https://www.npr.org/2024/02/27/1234271434/4-day-workweek-successful-a-year-later-in-uk

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These companies tried a 4-day workweek. More than a year in, they
still love it Most of the companies in a U.K. trial were so pleased
with the results -- improved wellbeing, lower turnover, greater
efficiency -- they've made the four-day workweek permanent.

Business

These companies tried a 4-day workweek. More than a year in, they
still love it

Updated February 27, 20245:56 PM ET Originally published February 27,
20244:21 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Andrea Hsu, photographed for NPR, 11 March 2020, in Washington DC.

Andrea Hsu

These companies tried a 4-day workweek. More than a year in, they
still love it

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A U.K. four-day workweek pilot has shown lasting benefits more than
one year later. Dragon Claws hide caption

toggle caption
Dragon Claws

A U.K. four-day workweek pilot has shown lasting benefits more than
one year later.

Dragon Claws

The four-day workweek is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving.

Companies that have tried it are reporting happier workers, lower
turnover and greater efficiency. Now, there's evidence that those
effects are long lasting.

The latest data come from a trial in the U.K. In 2022, 61 companies
moved their employees to a four-day workweek with no reduction in
pay.

They began it as a six-month experiment. But today, 54 of the
companies still have the policy. Just over half have declared it
permanent, according to researchers with the think tank Autonomy, who
organized the trial along with the groups 4-Day Week Campaign and 4
Day Week Global.

Follow-up surveys help to explain the four-day workweek's success.

A manufacturer tried the 4-day workweek for 5 days' pay and won't go
back

Business

A manufacturer tried the 4-day workweek for 5 days' pay and won't go
back

Improvements in physical and mental health, work-life balance, and
general life satisfaction, as well as reductions in burnout, have
been maintained over the past year, says sociologist Juliet Schor of
Boston College, who's part of the research team. Workers report
higher job satisfaction now than before the trial began.

"The results are really stable. It's not a novelty effect," she says.
"People are feeling really on top of their work with this new model."

Similarly positive results are emerging from other four-day workweek
trials, including in the U.S., Schor says.

"Doesn't happen by magic"

At a recent webinar, participating companies shared their experiences
and tips for success.

"It absolutely doesn't happen by magic," says Nicci Russell, CEO of
the London-based water conservancy non-profit Waterwise. "You can't
just drop a day and carry on as usual, because how stressful would
that be?"

Russell says after some initial teething problems, they managed to
find efficiencies that allow all 10 employees to take Fridays off.
They keep all meetings to 30 minutes and make sure those meetings
start on time. They block off focus time on their calendars --
sometimes even declaring Monk Mode Mondays. They're more mindful of
the emails they send and of the time they spend going through their
inboxes.

Less is more: how a 4-day workweek could make you and your company
more productive

TED Radio Hour

Less is more: how a 4-day workweek could make you and your company
more productive

"I only do my emails now at certain times of the day. I'm not drawn
into them all day, every day," she says.

At the end of the pilot, the staff at Waterwise were unanimous in
their desire to continue the four-day week. A majority said they
wouldn't consider a five-day-a-week job again unless presented with a
significant pay raise.

"It's brilliant for retention, which is super important in a teeny
organization like ours," says Russell.

No one-size-fits-all

One important finding, researchers say, is that there is no
one-size-fits-all recipe when it comes to the four-day workweek.

At Merthyr Valleys Homes in South Wales, giving everyone Fridays off
wouldn't have worked, says Ruth Llewellyn, who led the pilot at the
housing cooperative.

With 240 employees working in roles from customer service to home
repairs and maintenance, they decided to keep their operations
running from Monday through Friday.

"For us, the thought of dropping repair service for our tenants one
day a week meant that we wouldn't be providing the same service,"
Llewellyn says.

Instead, employees work a variety of schedules depending on
individual and team needs. Some have a set day off every week, while
others are on a rolling schedule. Some employees work two half-days,
and some still work five days a week but shorter hours, allowing them
to drop off and pick up their children from school.

The teams found time savings in different places. Some of the trades
staff found they could reduce travel time to and from the building
supplier with better planning around which materials they needed.
Customer-facing teams found they could address smaller issues quickly
over the phone.

Iceland Cut Its Workweek And Found Greater Happiness And No Loss In
Productivity

Business

Iceland Cut Its Workweek And Found Greater Happiness And No Loss In
Productivity

Employees are more motivated, employee performance has held
consistent, and absences for illnesses have fallen, Llewellyn says.

Yet the company is not committing to the four-day workweek forever --
at least, not yet. Hoping for still more data, it extended the pilot
and will re-evaluate the results later this spring.

"We're really hopeful at that point that we can make it permanent,"
says Llewellyn.

Why companies fail

Of the 61 U.K. companies that joined the 2022 pilot, only a few have
discontinued the four-day workweek.

At one small consultancy, although the staff reported improved morale
and the company reported a boost in efficiency, there were problems
managing client and stakeholder expectations, according to feedback
collected after the pilot.

Researchers suggest that better external communications and more
flexibility in adapting the policy to challenging conditions might
have made a difference.

"There is a suggestion that the organisation did not give the policy
enough of a chance, and indications of a change of heart on the issue
from management," the researchers wrote.

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