What Is a Four-Day Workweek?

In reality, the concept of a four-day workweek is pretty easy! You basically work 32 hours over four days instead of the usual 40 hours over five days. Your pay still stays the same, and you keep your benefits. More businesses across different industries are warming up to this idea more and more recently.

Businesses that are trying this generally give everyone Fridays off, though some of them let you choose which day works best for your own schedule. They want to give you more personal time while also making sure that the business still runs. You can honestly use this extra day in any way you want – spend some time with your family, catch up on your errands, or just take it easy.

You’ll find a few different versions of the shorter workweek out there. Some businesses still ask for the full 40 hours, just packed into four longer 10-hour days. Others actually cut back to a 32 total hour work week. They think you might actually focus better when you have less time at work. When you have fewer hours to finish your tasks, you tend to waste less time on distractions.

Remember that recent trials in different countries have shown some positive results. People say they feel less stressed. They also mention having more energy for their work. Businesses normally find that productivity stays about the same or sometimes even gets better. Customers don’t seem any less satisfied either. That extra day away from work can give you some time to recharge and come back feeling refreshed.

As we’ve seen, the pandemic has pushed businesses to look at work differently. Remote work has consistently proved that flexibility can actually work for most people. You probably see that people now want more options past the old 9-to-5 schedule. The four-day work week fits into this bigger move toward work setups that match better with how we all live.

In fact, Iceland ran some of the biggest tests of shorter work weeks and looked at more than 2,500 workers in all kinds of different jobs. People felt better with this change. They talked about having a better balance between their work and personal life and feeling less stressed at home. Tests in the UK, New Zealand, and Japan have typically shown similar positive results.

How It Improves Well-Being

You’ll see that employees get happier much faster when the businesses switch to a four-day work week. People generally have an extra day to enjoy life outside of work. You might spend this extra time with your kids or finally address those home projects that you’ve been meaning to get to for ages.

The stress-reduction numbers will probably surprise you. As a matter of fact, your work stress can actually drop by almost 40% when you work just one less day each week. Think about that for a bit – this is a big change from adjusting a single workday in your schedule. In one of the studies, burnout rates tend to fall by over 70%, which means that you’re much less likely to feel completely drained by your job. Do you want to feel less stressed? A shorter workweek could be your perfect answer.

Your mental health tends to get better on a four-day schedule, with about 40% of the workers reporting better well-being. You can finally make those important therapy appointments or take some relaxing walks while the sun’s still up. Your physical health often gets much better, too. With an extra day off each week, you’ll find some time to exercise or cook a healthy meal instead of just grabbing fast food between your meetings.

You’ll likely sleep much better on a four-day schedule, with your sleep problems dropping by about 20% – it makes perfect sense when you see what actually happens. That extra day can give you some time to catch up on your rest and break the cycle of your sleep debt. The wonderful thing is when you sleep better, you can show up to work more alert and ready to focus on what matters. Have you seen how much sharper you feel after a long weekend?

That extra day off creates more room for you to recover from your work. What’s great is you can pick up some hobbies that make you happy and add more fulfillment to your life. Your family relationships typically get stronger over time. As a parent, you can now attend school events or be more present with your kids. Try imagining what you’d do with 52 extra days each year – because that’s what a four-day workweek can give you.

You’ll probably feel more positive all week long when you know that a three-day weekend waits for you at the end. The shorter workweek can give you something concrete to look forward to when matters get too busy. Your negative feelings, like frustration and irritability, decrease quite a bit, too. The Monday blues don’t normally hit quite as hard when your weekends feel bigger.

Remember that work-life balance changes from just a fancy corporate phrase into something that you can actually achieve in real life. You can now schedule your doctor visits, home repairs, or coffee with friends without using up your vacation days. The mental weight lifts when you have a whole day set aside for your personal tasks. Think about how much lighter you’d feel when you know that Thursday is your new Friday.

How It Improves Productivity

Businesses that switch to a four-day work week can get some pretty great results. Microsoft Japan found that their employees usually got 40% more done when they were working fewer days each week. You might be surprised that less time at work doesn’t mean that less work gets done. What’s interesting is that people feel more focused during those four workdays.

