers each month, he told BI.

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Some of the biggest companies that have piloted shorter workweeks include Kickstarter, Panasonic, and Awin.

Flexible workweeks are increasingly a signifier to prospective employees that a company is a desirable place to work, McParlane said.

Attracting top-tier employees is just one reason Dimitri Cavathas, CEO of Lower Shore Clinic , started considering a four-day workweek for his company. The Maryland healthcare organization serves about 2,000 people throughout rural counties in the state, providing services ranging from primary care to outpatient mental health services.

Cavathas, whose family is from Greece, said he was inspired by the European approach to work and had been dreaming of a shorter week for years when he decided to start researching what it might look like for his company.

"The rule here is if I want something, everyone gets it," Cavathas said. "And since I wanted a four-day workweek, we all got it."

He first introduced the idea to his 170 employees about two years ago and was surprised when many initially reacted with doubt and cynicism. People were concerned about not having enough time to get their work done, as well as switching from eight to nine-hour days, Cavathas said.

Pushback is to be expected, especially in America's work-devoted culture, according to Pang. But there is a recent demand for a healthier work-life balance.

Cavathas' employees warmed to the idea after having time to ask questions and learn more about the implementation, he said. The clinic launched its new schedule in January of this year and Cavathas said the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

The company met its quarter-one budget, and only one department saw a revenue drop, which Cavathas said they had anticipated. But more importantly, staff engagement is up, and people are celebrating having more freedom in their personal lives, he said.

"Some people feel like it's a vacation almost every weekend," Cavathas said.

The Maryland clinic operates with two staff cohorts: one group works four nine-hour days Monday through Thursday, while a second cohort works three ten-hour days Friday through Sunday. Everyone makes a full salary, regardless of their schedule.

Cavathas said he hopes other business leaders will follow his lead. And Pang thinks they would be wise to do so.

"It's a matter of having a visionary CEO who wants their legacy to be not a slightly better stock price for the fourth quarter of 2025, but actually solving some of the enduring structural challenges around inequality, gender disparities, and problems with career advancement that have plagued companies for decades," Pang said.

The future of the four-day workweek is bright

The United Auto Workers — the largest labor union in the country — pushed for a shorter week in recent negotiations. The union acknowledged the request was a long shot but isn't giving up and expects to raise the issue again in the future.

Meanwhile, arguments for why a four-day week doesn't work are weakening significantly as more and more studies come back singing its praises . Lawmakers in several states have introduced legislation posing four-day workweek trials or research programs, including California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Hawaii, though none have passed yet.

Cavathas said he recently spoke with Maryland legislators as part of his work with Work Four , a US-based nonprofit advocating for the shorter week.

Within the next five years, Pang predicts at least one Fortune 500 company in every sector will be experimenting with a shorter workweek. By 2029, several states will likely also be in the process of trialing flexible workweeks, he said.

"It's definitely going to become the standard," McParlane said. "I am absolutely certain we will see it in this current generation."

People who work four days a week ultimately get one year of their life back over the course of five years, Pang said. His ultimate goal is to win back a million years of people's free time.

"Whether that's in one company with a million people or 100,000 companies with 10 people, if I can get to a million years of free time, I will consider that a huge win," he said.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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The guardian – 'four-day week: ‘major breakthrough’ as most uk firms in trial extend changes', the financial times – 'most companies in uk four-day week trial to continue with flexible working', the wall street journal – 'after testing four-day week, companies say they don’t want to stop', bbc – 'firms stick to four-day week after trial ends', sky news – 'major breakthrough': most firms say they'll stick with a four-day working week after successful trial', interested in trialling a four-day week in your organisation click to find out more about our consultancy service, at a glance:.

This report details the full findings of the world’s largest four-day working week trial to date, comprising 61 companies and around 2,900 workers, that took place in the UK from June to December 2022

