What is a 4 Day Work Week?
You may already know someone that works compressed hours and as such works full-time of 40 hours over 4 days. A four day work week isn’t a compressed work schedule, but rather reduced hours. So, the employee would work around 32 hours over four days and have a THREE-day weekend.

A 4 day work week may seem like a radical idea, but we’ve gradually reduced the number of hours worked within a typical work week since the late 19th century. In 1890, the United States government estimated that a full-time employee within a manufacturing plant worked an average of 100 hours a week. By the mid-20th century, manufacturing employees only worked 40 hours a week. Reducing our current work week to 32 hours isn’t nearly as radical.

What are the Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week?

A 4 day work week is a relatively new concept, brought about largely due to recent advancements in technology. However, some companies are already trialing the idea with promising results for both employees and employers.

Increased Productivity
An in-depth examination of the relationship and productivity conducted by Sanford University revealed a clear correlation between the two factors. Overworked employees are actually less productive than employees working an average or normal working week.

New Zealand based company, Perpetual Guardian, conducted a trial study of a 4 day work week. Not only did employees maintain the same productivity level, but they also showed improvements in job satisfaction, teamwork, work/life balance and company loyalty. Employees also experienced less stress with a decrease of 45% to 38%.

The results from this study are relatively unsurprising given that some of the world’s most productive countries, like Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, on average work around 27 hours a week -- the same hours proposed for a UK 4 day work week. On the other hand, Japan, a nation notoriously known for overworked employees, ranks as the 20th out of 35 countries for productivity.

An Equal Workplace
Research on the Gender Pay Gap from the Government Equalities Office shows that roughly two million British people are not currently in employment due to childcare responsibilities and 89% of these people are women. A 4 day work week would promote an equal workplace as employees would be able to spend more time with their families and better juggle care and work commitments.

Better Employee Engagement
A 4 day week can lead to happier and more committed employees. Employees are less likely to be stressed or take sick leave as they have plenty of time to rest and recover. As a result, they return to work feeling ready to take on new challenges.

From 2015 to 2017, Sweden conducted a trial study into a shorter work week. Nurses at a care home worked only 6 hours for five days a week. Results were largely positive with nurses logging less sick hours, reporting better health and mental wellbeing and greater engagement as they arranged 85% more activities for patients in their care.

A Smaller Carbon Footprint
Countries with shorter working hours typically have a smaller carbon footprint so reducing our work week from 5 to 4 days could have an environmental benefit too. Shortening our working week means that employees don’t need to commute as much and large office buildings are only in use four days a week.

A trial conducted by the US state of Utah for government employees showed a significant ecological impact from reducing the average work week from five to four days using a compressed work schedule. During the first ten months, the project saved over US$1.8m (£1.36m) in energy costs and a reduction of at least 6,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from closing the large office building on Fridays. If employees’ commutes are also included, Utah estimated that it could save 12,000 metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of removing 2,300 cars off the road for one year, simply by working one day less a week!

In the meantime, simply giving workers more time to enjoy their lives makes them better workers and three-day weekends would be nice.