With three days off instead of two, you can come back to work feeling more recharged. You don’t spend your day feeling tired. People waste less time on unimportant tasks when they know that they have fewer hours to finish their work. They actually trim down unnecessary meetings and talk less about topics that aren’t related to work.

A big UK study looked at 73 businesses that tried the shorter work week. About half of them found that their teams got more done in four days than they did in five. The people at Buffer (a social media company) enjoyed the change to their schedule. About 91% of them said that they could indeed accomplish more when they were working fewer days.

The reality is that having an extra day off can give you more time to manage your personal matters like doctor visits and errands. When Monday comes around, you’re not trying to fit your personal calls into your workday anymore. People also find that they think more creatively and have better ideas when they aren’t feeling exhausted.

Just remember that businesses that move to a four-day week generally improve how they work, too. They look more closely at how they spend their time and cut out the tasks that waste their energy. Many of them shorten their meetings or have fewer of them. As you can imagine, some businesses use better technology to manage the boring tasks that used to take up people’s time.

What Are the Main Challenges?

You’ll find that not every company can actually switch to a four-day schedule. Some businesses basically need to have people on the job every day of the week. Think about the hospitals and restaurants – they can’t just close down for an extra day without causing some real problems for their patients or customers! These locations usually need to bring on some more staff to help fill in the gaps.

Working just four days a week often means that your days will get longer. Instead of the usual eight-hour shifts, you might need to put in about ten hours each day – this setup can be tough if you’re a parent who needs to pick up your kids from school or daycare. Those extra-long workdays can also make you feel pretty worn out by the time you get back home.

In reality, customer expectations can create another big challenge when making this switch. People generally expect that businesses will be open for five or six days a week. Before making any changes, businesses need to have figured out how to keep their customers happy with fewer staff members working each day. You can try creating some new ways for your customers to get the answers they need when the office isn’t completely staffed.

The middle managers typically have the hardest time when changing to the four-day workweek. They need to come up with some new ways to check how well their teams are performing. The focus normally changes to what actually gets done instead of how long the people spend at their desks – that means learning some whole new ways to lead and to measure success.

But you might feel some extra pressure when trying to squeeze five days of work into just four days – this kind of stress can sometimes cause burnout instead of giving you a better work-life balance. Your team needs some clear input about which tasks have to get done and which ones can wait until later.

It can become even harder to stay connected when people spend less time in the office together. You might find it much harder to schedule meetings when everyone can attend. Make sure that your team has some reliable tools to stay in touch when you’re not all working on the same days.

As you can imagine, the different types of businesses can have very different experiences with the four-day weeks. Tech businesses tend to find the transition much smoother than manufacturing plants. Before you get started, you should take some time to look at other businesses in your field that have already tried this. Their experiences can give you some helpful plans about what might work for your own situation.

Level Up Your Workplace Productivity

Teams around the world are increasingly testing four-day workweeks and seeing some favorable results. Just think about what you could do with an extra day off every week! Your team might want to be more helpful when everyone shows up feeling more rested and ready to tackle the day.

Let me explain that workplace changes don’t work the same way for everyone. Some groups usually do well with shorter work weeks. But others may need different types of flexibility. Just try asking your team, honestly, what kind of schedule would help them do their best work. Just having this conversation shows them that you like their input and health.

This change kind of makes us question what we’ve always believed about work. For years, we thought that more hours meant better results. But now it seems that might not actually be true. We have already changed so many work habits during the pandemic. Maybe these shorter workweeks are just the next natural step in how all work is growing.

Do you want to learn about some new workplace ideas? Then join us at HRDQ-U; our community helps you build skills through webinars, podcasts, and blogs that help you stay up to date on workplace patterns. You might like our webinar, A Happier YOU: Work Habits to Enhance Performance and Well-Being, where we talk about supporting teams through workplace changes.

For more helpful tools, check out our Reproducible Training Library Collection (RTL). Just remember that you can download these materials, adjust them, and actually use them to help your team get through workplace changes.