Key findings

• The design of the trial involved two months of preparation for participants, with workshops, coaching, mentoring and peer support, drawing on the experience of companies who had already moved to a shorter working week, as well as leading research and consultancy organisations.
• Companies, which included a range of organisations from diverse sectors and sizes, were not required to rigidly deploy one particular type of working time reduction or four-day week, so long as pay was maintained at 100% and employees had a ‘meaningful’ reduction in work time.
• Resisting the idea that the four-day week must be ‘one- size-fits-all’, each company designed a policy tailored to its particular industry, organisational challenges, departmental structures and work culture. A range of four-day weeks were therefore developed, from classic ‘Friday off’ models, to ‘staggered’, ‘decentralised’, ‘annualised’, and ‘conditional’ structures.
• The report results draw on administrative data from companies, survey data from employees, alongside a range of interviews conducted over the pilot period, providing measurement points at the beginning, middle and end of the trial.
• The trial was a resounding success. Of the 61 companies that participated, 56 are continuing with the four- day week (92%), with 18 confirming the policy is a permanent change.
• Some of the most extensive benefits of shorter working hours were found in employees’ well-being. ‘Before and after’ data shows that 39% of employees were less stressed, and 71% had reduced levels of burnout at the end of the trial. Likewise, levels of anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues decreased, while mental and physical health both improved.
• Measures of work-life balance also improved across the trial period. Employees also found it easier to balance their work with both family and social commitments – for 54%, it was easier to balance work with household jobs – and employees were also more satisfied with their household finances, relationships and how their time was being managed.
• 60% of employees found an increased ability to combine paid work with care responsibilities, and 62% reported it easier to combine work with social life.
• However, other key business metrics also showed signs of positive effects from shorter working hours. Companies’ revenue, for instance, stayed broadly the same over the trial period, rising by 1.4% on average, weighted by company size, across respondent organisations. When compared to a similar period from previous years, organisations reported revenue increases of 35% on average – which indicates healthy growth during this period of working time reduction.
• The number of staff leaving participating companies decreased significantly, dropping by 57% over the trial period. For many, the positive effects of a four-day week were worth more than their weight in money. 15% of employees said that no amount of money would induce them to accept a five-day schedule over the four-day week to which they were now accustomed.

This project was partially supported by the Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Foundation. The qualitative strand of this project was partly supported by funding from the University of Cambridge, as well as the UK Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/S012532/1], as part of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit). This support is gratefully acknowledged.

Joe Ryle, Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said:

“This is a major breakthrough moment for the movement towards a four-day working week.

“Across a wide variety of different sectors of the economy, these incredible results show that the four-day week with no loss of pay really works.

“Surely the time has now come to begin rolling it out across the country.”

Charlotte Lockhart, 4 Day Week Global Co-Founder and Managing Director, said:

“We’re delighted to add these overwhelmingly positive results to our ever-growing evidence base in favour of reduced-hour, output-focused working. Not only do these findings demonstrate that the UK pilot programme was a resounding success, but it is encouraging to note that they largely mirror the outcomes from our earlier trials in Ireland and the US, further strengthening the arguments for a four-day week.

“While the impacts on business performance and worker wellbeing are expected and welcome, it’s particularly interesting to observe the diversity in findings across various industries. These results, combined with our previous research demonstrate that non-profit and professional service employees had a larger increase in time spent exercising, while the small group of construction/manufacturing workers had the biggest reduction in burnout and sleep problems. Certainly something to explore further in future pilots.”

Dr David Frayne, Research Associate at University of Cambridge, said:

“The method of this pilot allowed our researchers to go beyond surveys and look in detail at how the companies were making things work on the ground.

“We feel really encouraged by the results, which showed the many ways companies were turning the four-day week from a dream into a realistic policy, with multiple benefits. We think there is a lot here that ought to motivate other companies and industries to give it a try”.

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Quantitative research team Prof. Juliet Schor, Boston College Prof. Wen Fan, Boston College Prof. Orla Kelly, University College Dublin Guolin Gu, Boston College

Qualitative research team Dr. David Frayne – University of Cambridge Prof. Brendan Burchell – University of Cambridge Niamh Bridson Hubbard – University of Cambridge Jon White – University of Cambridge Dr. Daiga Kamarāde – University of Salford Francisca Mullens – Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Four-day work week trials have been labelled a 'resounding success'. But four big questions need answers

Analysis Four-day work week trials have been labelled a 'resounding success'. But four big questions need answers

A little more than a century ago, most people in industrialised countries worked 60 hours a week — six 10-hour days. A 40-hour work week of five eight-hour days became the norm, along with increased paid holidays, in the 1950s.

These changes were made possible by massive increases in productivity and hard-fought struggles by workers with bosses for a fair share of the expanding economic pie.

In the 1960s and '70s it was expected that this pattern would continue. It was even anticipated that, by the year 2000, there would be a " leisure society ". Instead, the trend towards reduced working hours ground to a halt.

But now there are suggestions we are on the cusp of another great leap forward — a 32-hour four-day week for the same pay as working five days. This is sometimes referred to as the "100-80-100" model. You will continue to be paid 100 per cent of your wages in return for working 80 per cent of the hours but maintaining 100 per cent production.

In Spain and Scotland, political parties have won elections with the promise of trialling a four-day week, although a similar move in the 2019 UK general election was unsuccessful. In Australia, a Senate committee inquiry  has recommended  a national trial of the four-day week .

Hopes of the four-day week becoming reality have been buoyed by glowing reports about the success of four-day week trials, in which employers have reported cutting hours but maintaining productivity.

However, impressive as the trial results may appear, it's still not clear whether the model would work across the economy.

An employer-led movement

Unlike previous campaigns for a shorter work week, the four-day work week movement is being led by employers in a few, mainly English-speaking, countries. Notable is Andrew Barnes, owner of a New Zealand financial services company, who founded the 4-Day Week Global  organisation.

