Four-day work week benefits workers and employers, new study shows

For many people, the 40-hour work week can be an exhausting grind. But new research bolsters the argument that the solution isn’t necessarily to focus on improving your mindset, getting a better night’s sleep, or simply sucking it up. It’s switching to a four-day work week. The evidence is presented in a study published on July 21 in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The five-day, 40-hour work week was a hard-fought win for labor activists in the US. The legal protection only arrived after generations of grassroots organizing, union solidarity, and physical sacrifice—and even today the right isn’t guaranteed to people working multiple, part-time, or gig jobs. Still, that hasn’t stopped many labor advocates from pushing for even greater workplace gains.

In recent years, a growing number of organizations and experts have started campaigning for a four-day work week. According to nonprofits like 4 Day Week Global (4DWG), a three-day weekend provides even better conditions not just for workers, but for the businesses themselves. Thanks to recent research, they’re amassing the scientific data to back up their demands.

Biggest surprise was no surprise

4DWG recently tasked an international team of sociologists with enlisting more than 140 companies across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland to participate in a series of six-month pilot program trials. During that time, their employees would switch to a four-day work week with no adjustments in pay or benefits. 4DWG offered each company assistance in setting up the new system, and earlier this year, nearly 3,000 employees began clocking in 32 instead of 40 hours a week.

The initial data from the team’s first two trials involving nearly 33 companies was clear. None of the companies said they were necessarily opposed to maintaining the four-day week, and reported increases to workplace productivity as well as revenue growth. Meanwhile, employees cited less stress and feelings of burnout, as well as a general improvement to their physical and mental wellbeing. According to the study’s organizers, these results didn’t come as a shock.

“Perhaps the most surprising finding so far is that there is no surprise, which is not typically the case in academic research,” Wen Fan, a Boston College sociologist and study co-author, said in a statement. “Usually, we would get some hypotheses supported while others refuted, but for this project, basically everything we expect to move moves, and in the anticipated direction.”

Fan also noted the reduced hours didn’t require employees to work harder during their new, four-day weeks. At the same time, “key organizational bottom-lines sustained.”

“I think this is an ideal example demonstrating how powerful well-conceived work redesign efforts can make an impactful difference in the real world,” she added.

Extinguishing burnout

The study’s authors explained that a major method to ensure manageable workloads over fewer hours was to take an axe to largely unnecessary meetings. Instead, employees simply relied more on phone calls, messaging platforms, and other communication means. 

Another boost to efficiency stemmed from what workers did with their extra weekend day. Often, people used the third day for personal errands and medical appointments that they usually attempted to fit into their busier 40-hour weeks. There was also more time for hobbies, leisure, housework, and personal care—all areas that help improve general mood and health. Meanwhile, companies frequently saved money through lower healthcare costs and lower employee turnover rates.

“Not losing highly trained individuals, in fields like health care or teaching, to stress and burnout is certainly a worthwhile goal,” said Juliet Schor, a BC sociologist and 4DWG academic board member. “At a time when we’ve seen many employers struggle to fill positions, the four-day week can be touted as a benefit.”

Schur and Wan have studied overworked labor forces for years, but say the four-day week was a tough sell until very recently.

“Pre-COVID—it would’ve struck a lot of people as pie-in-the-sky, and not feasible for companies,” said Schur. “But the pandemic created such levels of stress and burnout, and led many employees to say, ‘I want to live my life differently,’ and this created more of a space for reimagining work—and, as part of that, the four-day week.”

To Fan, it would be a major loss if people didn’t seize the opportunity presented in the wake of an otherwise devastating pandemic.

“Social change is always difficult, especially when it comes to challenging the deep-seated institutional logics dictating how, when, and where we work,” said Fan. “Let’s hope we don’t waste the crisis of COVID in terms of the profound workplace innovations it has precipitated.”

 

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