A new international study found that a four-day workweek with no loss of pay significantly improved worker well-being, including lower burnout rates, better mental health, and higher job satisfaction, especially for individuals who reduced hours most.
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/four-day-workweek-productivity-satisfaction/
18 Comments
Shocking. Working less hours with the same pay results in life improvements.
Yeah… we will get that from the cold, de@d hands of the elite class. It is serfdom all over again! The world is run by corporate kings, and their kingdoms have no borders and penetrate every civilized country.
**A new international study found that a four-day workweek with no loss of pay significantly improved worker well-being, including lower burnout rates, better mental health, and higher job satisfaction, especially for individuals who reduced hours most.**
A new, large-scale international study, led by Boston College, examined the impact of moving to a four-day workweek with no reduction in pay on employee well-being and garnered results that will probably not come as a surprise to most people.
The study involved 2,896 employees from 141 companies across six countries: the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. These companies were compared with 12 control companies that didn’t implement the four-day week.
Employees were surveyed before and after a six-month trial of reduced work hours. Their employee companies had reorganized workflows to cut back on unnecessary tasks such as meetings, enabling employees to work 80% of their original hours for 100% of their pay. There was no mandated format. Companies chose their own way to reduce hours, which meant that employees did not always work a strict four-day week.
The researchers measured work-related well-being, including burnout and job satisfaction; mental and physical health; and mediators such as work ability, job demands, schedule control, job support, sleep quality, fatigue, and exercise frequency. They found that in the intervention group, the average workweek fell from around 39 hours to 34 hours. The control group’s hours remained unchanged (around 39 to 40 hours a week). Compared to the control group, employees working a four-day week showed a reduction in burnout, higher job satisfaction, improved mental health, and slight but significant gains in physical health.
The researchers observed that larger reductions in personal work hours equaled greater improvements in well-being. Company-wide reductions also helped, but did not show a dose-response effect like individual changes did.
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02259-6
Study published in the Journal of Self-Evidently Obvious Conclusions.
you don’t need a professor doing a study to know that more free time makes people happy
these useless articles only serves to dilute the true value of 4-day work week, which is in many cases there is no reduction in productivity
Too bad they don’t care about employees, but only about numbers going up.
What a waste of time.
The only study worth performing on this topic is whether or not it also increases productivity, because that’s the only way to align interests and get employers on board.
Spoiler alert: Most American companies don’t really care about any of that. They would rather work you to the bone for as long as they can until you either quit or they have no use for you and fire you and replace with another one.
That being said, my company does offer 4×10 shifts which means I still work 40 hours a week but 10 hour days which is fine considering I get a whole extra day off
Keep the population declining guys!!
More workers worse work conditions!!!!
Remember we must join together not have kids!!!!
Make enployers panicc
Hell yes it does. 4/10 Is the absolute best. Every Sat-Mon or Friday-Sun off.
The problem is that employee’s wellbeing is a metric no one cares about.
Okay but how did it impact on shareholder value creation and quarterly earnings? 🤔🤔🤔
What did it say about productivity though? That’s really the only thing that matters
Articles like this really just hit a nerve, can we please actually start making this happen? Like where are these jobs, who are the employers doing this and are they hiring? I feel like I’m still more likely to get forced back to the office and told to work an extra hour per day but the Internet seems to be some alternate universe sometimes
Yes, but even if you prove it boosts productivity and profits, many companies will still resist. Fewer office days mean less opportunity to *hover*, less chance to *monitor*, and worst of all: fewer people to performatively manage. Some folks don’t want results, they want to feel like middle-management warlords.
But does it generate the maximum profit/revenue for c suites folks and shareholders? Because that’s all they care about. Our wellbeing isn’t even in their top 10.
Thats so sweet! They think burnout is bug, not a feature! How else can you keep hiring cheaper labor?
As someone who worked a 4-day workweek for a few years, I’ll chime in here with some general pros and cons.
If you’re doing a job that requires complex problem-solving, a creative/generative job, a job where you are interacting with alot of people or different systems, or just mentally taxing work, then the 4-day work week really helps to keep you fresh and productive, and allows time outside of work to source problem-solving material, and keeps you from getting stuck while keeping you sharp and open-minded. Productivity in these contexts is vastly improved, and if you’re a deep-focus person you can still have your time to experiment, research, etc.
If the job is physical and repetitive then the employer just needs bodies and time. I would argue that you also come in more rested, energized, productive, and consistent.
I worked 4 days per week but full-time hours – meaning longer days than some may prefer or are used to. Full pay, full vacation, etc. It is a life-changing schedule because of course you can alot more of your time back, and the time that remains yours is much more potent. You are much more focused and energized overall, and can do so much more with your time. It feels great and it super charges your life.