It has coordinated a program of four-day week trials in six countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). Almost 100 companies and more than 3,000 employees have been involved. (A highly publicised  trial in Iceland  was not coordinated by it.)

These trials are being monitored by an "international collaboration" of research teams at three universities: Boston College, Cambridge University and University College Dublin. The Boston College team is led by work-time/leisure-time guru Juliet Schor, author of the 1991 bestseller,  The Overworked American .

A number of reports have been published, including  one "global" report  covering all six countries and separate reports for  the UK  and  Ireland . A report on the Australian trial is promised for April.

Overall, these reports have declared the trials a "resounding success" — both for employers and employees.

Employees, unsurprisingly, were overwhelmingly positive. They reported less stress, burnout, fatigue and work-family conflict, and better physical and mental health.

More significant were the employers' responses. They have generally reported improved employee morale and no loss of revenue. Nearly all have committed to, or are considering, continuing with the four-day-week model.

Four big questions

The trials do not, however, answer all the questions about the viability of the four-day week. The four main ones are as follows.

• 1. Are the research results reliable? Employers and employees were surveyed at the start, halfway through and at the end of the six-month trials. But only about half of the employees and two-thirds of employers completed the vital final round. So there's some uncertainty about their representativeness.
• 2. Did the participating firms demonstrate the key productivity proposition: an increase of almost 20 per cent in output per employee per hour worked? The firms involved were not asked to provide "output" data, just revenue. This may be a reasonable substitute. But it may also have been affected by price movements (inflation was on the march in 2022).
• 3. For those firms that achieved the claimed productivity increase, how did it come about? And is it sustainable? Proponents of the four-day week argue that employees are more productive because they work in a more concentrated way, ignoring distractions. A much longer period than six months will be needed to establish whether this more intense work pattern is sustainable.
• 4. Is the four-day model likely to be applicable across the whole economy? This is the key question, the answer to which will only emerge over time. The organisations involved in the trials were self-selected and unrepresentative of the economy as a whole.

They employed mostly office-based workers. Almost four-fifths were in managerial, professional, IT and clerical occupations. Organisations in other sectors, with different occupational profiles, may find increased productivity through more intensive working difficult to emulate.

Take manufacturing: only three firms from this sector were included in the large UK trial. Since manufacturing has been subject to efficiency studies and labour-saving investment for a century or more, an overall 20 per cent "efficiency gain" to be had across the board seems unlikely.

Then there are sectors that provide face-to-face services to the public, often seven days a week. They cannot close for a day, and their work intensity is often governed by health and safety concerns. Reduced hours are unlikely to be covered by individual productivity increases. To maintain operating hours, either staff will have to work overtime or more staff would need to be employed.

As for the public sector, in Australia and other countries "efficiency savings" involving budget cuts of about 2 per cent a year have been common for decades. Any "slack" is likely to have been already squeezed out of the system. Again, reducing standard hours would result in the need to pay overtime rates or recruit extra staff, at extra cost.

So what now?

This does not mean the four-day week could not spread through the economy.

One scenario is that it could spread in those workplaces and sectors where productivity gains are achievable.

Those employers and sectors not offering reduced hours would find it harder to recruit staff. They would need to reduce hours, perhaps by stages, to compete. In the absence of productivity gains, they would be forced to absorb the extra costs or pass them on in increased prices.

The pace at which such change takes place would depend — as it always has — on the level of economic growth, productivity trends and labour market conditions.

But it is unlikely to happen overnight. And, as always, it will be accompanied by many employers and their representatives claiming the sky is about to fall in.

Anthony Veal is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology of Sydney's Business School. This piece first appeared on The Conversation .

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This U.S. company tested a 4-day workweek—and says it made workers happier and more productive

A four-day workweek could be the antidote to employee burnout. 

The results from a six-month trial involving thousands of employees suggest that working only four days instead of five reduces employee burnout while boosting productivity, retention and team morale. 

Exos , a U.S.-based company with more than 3,000 employees around the world, recently published the results from the first six months of its four-day workweek trial , which started last spring and is ongoing. Exos is a coaching company that trains pro athletes and runs corporate wellness programs at nearly 25% of the Fortune 100, including Adobe and Humana.

As part of the experiment, the majority of employees work four days and then have what the company calls "You Do You Fridays" during which they can take time off, catch up on work or use the leisure time as they see fit.  Salaried employees at Exos who participated in the experiment moved to a four-day 40-hour workweek with no change in pay, while hourly-paid staff were given the option to work between 32 and 40 hours during the four-day week based on their preference and arrangement with their manager, Exos chief people officer Greg Hill tells CNBC Make It .

The goal is for the policy to be flexible and enable workers to practice intentional recovery or build rest into their schedule in a way that's effective for them. There's just one rule: You can't message other people or try to set up meetings for Fridays. 

