What you should know about four-day workweeks

What would it be like to work four days a week instead of five? In this post, we look at the ways a four-day workweek can function, its pros and cons and the global movement that has popped up around the topic.

By Lora Korpar

What if a three-day weekend came every week? At some companies, this is already a reality.

Companies around the world are trying out a four-day workweek model, and organizations like 4 Day Week Global are pushing for more to do the same. But will we see this spreading further or do the drawbacks outweigh the benefits?

I spoke with career coach Jay Colan , resume writer and job search coach Sarah Johnston and 4 Day Week Global CEO Joe O’Connor to examine how a four-day workweek is structured, its pros and cons and its effects in the countries that have tried it.

History of the Workweek

Though widespread adoption of a shorter workweek might seem far-fetched, it has happened many times throughout history.?

For example, in U.S. colonial times, it was common for agricultural workers to work 12-hour days for six or seven days a week, according to Timesizing’s history of the American workweek. These long hours continued into the Industrial Revolution.?

In the 1840s, President Martin Van Buren issued an executive order limiting workdays to 10 hours. And though “Grand Eight Hours Leagues” emerged after the civil war to promote eight-hour workdays, the concept did not start to take root until the early 1900s. In the 1930s, the Fair Labor Standards Act limited the workweek to 44 hours, then Congress amended it in 1940 to the 40-hour maximum we have today.

Colan says that more technologically advanced labor nowadays reduces the need for physical and mechanical workers.

“The flexibility of work which you're seeing now – including the issue of the four-day workweek – I think is coming to a head after this once-in-a-lifetime situation with the changes of COVID,” Colan said. “And we now have a unique job market in favor of the workers, so people are looking at [the four-day workweek] more and companies are looking at it more.”

Johnston says many people are looking to continue the schedules they worked during the height of the pandemic. Furthermore, a study by the University of Reading’s Henley Business School found that 66% of workers surveyed in the United Kingdom believe working a four-day week would improve their mental wellbeing.

“Many people during the pandemic who worked remotely demonstrated to their employer that they were capable of working at a high level and accomplishing their job in fewer hours or a more condensed schedule,” Johnston said. “And so now that we are back in the office or back in a hybrid role, I think many people are saying, ‘Look, I've already demonstrated I can do this flexibly. Let's keep this up.’”

What a Four-Day Workweek Looks Like

An important distinction to make when looking at the four-day workweek is between compressing the week and shortening it.

The compressed workweek would still be 40 hours of work, but with 10-hour shifts over four days. But a shortened week would keep the eight-hour schedule, but remove a day, making the average workweek 32 hours long.

Colan says whether businesses should shorten or compress their workweek depends on the industry, the types of workers (like full-time, contractors or freelancers) and the customers they serve.

“So if work is done in manufacturing and they’re manufacturing for 24 hours a day, it would be structured differently than for [a contractor] who's working on projects,” Colan said. “They just work until the project gets done.”

However, advocates of the four-day workweek (like 4 Day Week Global) are more in favor of the shortened week model, according to O’Connor.

“If you're working the same hours, then the motivation and the imperative to make your business more efficient is not really there,” he said. “What you're doing is you're just moving around the deck chairs, and you're restructuring the same workweek rather than actually forcing people to radically rethink how we can redesign the way that we work so that we can deliver the same outputs with fewer and more efficient inputs.”

Pros and Cons of the Four-Day Workweek

O’Connor says some advantages of the 32-hour, four-day model are increased productivity and employee wellbeing.

“I think that the jury is in at this stage when you look at the research and the case studies that are out there that reduced work time can really contribute to enhanced individual wellbeing, reduced work-related burnout and stress and also can be revolutionary in terms of enhancing work-life balance,” he said. “And it’s transformative for people's lives when it comes to being able to spend more time with family, community and other hobbies and interests.”

In 2018, the University of Auckland Business School did a study , published by 4 Day Week Global, on New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian after it implemented a four-day workweek to try to increase productivity.

