(C) Common Dreams
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A four-day work week? [1]
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Date: 2025-07
“Perhaps the most surprising finding so far,” said Fan, “is that there is no surprise, which is not typically the case in academic research. Usually, we would get some hypotheses supported while others refuted, but for this project, basically everything we expect to move moves, and in the anticipated direction. Hours reduced, well-being improved, and key organizational bottom-lines sustained—all of these happened without the need for workers to intensify their work demands. I think this is an ideal example demonstrating how powerful well-conceived work redesign efforts can make an impactful difference in the real world.”
Schor and Fan said the main reason employees have maintained productivity in the four-day week is that companies have decreased or cut activities with questionable or low value in the day-in, week-out operation. Meetings—a traditional source of complaints among employees and managers alike—have been a major target in this reorganization, with personnel turning to phone calls, messaging apps, or other means of communication.
The other key to increased productivity, they noted, is that four-day week employees tend to use their third day off for doctor’s appointments or other personal errands that they would otherwise try to cram into a workday. Employees also reported devoting the extra day off to hobbies and leisure activities, household work, and personal grooming, all of which often contribute to good mental health and general life satisfaction.
The four-day week’s tangible benefits for employers, Schor and Fan added, include lower employee health care costs, less employee turnover, and an asset for recruiting new workers.
“Not losing highly trained individuals, in fields like health care or teaching, to stress and burnout is certainly a worthwhile goal,” said Schor, “and at a time when we’ve seen many employers struggle to fill positions, the four-day week can be touted as a benefit.”
The four-day week concept pre-dates 4DWG, and the project itself was launched in 2018, but Schor and Fan agree that the COVID-19 pandemic—which shuttered many workplaces and led to an uptick in remote work—undoubtedly was a critical if unplanned factor in putting the program in operation.
“This would’ve been a difficult sell pre-COVID—it would’ve struck a lot of people as pie-in-the-sky, and not feasible for companies,” said Schor. “But the pandemic created such levels of stress and burnout, and led many employees to say, ‘I want to live my life differently,’ and this created more of a space for reimagining work—and, as part of that, the four-day week.”
For all that, Fan said, the “traditional” 40-hour, in-office model of work is still deeply entrenched in many societies. “Social change is always difficult, especially when it comes to challenging the deep-seated institutional logics dictating how, when, and where we work. Let’s hope we don’t waste the crisis of COVID in terms of the profound workplace innovations it has precipitated.”
Schor noted that workplaces that have been sped up—such as in manufacturing, where workers are typically paid by the hour—will have difficulty with a four-day week “since it’s harder for them to squeeze out inefficient time.” However, over time, as the new schedule is normalized, they will gain by making the switch.
“What companies need to understand is, you don’t focus on individual productivity, but rather the overall organization. Employers who went to remote work during COVID recognized that they could trust their people to do the work, and that’s what we’re saying here, too.”
For more about 4 Day Week Global, see www.4dayweek.com
Sean Smith | University Communications | December 2022
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[1] Url:
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/nation-world-society/sociology/-study-pilots-four-day-work-week.html
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