Exos measured the impact of the four-day workweek on its employees — with help from  organizational psychologist Adam Grant and Wharton School of Business doctoral candidate Marissa Shandell — and found significant benefits that mirror what other four-day workweek experiments have shown. 

The biggest benefits of a four-day workweek: Happier, more productive employees

Exos reports that six months after introducing a four-day workweek, business performance and productivity remained high, revenue increased and turnover dropped. 

Following the addition of "You Do You Fridays," for example, 91% of Exos employees reported spending their time more effectively at work, compared with 64% before the pilot. On top of that, manager appraisals reflected the same level of performance before and after the pilot period. 

Exos also saw a significant increase in retention: Its turnover rate fell from 47% in 2022 to 29% in 2023 (though it's important to note that Exos' experiment overlapped with a cooling hiring market ). 

But the biggest benefit of embracing a four-day workweek has been the increased efficiency, says Hill. Put simply, working a shortened workweek meant people got more done in less time.

Hill notes that Exos introduced safeguards to ensure employees could concentrate on the job without overextending themselves Monday through Thursday to get through their workload.

Managers encouraged "microbreaks" by limiting most meetings to 25 minutes and encouraged asynchronous work whenever possible, says Hill. Exos also pushed for Tuesdays and Thursdays to be dedicated to meetings, while saving Mondays and Wednesdays for individual work to help people avoid the "task switching" that can slow productivity.

Employees who can't take a full day off each week because they're working with a client on-site get blocks of time throughout the week for flexibility. Roughly 85% of Exos' employees work in-person, while the remaining 15% are hybrid or remote.

An extra day off 'isn't just another paid vacation'

One of the growing pains of implementing a four-day workweek has been making sure employees understand that having Fridays off "isn't just another paid vacation," says Hill, but an opportunity to recharge, take care of household responsibilities or finish any outstanding tasks so they're less stressed and distracted during the workweek.

"We had to spend some time making sure everyone understood that we weren't just adding a day off to your calendar at random, but that those days should be for strategic recovery, honoring Exos' ethos that work + rest = success," Hill adds. 

How the four-day workweek is gaining momentum

While the five-day schedule remains the standard in the U.S., global experiments to test a four-day workweek have gotten workers, and their bosses, onboard with the idea.

Dozens of countries including Ireland, Spain and the UK have tested a 4-day workweek, with overwhelmingly positive results: Businesses that participated in a six-month trial in the UK, which ended in December 2022, said switching to a 4-day workweek improved productivity, morale and team culture.

In the U.S., close to 81% of full-time workers support a four-day workweek, according to a July 2023 Bankrate report , which surveyed 2,367 adults.

The four-day workweek is gaining momentum in Congress, too: In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced legislation that would reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours without a pay cut.

It's a companion bill to one in the House of Representatives , which was reintroduced by Democratic Representative Mark Takano of California in March 2023. Takano had originally introduced the legislation in 2021, but it failed to advance in Congress.

Business leaders and billionaires alike expect flexible workweeks to become the norm.

IAC and Expedia chairman Barry Diller believes companies will eventually transition to working in the office four days a week, with a flexible Friday option. 

"I think sensibly — not necessarily a four-day workweek, but four days in the office, and Fridays you can work from home or work at your own schedule," he said during an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday. He added: "I think that is going to be the sensible evolution of all this, but it has to be standardized."

Mets owner and billionaire financier Steve Cohen also predicts a four-day workweek could soon be the norm — an idea that influenced his 2023 investment in golf startup league TGL. 

"I think I would have done the golf investment anyway because I think there's a longer-term thought, but my belief is a four-day workweek is coming," Cohen told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. 

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence will likely contribute to a shorter workweek, as well as the fact there are generally lower productivity levels on Friday, Cohen added. 

He continued: "I just think it's an eventuality … That's just going into a theme of more leisure for people, which means golf rounds that go up, interest will go up, [and] I guess courses will be crowded."

Companies that don't embrace the four-day workweek — or other flexibility options for its employees — could risk losing their competitive edge in hiring, says Hill. 

"Think about 'quiet quitting,' workers are building flexibility into their schedules with or without permission," he says. "What companies don't realize, too, is that you don't have to go from one extreme to the other — if you're not ready to embrace a four-day workweek, you can start with meeting-free afternoons. It's all about giving your employees opportunities to recover so they can perform at their best."

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This CEO says moving to a 4-day workweek helped his company avoid layoffs

Four-Day Workweeks Include ‘You Do You’ Days At This Company

Who’s really using AI, how one firm is making the four-day week work and funding for rehab benefits in the latest Forbes Future of Work newsletter, which is published and delivered each Monday.

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This is the published version of Forbes ' Future of Work newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief human resources officers and other talent managers on disruptive technologies, managing the workforce and trends in the remote work debate. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday!

