For more than a century, the five-day 40-hour workweek has served as the building block of the contemporary work experience. But what if shortening just one day on that schedule would make employees happier, healthier, and potentially more productive?
That question is no longer hypothetical. Around the world, thousands of workers have been experimenting with shorter weeks, and the results are turning heads.
A new global study led by Boston College researchers suggests that reducing the traditional schedule to four days, without cutting pay, comes with significant mental health benefits. Employees reported less burnout, better sleep, and higher job satisfaction.
The study tracked some 3,000 workers in six countries, and while productivity was not directly tracked, most said they were doing more in less time. It’s the latest statistics fueling a growing worldwide debate: Can we have a four-day workday? Or must we have one?
A massive randomized trial within six nations
The research at Boston College, conducted by sociologist Juliet Schor and researcher Wen Fan, was bigger than a small experiment in one city or industry.
For a period of six months, the team monitored 2,896 staff spread across 141 American and British firms in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and around New Zealand.
Firms that signed up for the test were allowed eight weeks to get ready prior to the compressed schedule starting. Most managers were forced to rethink office time usage. The result was fewer meetings, more streamlined communications, and a clearer emphasis on essential tasks.
Some participants reported that they were amazed at how they wasted time on unnecessary routines and that trimming them made the day more meaningful.
To get a sense if employees were faring, experimenters asked participants to rate their mental health, burnout experience, and quality of sleep two weeks before the experiment began and again at six months on their new schedule.
As a control group, a similar group of approximately 300 employees kept their regular five-day workweeks.
The Statistics behind the Shift
The results were astonishing:
- Burnout diminished – 67% employees on the four-day schedule showed reduced burnout.
- Mental health was better – 41% reported that their mental health was better.
- Improved sleep quality – 38% complained less about sleep.
Compared to the control group, those who were sticking to the traditional schedule did not show notable improvement in any of these.
And while productivity was not actually tested in the study, self-reports revealed a remarkable flip-flop point: 52% told researchers they were more productive on shorter work schedules.
“The reduction in burnout was one of the most compelling findings,” Schor told Business Insider. “It suggests that when people are given time back, they don’t just rest, they return to work sharper and more focused.”
Not All Cuts Were Created Equal
In particular, benefits were not distributed evenly. The employees who cut at least eight hours per week from their calendars, or the same amount as one complete workday, showed the largest cumulative gains in mental and physical well-being.
Even those firms that lowered hours more gradually again exhibited beneficial results. Employees at all firms that took part did better on every measure than the control group, which was kept on five-day rosters.
This has been the argument of supporters for shorter workweeks for years now: the question isn’t how many hours are put in, but how those are invested.
A Developing Worldwide Movement
The study at Boston College is merely the latest in a series that indicate the virtues of the four-day approach.
In 2022, the UK conducted what proved to be the globe’s largest experiment on shorter weeks. Seventy-three firms and over 3,300 workers participated.
Most managers at the end said that output stayed the same or rose, and most firms concluded that they would stick with the four-day pattern.
There are efforts elsewhere to take a different tack:
Belgium: The government, in the latter part of 2022, ratified a law that allows employees to condense a 40-hour work week into a longer day without sacrificing wages. Most workers are now entitled to reduced hours without loss of wages, thanks to successful lengthy pilots.
Lithuania: Public sector workers who have young children are entitled to work 32-hour workweeks at full wages.
Dubai: The metropolis has tried a four-day roster for the summer schedule for the public sector employees.
Nowhere is a nation looking for an exact duplicate, but the idea is that the traditional model of the workweek is no longer sacrosanct.
Why People Respond to It
For workers, the incentive is simple. One additional day off per week allows for additional time for family, leisure activity, rest, or simply doing the errands of life. Trial workers felt they experienced greater control over their schedule and were less fatigued at day’s end.
Better sleep was one of the pluses. After all, it’s that much easier to catch up lost rest if the workweek concludes on Thursday and not on Friday. Sleep, as one would expect, has a documented effect on overall wellness, stress hardiness, and on-the-job performance.
Lower burnout rates are also noteworthy. Burnout, usually marked by weariness, cynicism, and lower performance at work, has been on a rising global trajectory and has gained particular prominence since the pandemic eliminated the boundary between office and domestic life.
A shorter week, as per the study, would be one of the easiest solutions.
What About Employers?
The idea that a person would compensate employees the same amount for fewer hours naturally elicits doubts among managers and entrepreneurs. Do businesses really have that money?
Oddly enough, most companies mentioned in the trials that the transition did not result in a loss of output. By eliminating inefficiencies, particularly meetings that employees themselves tend to concede are unnecessary, companies were able to maintain productivity.
Even some workers claimed they did better, knowing that they would be taking less time for work. The time constraint allowed a tighter focus and fewer distractions.
The employers noticed that the absentee rate also lowered, as employees could take more time for appointments without being absent.
That being said, the researchers at the Boston College were categorical that the experiment was voluntary. The companies that were engaged were already ready to experiment and make structural changes.
Whether the result would be universally acceptable, across industries, say in manufacturing, healthcare, or customer service, was another matter.
The U.S. Outlook
Within America, interest in the four-day workweek has been on the increase. Bills have been introduced in Congress cutting the average workweek to 32 hours, yet none has yet gained traction.
At the state level, we have witnessed higher activity. California lawmakers have floated shorter workweek proposals, particularly in the high-tech sector, though lobbying has stalled progress.
However, businesses are persisting in their own. Start-ups, ad agencies, and a few larger companies have experimented with four-day schedules on a more or less ongoing basis.
The just-released statistics from Boston College might encourage more employers to make the leap.
A Reinvention Season for the Workweek
The 40-hour work week was first popularized in the U.S. during the early 20th century, largely thanks to Henry Ford, who adopted it for his factories in 1926. At the time, it was considered revolutionary, giving workers two days of rest instead of one.
Not quite a century later, the idea that a person should produce for fewer hours for the same reward is once challenging the conventional notion regarding work productivity.
The only exception being that contemporary technology increases the productivity of many tasks, thus rendering the old measure of hours invalid.
“We are at that stage where expectations around work are changing,” said Schor. “The coronavirus showed people that flexibility is a reality, and they are not likely to forget that.”
What Comes Next?
The research by Boston College fails to end the controversy. Some observers argue that self-reported data has its flaws and that office work and other jobs that require physical presence might not be helped.
Some are alarmed at potential long-term effects on wages and corporate competitiveness.
Nonetheless, gathering evidence makes one thing unmistakable: shorter workweeks are no longer the pipe dream of work-life balance enthusiasts.
They are being tested, tried out, and, in most cases, embraced.
Whether the U.S. would take a page out of Iceland’s or the UK’s book is yet to be known. But for the time being, the employees who have tried a four-day work week are not looking to get back.
One respondent summed it up in a brief remark to researchers: “Fridays feel like they are my day again.”
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