VFrom June to December, more than 70 British companies and organizations are trying out a four-day week – without any wage cuts for employees. In return, however, they undertake to maintain their productivity at 100 percent.
Behind the largest attempt at a four-day week to date are the organizations 4 Day Week Global in cooperation with the leading think tank Autonomy and the 4 Day Week Campaign. The project is also being scientifically supported by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Boston College. They want to measure the effects on productivity and the well-being of employees – the effects on the environment and gender equality are also to be researched.
Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and the pilot’s lead researcher, told The Guardian: “We will analyze how workers react to an extra day off in terms of stress and burnout, job and life satisfaction, Health, sleep, energy consumption, travel and many other aspects of life.”
projects in other countries as well
The project involves over 3,300 workers from over thirty sectors across the UK, including banks, care companies and even animation studios. The UK trial runs in parallel with similar pilots in Ireland, the US and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Israel.
The discussion about a four-day week in the United Kingdom, which is traditionally one of the countries with the longest working week in Europe, has accelerated since the corona pandemic. Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, said the UK is “on the crest of a wave of global dynamics behind the four-day week” as people adjusted to being away from the office during the pandemic be. “As the pandemic ends, more and more companies are realizing that the new frontier of competition is quality of life, and that reduced working hours and focus on performance are the means to gain competitive advantage,” O’Connor told the Guardian.
The Labor Party pledged back in 2019 that it would introduce the four-day week within a decade if Jeremy Corbyn led the party to victory in the general election.