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I t feels like AI is everywhere—and while the technology is certainly a hot topic, it’s good to remember how few people have actually used it. The Pew Research Center released eye-opening data this week showing that in February, only 23% of U.S. adults say they’ve ever used ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI. While that’s up from 18% in July, it’s still less than a quarter of the population. Just 6% of people over the age of 65 have given the chatbot a try.

Yet when people are using AI, it’s often for work. The share of employed Americans who’ve used ChatGPT jumped from 12% in July to 20% in February 2024, Pew found, the largest share compared with the other uses they’re tracking, such as entertainment or learning something new. Nearly a third of employed Americans under the age of 30 have used AI at work. It’s becoming clearer that those who use AI could have a leg up in advancing their careers , and companies will need to quickly train people —from freelancers to CEOs — to use these new skills.

It makes sense, of course, that work is the most-used application people are finding for AI—most of us want to do less of it, or at least find ways to hand off the most boring parts of it. A global pandemic that prompted many Americans to reassess the role of work in their lives has many organizations giving more weight to balance, mental health and burnout—whether that be with tools like AI assistants or new policies for time off. I chatted this week with the coaching company Exos about the results of their four-day workweek pilot, and how it’s helped employees. Note: They don’t call Fridays “off” days, but “you do you” days—the one rule is no interacting with coworkers, whether in email or meetings.

Sounds like a rule many people could get behind. Hope it’s a great week.

LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT

GE was long considered the ultimate “academy” company, training leaders and evaluating performance in ways that were widely copied by management teams across corporate America. But after a financial crisis, costly acquisitions and years of underperformance, CEO Larry Culp is reaching the denouement of his successful breakup of the most famous American conglomerate—the splitting of GE’s power business from its jet engine unit—and seeing a payday to match. Forbes ’ Jeremy Bogaisky estimates Culp, the former CEO of Danaher, will join a small club of 15 U.S. chief executives who have amassed 10-figure fortunes. What does Culp’s big payday say about where CEO compensation could go from here?

LABOR & LAYOFFS

Sega of America employees became the first major U.S. video game company to ratify a union contract, securing a union agreement Tuesday that includes wage increases, notifications ahead of job cuts, severance for layoffs, advance notice of planned use of AI in the workplace and a commitment to hybrid work for at least six months. The contract follows a spurt of layoffs that have enveloped the gaming industry in recent months, Forbes ’ Antonio Pequeño IV reports .

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Forbes 2018 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur listers Yusuf Sherwani, Maroof Ahmed and Sarim Siddiqui are rethinking the rehab experience for drug and alcohol misuse with virtual clinic Pelago: Instead of traveling to a physical location, patients can get treatment via a mobile app. Employers appear to like the idea for its cost-savings—companies like AT&T and American Eagle pay Pelago a fee per employee treated to offer its services as a benefit to their workforce—and investors appear to like the business. Pelago recently announced $58 million in new funding, reports Zoya Hasan .

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence is disrupting how people work in industry after industry, from customer service and law to recruiting and voiceover acting . Forbes ’ Amy Feldman has the scoop on a new software startup, Vizcom, that raised $20 million to help industrial designers do their jobs more efficiently, already boasting corporate clients that include Ford and New Balance and a funding round led by Index Ventures. Meanwhile, Rashi Shrivastava has funding news on Hume, an “emotionally intelligent” conversational AI that can interpret emotions based on how people are speaking—and could have big implications for customer service, employee coaching and other applications.

WHAT’S NEXT: EXOS CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER GREG HILL ON THE FOUR-DAY WEEK

Photo courtesy of Exos

Companies that have experimented with four-day workweeks set up the concept in different ways. Some rotate rosters of workers through the approach, making every other Friday a day away from work. Others give “ summer hours ” on certain Fridays, making the four-day week a seasonal thing. Still others say it’s less about the day off, and more about having uninterrupted, “ zero-meeting workdays ” for getting things done.

At Exos , a fitness and coaching firm, the majority of employees work four days and then have what the company calls a “You Do You” Day—one where they can take time off, catch up on work, or attend to personal matters. The pilot started last spring for its 3,500 employees, with the majority getting a full day each week to plan as they want. The company, which says it works with about 25% of Fortune 100 companies, offers fitness coaching onsite at companies’ headquarters, as well as personal and leadership coaching to executives. (Coaches in the field unable to take a full day off each week get blocks of time for flexibility.)

Of course, Exos’ four-day week pilot helps highlight the company’s approach to well-being coaching, which promotes the idea of employees taking time for “strategic recovery”—whether for their bodies or their minds—when trying to improve their fitness or leadership skills. “Organizations started realizing we can’t fix our workplace issues if I don’t fix my people,” says Exos Chief People Officer Greg Hill. “The idea is bringing recovery into the organization through flexibility.”

