Should we work five days a week – or less?

Hello, and welcome to?New Scientist’s Business Insights newsletter. I’m Chris Stokel-Walker, and we are just weeks away from the AI?business?event we’re running in September –?click here? for more details and to get your ticket.

For decades now, we’ve had a five-day working week. But recent movements, including?government-backed trials in the UK and elsewhere, have made the case that just because we’ve pretty much always worked five days a week, we don’t need to.

In this week’s newsletter, we’ll be reviewing the evidence for a shorter working week, and whether it can benefit your health, performance and the environment.

From coal to cars

Changes to the working week are nothing new. The idea of an 8-hour working day was first codified by labour rights activist Robert Owen in 1817. Owen, who oversaw a socialist community in New Lanark, UK, believed in the principle?of “8 hours labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours rest”. Half a century later, the US Congress passed the country’s first 8-hour workday law for federal employees.

And in 1926, car manufacturer Henry Ford limited his workers to a 40-hour week over five days, after realising his old, 48-hour week was barely more productive. Such a big name as Ford adopting the five-day, 40-hour week set a?trend.

Ford was onto something: Australian research suggests that workers can?toil for 39 hours a week ?before their mental health begins to decline. One person who was a little wide of the mark was economist John Maynard Keynes, who, in the 1930s, predicted that living standards would increase so much in rich countries that people?there would be working 15-hour weeks by the 2030s.

The fab four?

You’d be forgiven, reading the headlines and?New Scientist’s coverage of the topic, for thinking that the four-day working week movement has only picked up steam in the past half decade.

But delve into the archives, and you’ll find a?1990?New Scientist?story ?that proclaims: “The movement towards a four-day working week is already upon us.” It turns out it wasn’t quite there yet, but it certainly appears to be now.

The arguments made?in favour of a four-day week ?(or more accurately, anything less than a five-day one) are multifarious. Working less, but harder, will make us more productive. Time away from our job will make us happier. And?Swedish researchers found ?that every 1 per cent decrease in hours worked saw carbon emissions drop 0.8 per cent. However, before making the case to your boss, beware: that cut in carbon output is in large part because of decreased consumer spending.

Nevertheless, a number of countries have either adopted the option of a four-day week as law or have tested it. Iceland was one of the first to conduct a trial, between 2015 and 2019, while Sweden did so in 2015.

Since November 2022, workers in Belgium can ask for a four-day week without losing any salary. Portugal has?promised to try the idea , while more than 60 companies across the UK took part in an official trial there, with 92 per cent retaining it as an option when the test ended.

How to do it right

The underlying principle of the four-day week in 2023, says Stefan Stern at the Bayes Business School in London, is the 100-80-100 theory. “You still get your full salary – 100 per cent – but only 80 per cent of your time has to?be committed compared to before, as long as you reach the other 100, the 100 per cent productivity you were managing beforehand,” he says.

But Stern worries that bosses may think too rigidly as soon as a four-day week is introduced, overeagerly measuring the productivity of their workers to ensure they get the same level of output as before. “It's got to be introduced?very skilfully, intelligently and sensitively,” he says.

One firm that has introduced a four-day week in some parts of its business is UK appliance care specialist Domestic & General. CEO Matthew Crummack was struggling with employee attrition until he introduced flexible working in?spring 2022. “I was tired of telling people what to do,” he says. “I thought: ‘Let’s run this and give empowerment back to people to figure their own week out.’”

Four the best?

Some of his staff – particularly on the sales team – have used that newfound flexibility to work a four-day week. “These are people who are on the phones selling all day,” he says. “It’s pretty hard work.”

Not all of them have stuck with it. Some tried it for a week or two, then returned to their traditional work pattern. But others liked it. “We’ve had quite a few that have stayed at four, and we’re still assessing the quality side?of it,” says Crummack. His main concern is that staff working four days a week don’t feel they have to take shortcuts to cram the same amount of work into less days.

“What we've got a responsibility to do is to explain the different models, and then actually ask people what they're actually trying to solve for,” he says. That often meant that people didn’t actually want a four-day working week,?but instead wanted just ever so slightly more control over what they do. “In general, I think when people are asking for four-day weeks, they're actually asking for more control over what they do, and more flexibility,” he says.

It was only by talking to staff considering the four-day week about their hopes that he found that out. So by all means offer the option of a shorter week – but make sure you find out why workers may want it in the first place.

More Information?

1. In 2019, we laid out the case for and against the four-day working week.?Revisit our findings here.
2. Two years earlier, we were more definitive in?arguing against a shorter work week .
3. The UK’s trial of a four-day week was largely successful. But where did it go wrong in the businesses that didn’t go on to adopt it post-trial??This story explains more .

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Chris Stokel-Walker