The Pros and Cons of a 4-Day Work Week

Most people feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. After working all week, many of us struggle to eat well, exercise, get enough sleep, take care of our family and pets, visit with friends, clean the house, plan the next trip, and on and on. Wouldn’t it be so nice to have an extra day to get it all done?

That’s the allure of a four-day work week, and it’s closer to reality than you might think. Organizations and governments around the world are experimenting seriously with this new way to structure work. They are piloting different ways to set up the schedule and rigorously tracking its results. Spoiler alert: The results are pretty encouraging for both workers and their employers.

How We Got Here

Understanding the four-day work week starts with looking at how we developed the five-day work week.

The work week many consider standard today (40 hours across five days) is not an inevitable creation. In America, it emerged from 19th and 20th century labor movements to improve worker rights in a time when factory workers worked 70 to 100 hours a week across six days in harsh conditions.

An eight-hour work day was instituted for government workers in 1869. In 1926, Henry Ford was among the first private sector employers to adopt the 40-hour, five-day work week after he found it increased productivity . The change made national news, with the New York Times on its first page: “Following many months during which the innovation was tentatively tried out, the five-day week for workmen in the plants of Ford Motor Company has been adopted as a permanent policy…”

The now-familiar standard arrived for the rest of the nation in 1940, when the federal government capped full time employment at 40 hours a week.

After a law firm in New Zealand found ‘no downside ‘ to giving its workers a four-day work week in 2018, members of the firm launched the nonprofit 4 Day Work Week Global to help pilot programs around the world. In 2022, it was part of a U.K. four day work week study, the world’s largest experiment to date. Nearly 3,000 employees at 61 companies across several industries worked for 32 hours at 100% pay for six months. It is widely considered a success, with 92% of participating companies planned to continue operating with a four-day work week.

Four-Day Work Week Schedule Examples

There’s no one-size-fits all approach to implementing a four-day work week. Businesses and industries can experiment with various approaches to assess what works best for their workflow.

Some organizations maintain a 40-hour work week by having staffers work 10 hour days during the four days they work. This is known as a 4/10 work week. Others, such as in the U.K. study, have employees maintain an eight-hour work day and consider a 32-hours a full time position.

Examples of different way to schedule a four day work week include:

• Giving the entire workforce Friday off.
• Granting half of the staff Friday off and half Monday off, so there is still staff working during all typical work days.
• Setting aside Wednesday as the day off to facilitate a mid-week break.
• Differing the third day off throughout the week for different teams or employees.
• Shifting days off over time depending on company needs, such as seasonality or deliverables due dates.

Benefits of This Schedule

Benefits of a four-day work week include increased productivity , decreased carbon emissions, higher business performance, reduced turnover, lower rates of burnout according to .

• Revenue increased by an average of 35%.
• Fifteen percent of employees said no amount of money could get them to return to a five-day work week.
• reduced for 71% of employees.
• Stress reduced for 39% of employees.
• Turnover decreased by 57%.
• Employees found it easier to integrate work into their life, with 54% saying it was easier to do household chores, 62% saying it was easier to support their social life and 60% saying they have an increased ability to meet their care responsibilities.

Potential Challenges of this Structure

• Staff struggling to complete their workload in four days, which can increase stress levels.
• Complications in meeting deadlines, especially when work cannot be done remotely.
• Having to increase the workload of shift employees to maintain regular opening hours.
• Needing to hire more employees in order to give employees the extra day off without restricting customer access to the business.

“Rather than size, the difficulties with the four-day week come in a business’s complexity — when you have different ways of operating and offer varied services,” Alison Dunn, chief executive of consumer-advice helpline Citizens Advice, told the BBC.

Countries and States with a Four-Day Work Week

The idea of a shorter work week is gaining global momentum. Countries around the world are implementing and testing the setup, and several state legislatures in the U.S. have proposed legislation supporting the change.

Notable examples of adopting a shorter week on the national scale include:

• Following Iceland’s success with moving 1% of its workforce to a four-day work week, it’s that 86% of the country’s workers are working or have the right to work fewer hours with now pay cut.
• Belgium granted employees access to a four day work week with no salary loss in 2022. An employee’s working hours are not reduced, but they have the right to log their hours in four days if they want.
• Norway’s citizens have the right to work part time unless there is a “substantial business reason” they cannot, resulting in the world’s shortest average work week (29 hours).

Legislation and experiments at the state level include:

Companies Offering a Four-Day Work Week

Many employers aren’t waiting for a mandate to make the change. Swayed by their own experience with a four-day week or through the building body of research, companies around the world are reducing working hours.

Some employers already offering a four-day work week include:

Everyone Wins When You Care for Your Workforce

An abbreviated schedule is just one way to help your employees thrive. have been shown to improve employee health, productivity, job satisfaction and engagement. Gympass’s global network of fitness providers and wellness apps offers workers the same flexibility of a four-day work week, empowering them to take care of their wellbeing however works for them. If you’d like to learn more about our program, Wellness programs talk with one of our wellbeing specialists today!

Originally published at https://blog.gympass.com on March 28, 2023.

References

• ​​7 Stellar Companies Offering Employees a Four-Day Workweek. (n.d.). https://www.qwick.com/blog/companies-4-day-work-weeks
• Countries with a 4 Day Work Week. (n.d.). https://4dayweek.io/countries
• Haraldsson, G., & Kellam, J. (2021). Going Public: Iceland’s Journey to a Shorter Work Week. Autonomy; Association for Democracy and Sustainability. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ICELAND_4DW.pdf