A workplace study looking into the impacts of introducing a four-day work week has produced overwhelmingly positive results.
The study, conducted by non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global (4DWG), was completed over six months and included more than 100 companies from across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Ireland to examine the “feasibility and benefits of reduced work time,” according to 4DWG’s website.
The report’s findings were then assessed by a group of experts at Boston College, Cambridge University and University College Dublin.
Their initial findings showed “a high level of satisfaction on the part of both employers and employees,” with companies noting improvements in productivity, and revenue growth as benefits, while employees reported reduced feelings of burnout and stress as well as an “overall positive effect on mental and physical health,” according to the study.
Sixty-three per cent of businesses concluded it was easier to attract and retain talent with the option of a four-day week, while 78 per cent of employees with four-day weeks reported feeling happier and less stressed, the study found.
The most significant outcome according to the researchers, was that all of the participating companies said they would continue implementing the four-day work week after the pilot scheme ended.
Though the project has been in motion since 2018, lead researcher, Boston College Professor of Sociology Juliet Schor, and her colleague, Associate Professor Wen Fan, argue that the COVID-19 pandemic propelled its implementation. “[The pandemic] undoubtedly was a critical if unplanned factor in putting the program in operation,” they concluded.
Prior to COVID-19, the concept would have been a harder sell, according to Schor, who said it struck people as “pie-in-the-sky, and not feasible for companies,” but the pandemic caused such high levels of disillusionment and burnout that it shifted the way employees viewed their relationship to work and increased their desire to rethink the framework of the traditional 40-hour work week.
“We’re at a point where the three-day weekend is now seen as more reasonable,” Schor said.
Nonetheless, the 40-hour week is so entrenched in society’s day-to-day structure that it would require a significant overhaul of cultural practices to implement successfully.
An additional day off to rest, spend time with family, attend medical appointments, and to complete tasks that would otherwise be squeezed into a weekday, cast a wide appeal, reported Schor and Fan. But less time at work doesn’t mean less pay, as participants in the scheme received the same amount of compensation for working 32 hour as they did 40.
The four-day week also has meaningful benefits for employers, including “lower employee health care costs, less employee turnover, and an asset for recruiting new workers.”
Though there may be growing pains at first, especially for manufacturers who pay their staff hourly and measure efficiency by meeting production quotas within a specified time, the study suggests that as a new schedule is “normalized” non-corporate work places could also benefit from the switch.
