A UK study shows work intensity remains lower and job satisfaction is higher during a four-day workweek.
The majority of companies in the United Kingdom that took part in the world’s largest study trialling a four-day workweek have made the policy permanent, with 100 per cent of managers and CEOs saying it had a “positive” impact on the organisation.
Some 61 organisations took part in the six-month pilot in 2022. The trial results were announced on Thursday with 89 per cent of companies still using the four-day workweek a year later and over half of the firms making the change permanent.
The study also showed that work intensity remains lower and job satisfaction is higher than before the pilot began with almost all the employees (96 per cent) saying their personal life had benefited, and 86 per cent said they felt they performed better at work.
I work at a large regional hospital, taking x-rays. It's a 24x365 kind of job. I work 3 days each week. 12 hours per day. There's no reason any job can't be 4 days. You only need to adjust the schedule to make it work.
If the white collar workers normalize it it'll spread - the only really big exception to this is probably service workers - restaurants will still want to be open 7 days a week so waiters may be expected to work proportionally more hours... waiters tend to be a weak group in the labor market so I could see this imbalance lasting quite a while.
Service staff already work 1-4 days a week for starters -Thur, Friday, Sat, Sun are the best paying days. And secondly because nobody hires full-time anymore.
I think societies would need to rethink and reasses hiw work is done. Maybe I'm naive for thinking that one day it will happen. Maybe not in our lifetime but I hope that someday people in every type of job get paid a living wage and are treated better overall.
This study, and most reasonable implementations, are pushing for 8-4 not 10-4. This may sound counter intuitive but most employees are more productive working 32 hours rather than 40 - it's very reasonable to assume that employees are more productive per hour when working less hours but the studies have shown that that productivity gain is so significant that you actually gain in total production if you give everyone an additional day off every week.