Still, Exos measured its results—which have been analyzed by Wharton professor Adam Grant, Hill said, and shared exclusively with Forbes —and found real benefits that mirror what other research supporting four-day workweeks have shown. Following the addition of “You Do You Fridays,” for instance, Exos says 91% of workers think their time is spent effectively at work, compared with 64% before the pilot.

Meanwhile, they report seeing a 34-point reduction in the percentage of employees who felt burnout at least some of the time, falling from 70% before the pilot to 36% after. (Turnover rates also fell, though it’s worth noting the period overlapped with a cooling hiring market.)

“Flexibility in how you get your work done has been a real eye-opener,” says Hill. “We realized the world had changed. We felt like a lot of the conversation around this idea of more condensed work, and more intentional recovery … we realized there isn’t a choice.”

Hill says Exos has been able to make the four-day week arrangement work by focusing on “readiness” in their culture and taking intentional breaks. Exos encouraged “microbreaks” by limiting meetings to 25 or 50 minutes, and worked on improving meeting agendas and goals to boost efficiency. It also pushed for Tuesdays and Thursdays to be dedicated to meetings, while gearing Mondays and Wednesdays to individual work to help people avoid the “task switching” that can slow productivity.

When it comes to Fridays, workers don’t necessarily spend it on the beach—they can take it off, of course, or use it for family obligations, or catch up on work. “It could be doing a lot of independent work, it could be time with your family,” Hill says. “Our rule is you can’t engage with your coworkers”—email included.

For the majority of employees, people are still expected to work a week’s worth of work between Monday and Thursday, Hill says. For most, “we do not interact with one another on Fridays,” he said. “How you spend your day is your choice.”

FACTS AND COMMENT

Trying to decide whether to give workers a raise? Considering new benefits to help them buy a home? Keep this in mind: A first-time homebuyer must make at least $76,000 a year to afford a typical starter home in the U.S., according to a new study from Redfin .

• 8%: The percentage increase in annual income that first-time home buyers need from the year prior, as mortgage rates remain high and home prices rise.
• $240,000: The cost of average starter homes, defined by Redfin as homes with sale prices between the 5th and 35th percentile.
• “Rising prices and mortgage rates are pushing buyers who earn more than the median income to buy starter homes, and often pushing buyers who earn less money out of the market,” said Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de Campa.

Why The World’s Top Travel Brands Are Courting Indian Tourists

STRATEGIES & ADVICE

Here’s what the Boeing leadership shakeup teaches us about cultures with psychological safety .

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Watching March Madness games during the workday has become a perennial—if exaggerated—concern for some managers. Meanwhile, for spectators, the tournament has become a lot more expensive. Tickets to the men’s championship game in Glendale, Arizona are selling for an average of $823 on the secondary market, while tickets are averaging $1,348 for the women’s title game in which city?

Check to see if you got it right here .

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AI Advancements Could Lead to Four-Day Work Week, Says Mets Owner

In a recent appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Steve Cohen, billionaire investor and owner of the New York Mets, discussed the future of work . He suggested that advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to a four-day workweek for many employees. This bold assertion hints at a potential paradigm shift in labor practices, with significant implications for businesses and workers.

"My belief is that a four-day work week is coming," Cohen told CNBC . "Between the advent of AI, generally we hear from people that people are not as productive on Fridays. So I just think it's an eventuality. When it happens, it's hard to know." 

He explained that his thesis about a shorter work week in the future helped inform his investment in a startup golf league called the Tomorrow Golf League (TGL) .

Cohen suggested that a four-day workweek could lead to increased relaxation time for people, potentially resulting in higher participation in various other activities and increased interest in travel experiences. However, he acknowledged that this could also mean more crowded golf courses.

"But that should fit into a theme of more leisure for people, which means golf rounds would go up, and interest will go up—I guess courses will be more crowded," he explained.

Besides that, he emphasized that while portfolio managers and traders at his investment firm would still be expected to work on Fridays if the markets were open, the majority of people may eventually have the opportunity to enjoy a three-day weekend.

The AI sector is witnessing rapid expansion, fueled by growing demand for AI-driven solutions across diverse industries. According to a report from Grand View Research , the global AI market is projected to soar to $733.7 billion by 2027, registering a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.2% from 2020 to 2027.

This surge in demand is propelled by the widespread adoption of AI technologies in sectors like healthcare, finance, automotive, and retail, among others.

Furthermore, recent advancements in AI have the potential to revolutionize the traditional workweek. A study conducted in 2023 by Autonomy , a think tank group, revealed that AI innovations could lead to a reduction in the work week to 32 hours for approximately 28% of the workforce in the United States and the United Kingdom by 2033. Notably, the study indicated that this reduction in hours would not result in a decrease in pay.

The research also suggests that as AI technology evolves, mundane tasks currently performed by human workers could be automated, diminishing the necessity for employees to adhere to the conventional 40-hour workweek.

