Four-day workweek for the win.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who votes with Democrats, said even more businesses need to turn to the four-day workweek.
“With exploding technology and increased worker productivity, it’s time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must benefit from technology, not just corporate CEOs,” Sanders tweeted Tuesday.
His comments come on the heels of new research on the four-day work week. Companies in the U.K. that experimented with a four-day workweek last year reported more revenue and less staff attrition, while most workers participating in the trial said they experienced less burnout, fewer negative emotions and more satisfaction with their work-life balance.
This is according to the final results of a study of how 61 U.K. companies and their approximately 2,900 workers fared with a compressed workweek between June and December 2022. The study was carried out by 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit that supports the idea of a shorter workweek.
Companies scored the overall experience at 8.3 out of 10, while revenue increased 1.4% on average during the trial. Compared with similar periods in previous years earlier, revenue increased 35% on average.
“A four-day workweek was once a fringe idea, but it is gaining traction. ”
A four-day workweek was once a fringe idea, but it is gaining traction. During the 2022 World Economic Forum, there was a panel discussion about the shorter workweek.
In the past, U.S.-based companies including Microsoft MSFT, -0.46% and Shake Shack SHAK, +4.37% have experimented with a four-day workweek for salaried employees with some success. In a test conducted in 2019, Microsoft said productivity jumped 40% when employees worked four days a week, but the company did not subsequently implement a permanent four-day workweek.
In the U.K. study, a large majority of participating businesses — 92% — said they planned to continue with the four-day workweek, researchers noted. Two of the other five businesses will continue the four-day workweek on a trial basis, while the other three are stopping for now.
Reducing burnout
In the U.K. study, more than half of workers said the four-day workweek increased their ability to do their job, and 71% said it reduced burnout. Around 40% said they felt less stressed and had improved mental health, and 54% experienced fewer negative emotions.
“Overall satisfaction with work and life is higher, with employees reporting lower rates of burnout and better physical and mental health. People also have fewer problems with sleep and are exercising more,” said the report, which was based on data from researchers at Boston College and Cambridge University.
Early data on the U.K. trial run showed widespread popularity among the businesses trying the shorter week. At the time, almost half of businesses said productivity was the same, while one-third said there was a slight improvement, and 15% saw a more marked improvement.
“Approximately one quarter of new job postings last month were advertised as remote, down from 32% in the fourth quarter.”
4 Day Week Global said it has studied 91 companies and around 3,500 workers — which include the 61 companies from the most recent study — that have tried the curtailed week. Researchers will have more findings from other parts of the world in the coming weeks and months.
The question remains: How many more companies will go along with the idea? Late last year, 40% of surveyed companies said they were either starting a four-day week or thinking about using one, according to EY’s Future Workplace Index.
The findings — arriving as many American workers start their own holiday-compressed workweek after Presidents Day — add to the debate on what office life should be like.
There’s still an ongoing push and pull on how many days bosses expect their staff to be physically present in the office. Remote work on a mass scale started as a white-collar contingency plan during the pandemic.
As the worst days of the pandemic recede, remote-work expectations have stuck around as an important part of the equation in the work-life balance.
Approximately one quarter of new job postings last month were advertised as remote, down from 32% in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the global staffing firm Robert Half International RHI, +0.61%. Two-thirds of polled workers said the absence of a commute was the best part of remote work, and 45% said the top feature was better morale and work-life balance.
Weston Blasi contributed to this report.