The study found that employees reported increased focus and presence, plus higher levels of collaboration and teamwork. They also said they had more time to finish tasks in their personal lives and were able to spend more time with their families.

“I personally know that childcare costs in the United States are extremely expensive, and in some cases can be almost the entire salary for some working parents,” Johnston said. “So being able to reduce the days that you're in an office to four could save a significant amount of money for working parents.”

However, the model also has drawbacks. Some employees at Perpetual Guardian reported increased stress over having to finish their work in a shortened time frame.?

“I know many people who work until the job gets done,” Colan said. “So let's say for tech brokers – they're not just going to stop after seven hours, because they have to deliver certain things. So even with the shorter hours, sometimes people still have to work the longer time.”

Johnston said another drawback for employers would be paying salaried employees the same amount for eight hours less work. Also, hourly employees could be losing eight hours’ worth of wages.

O’Connor says a solution for this would include restructuring the hourly wage system, citing an example of law offices transitioning from billing clients hourly.

“I think a similar approach would need to be taken with hourly employees, where effectively you shift people away from paying them by the hour to paying them for a particular job,” he said. “And that is something that would provide greater security and would also pave the way for people to achieve hourly reduction.”

A Global Movement Around the Four-Day Workweek

Since the Perpetual Guardian trial, 4 Day Week Global has organized trials of the shortened schedule in regions around the world. The U.S. and Canada trial period begin in October. The U.K. trial has started. More than 3,000 workers are working on this schedule for the next six months to see whether they are more productive and happy.

“In our experience, the vast majority of companies that get to the point of launching a trial ended up succeeding and making it permanent,” O’Connor said. “And part of what we're trying to demonstrate through these pilots is the really positive case studies and success stories and benefits that have been widely reported at this point from companies who have tried this. That can be replicated on a much broader scale.”

In the past, other countries have tried the schedule. In Japan, a trial run at Microsoft found a 40% increase in productivity in 2019, NPR reported. A study published by Autonomy in 2021 also found that workers in Iceland “experienced improvements in wellbeing at work” during the country’s trials.?

In the U.S., former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman implemented a 10-hour, four-day schedule for state employees from 2008 to 2011, which had mixed results. Though the schedule had an 85% approval rating among employees, the five-day week was reinstated because many Utah citizens said it was inconvenient to not have in-person services available on Fridays, HuffPost reported.

The idea of a shortened week has popped up again in the U.S. But this time with the shortened model instead of the compressed one. In 2021, Representative Mark Takano introduced a bill called the “Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act,” which Takano said in a statement would support “transitioning toward a modern-day business model that prioritizes productivity, fair pay and an improved quality of life for workers across the country.” So far, the bill has not moved past the introduction stage.

But O’Connor said the U.S. government can advocate for the shortened workweek in ways other than legislation. These include running four-day workweek trials for government workers, giving private sector companies an incentive to try the schedule and working to prevent unintended consequences, like workers losing full-time benefits.

O’Connor said the four-day workweek is still in the early stages of adoption, but he is hopeful that it will be more widespread in the future.

“The five-day workweek didn't happen overnight. It was a long 20- to 30-year process and it didn't happen in every country [or industry] at the same time,” O’Connor said. “[The four-day workweek] is not going to happen everywhere all at once. It is going to take some time. Maybe not 20 to 30 years, but I think it's going to take some time. But we're convinced that the shorter work week can work well across the economy.”

Top takeaways

What to know about four-day workweeks

• The workweek has already been reduced several times in history, and could be reduced again.
• Compressing the workweek means still working 40 hours, but over four days. Shortening the workweek would reduce work time to 32 hours.
• Pros of the four-day workweek include increased focus and collaboration, better work-life balance, fewer childcare costs and more.
• Cons of the four-day workweek include increased stress, limited time to finish work and logistical complications with salaries.
• Four-day workweek trials have been happening all over the world, with one currently taking place in the U.K.