Specifically, tasks could be delegated to AI-powered systems such as ChatGPT and "Large Language Models." The study estimates that incorporating these Large Language Models into business operations could potentially trim the average employee's hours by 10%.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a vocal proponent of a shorter work week, has previously proposed legislation advocating for a 32-hour work week without a reduction in pay. However, his bill has encountered challenges in gaining significant support or momentum.

10 Celebrities Who Left The World Just When Their Careers Were Taking Off

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An earthquake with a preliminary 4.8 magnitude rattles the Northeastern U.S., USGS says

Billionaire investor says ai will help bring four-day workweek.

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Billionaire investor Steve Cohen said Wednesday the increase of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will help bring forward the four-day workweek.

“My belief is a four-day workweek is coming,” Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Cohen said that “between the advent of AI” and generally hearing “people are just not as productive on Fridays,” the shorter workweek feels inevitable.

“I just think it’s an eventuality. When it happens, it’s hard to know, but that should fit into a theme of more leisure,” he said.

That theory in part fueled his decision to invest in golf startup league TGL in 2023, he said.

But as long as markets remain open, Cohen said he doesn’t anticipate letting his traders take off on Fridays.

“Forgetting us, I think the vast majority of people will get an opportunity, I think at some point, to have a three-day weekend,” he said.

Last month, progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced a bill that would establish a standard four-day workweek in the U.S. without reduction in pay.

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) co-sponsored the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, and Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) introduced a companion bill in the House.

Republicans panned the proposal .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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As UAW seeks 4-day workweek, the idea gains ground with US workers

The United Auto Worker union's push for a four-day workweek, among other negotiation demands, indicates the idea is gaining traction among both workers and employers.

Now, look who wants a four-day workweek: the United Auto Workers (UAW).

The union is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement between the Big Three Detroit automakers and the UAW’s 150,000 members and  voted Friday to authorize a strike  if necessary. Among the   “audacious” proposals  UAW President Shawn Fain has  proposed are a 46% pay raise, a return to traditional pensions — and a 32-hour, four-day workweek.

“Our members’ expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high,”  Fain said in a statement . “The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year…. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts.”

A four-day workweek might not be as unreasonable an ask as it would have been even five years ago. A new survey of more than 1,000 US workers found that nearly nine out of 10 US employees are interested in the idea.

A survey by business consultancy Morning Consult showed 87% of employed US adults were very or somewhat interested in a four-day workweek, and a nearly equal share (82%) said they think the widespread adoption of it in the United States would be successful. (The survey was conducted May 9-11, 2023 and involved a sample of 1,047 employed US adults.)

Millennials were most excited at the prospect of a shorter workweek. Nearly all millennials (93%) reported interest in the concept, with two-thirds “very interested,” and 85% said they believe its adoption would be successful, the study found. 

The survey also indicasted, however, that remote work policies could affect a four-day workweek’s appeal. While 75% of employed US adults reported interest in the truncated approach if remote work is allowed “all or nearly all of the time,” that figure dropped to 51% when respondents were given the option of “no remote work at all.”

More broadly, US workers in recent years have shown growing interest in lower impact lifestyles. The survey asked, for example,  whether American companies should adopt work norms seen in Europe, and large majorities backed every tested policy — with support strongest for extended vacation periods and lunch breaks.

“ Henry Ford was one of the first prominent leaders to introduce a 40-hour week almost 100 years ago,” said Dale Whelehan, CEO at 4 Day Week Global , the organization that conducts international studies on reducing worker hours . “He proved then that the sector was capable of cultural innovation, and the same is true today. A four-day week would undoubtably lead to commercial prosperity for these companies, but it’s also time the workers whose dedication has propelled the industry to its present success enjoy the benefits.”

Both employees and employers are interested in exploring a shorter workweek, according to research firm Gartner. In a recent survey of job candidates, two-thirds said a four-day week at current pay levels would be the top new and innovative benefit drawing them to a job.

In another recent Gartner survey of human resource leaders, one in five said they’re exploring or have already adopted a four-day workweek in some form.

“The 4-day workweek study in the UK , most recently, has piqued the interest of organizations worldwide, and many US employers are beginning to recognize that a reduced workweek can be a key differentiator for them in what remains quite a competitive talent market,” said Amrita Puniani, a senior principal analyst  for Gartner’s HR Practice.

Not all researchers agree, however.

Forrester Research has chosen not to study the idea “precisely because…it’s not genuinely a topic companies are pursuing right now from what we can tell,” according to James McQuivey, a vice president and research director for Forrester’s Future of Work.

McQuivey said the four-day workweek is a “common idea” whose origins can be traced back to efforts by food manufacturing company Kellogg’s in the 1930s. The belief, McQuivey said, was that the shorter week would allow Kellogg’s to keep people on the payroll “during the darkness of the Great Depression.

“Employees didn’t like the idea, perceiving it was an attempt to pay them less. The brief history of this example starts to reveal why this idea is hard to really tackle without thorough research — the motives can vary, the worker perception can vary, reality once implemented also varies,” McQuivey said.

Companies that participated in a four-day workweek trial over the past year, however, continued to reduce time on the clock six months after the project ended, claiming employees are happier and just as productive. Much of the time savings were achieved by making meetings more efficient, using technology more effectively, and allowing distinct periods for focus throughout the day. As such, workers were able to maintain the same output because of the additional day off to rest, according to 4 Day Week Global’s Whelehan.

Though some have argued that organizations can make more efficient use of employee time using those methods in a five-day workweek, but that would be counterintuitive, Whelehan said. “A huge factor of the four-day week’s success is a reduction in staff stress and burnout, which would be negatively impacted if companies employed these approaches with no reward for workers,” Whelehan said.

Gartner found that a shorter week could be an option for frontline workers who “are craving flexibility like their hybrid counterparts,” according Gartner’s Puniani. She said most feel their organizations don’t take that preference seriously.

“We also know that managers report that offering different kinds of flexibility is effective in reducing frontline worker attrition, a problem that most organizations say has had a negative impact on their business,”Puniani said. “A shorter workweek is one option for enhancing flexibility, especially for frontline workers who must be on-site.”

Typically, organizations point to two basic challenges to implementing a shorter week: The first involves operational hurdles — that the logistics of shifting from a five- to four-day week would be too onerous to take on; the second involves concerns that managers or other leaders simply won’t be on board for the shift, according to Puniani.

“While executives are often skeptical about ensuring continuity of operations or cost, managers are typically concerned about the added responsibility of managing a reduced or condensed work schedule and maintaining employee performance,” she said.

Another obstacle organizations cite is that it’s too complicated to schedule and coordinate a shift from a five- to four-day default, Puniani continued. “But there are more options for exploring a reduced workweek than many organizations think,”Puniani said.

While the 32-hour configuration is one option, some companies might find a condensed workweek — working the standard 40 hours across four days instead of five — to be a better match for their business and workforce, according to Puniani. Organizations could also consider a universal day off (say, when all employees have Fridays free) or a distributed weekday off, where employees or employee segments take off different days to ensure continuity.

“We also know that the advantages of some form of four-day workweek are not restricted to employees. Trials in the UK showed reduced attrition in a majority of participants along with less burnout in 71% of employees,” Puniani said. “Keeping employees — and employees who have the energy to do good work — is a real business benefit.

“It’s true that the 40-hour workweek is deeply ingrained in many parts of the American working world, but a shortened workweek is less far-fetched than many think,” she said.

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Does a four-day workweek work? Researcher from world's largest study shares findings

RALEIGH, N.C. – The notion of a four-day, 32-hour workweek could be one step closer to reality thanks to a bill proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders last week.

What You Need To Know

Vermont sen. bernie sanders proposed the thirty-two hour workweek act on thursday, which would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 the bill would require employers to keep employee pay and benefits the same according to a study from the university of cambridge, the four-day week significantly reduces stress and illness in the workforce and helps with worker retention.

The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 over the next four years, without a reduction in pay or benefits.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said Thursday in a hearing, “The fact that so many people are going to work exhausted physically and mentally and the fact that we have not changed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This was in 1940 we came up with a 40-hour workweek, 1940. Who is going to deny that the economy has not fundamentally and radically changed over that period of time?"

A four-day workweek is being considered across the pond in the United Kingdom as well, where the results of a recent report were shared with lawmakers on a long-term study of companies testing a 32-hour workweek.

In a report of the results , about 92% of companies that took part in the U.K. pilot program (56 out of 61) say they intend to continue with the four-day working week, with 18 companies confirming the change as permanent.

Professor Brendan Burchell of the University of Cambridge was one of the researchers taking part in the study.

Burchell told Spectrum News 1 that the companies reported happier workers, lower turnover, increased efficiency and fewer callouts.

“The thing we find in our research is that people can still do the same amount of work. Organizations are just as profitable working in 32 hours as they used to, say, in 40 hours,” he said. “Once people have a reward in front of them that they can have a three-day weekend [or] have an extra day off each week, it's such a big reward. In almost all the cases, they're going to find ways of getting their work done in the time.”

When asked whether the model works for all sectors, Burchell said they have not found an industry it did not work for. However, in some cases, it requires creativity.

“You need to find different solutions with different type of industries. But yeah, I think it could work across the spectrum. I think in a few years time we'll definitely be going towards a four day workweek in many European countries and I hope in the United States, too,” Burchell said.

The initial study included more than 60 organizations for six months, but Burchell says they checked back in after 18 months and found the results have only improved.

“I think there's no reason why most businesses shouldn't be thinking about moving towards this new model,” he said. “It's what we call 100-80-100 model, where there's 100% pay,  80% of the hours, but still achieving 100% of the performance.”

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