TUESDAY NIGHTS I always sleep well. For the last three years, I have worked four days a week – usually Monday and Tuesday, then Thursday and Friday.
The break on Wednesdays means that no matter how busy the early part of the week is, I get a chance to breathe easy, get up when I am ready, go for a long swim in the pool, write, catch up on housework, plant those long overdue spring bulbs, meet a friend for coffee or lunch, cook a nice dinner and of course chill.
The alternative is a five day week of deadlines, phone calls, meetings and pressure which for me, at the stage of life I am at is exhausting even thinking about.
Work smarter, not harder has been the mantra of management consultants for decades. But what if you just work less? There is mounting evidence that ditching the conventional working week has benefits for employers and employees as well as the planet.
The Green Party has called for a Citizen’s Assembly on a four-day work week to explore the impact it could have on issues such as people’s pay and the effect on the public service. Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said that flexible and remote work had achieved a better work-life balance for people, but now it was time to ‘take the next steps forward.’
In an era of remote working and Artificial Intelligence, a five-day working week is outdated. Henry Ford found a century ago, that people were more productive if they worked five days out of six. In a modern era, we have to ask: Why are we stuck on five days? Is this a human invention that deserves to be reimagined?
All the evidence would suggest that it is. The four-day week is not another shiny election bauble. It is a proven model – here’s the evidence.
Six years ago, New Zealand based entrepreneur and founder of Four Day Week Global, Andrew Barnes, ran a pilot at his company Perpetual Guardian that redefined how we think about productivity. The company, which employed almost 250 staff, managing trusts, wills and estate planning, ran a three-month pilot to compare whether employees could be as productive in four days while getting paid for five.
The experiment was a resounding success. Employee engagement soared, sick days halved and retention improved. Staff stress levels decreased by seven percentage points across the board while stimulation, commitment and a sense of empowerment at work all improved significantly, with overall satisfaction increasing by five percentage points.
‘Healthier, happier, more engaged staff are more productive, more creative and give a better customer experience,’ Barnes concluded.
Four Day Week Global followed this up with a series of trials across the world in 2022 with employers in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland taking part.
Assistant professor in social policy at the UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, Orla Kelly led the Irish component of the international trial, with Boston College coordinating the research with international academic partners. The trial involved 3,500 employees across 150 organisations in a six-month trial that included 188 employees from 12 firms in Ireland.
Across all countries, the researchers found that the four-day week resulted in a significant increase in physical and mental health, life satisfaction, work-life balance and work-family balance.
They also saw an increase in average daily sleep hours, as well as fewer sleep problems, and less frequent anxiety and fatigue. They found improvements in job satisfaction alongside a considerable reduction in burnout.
Employees in the trial had more time to dedicate to personal care, social connections and hobbies. Environmental gains included reduced commuting and increases in pro-environmental behaviour.
‘I’m working more productively,’ said one employee. ‘I’m working much smarter. I have been more focused throughout the day.’
‘It’s given me more time to spend with my family members, and I think that the even greater benefit has been that it frees up my mental space for when I’m interacting with them,’ said another. ‘The mental load of work doesn’t spill into your personal life.’
Managers reported boosted productivity.
‘In terms of productivity, we’re beating every target from the previous year, hands down. So if anything, reducing our working week has improved priority productivity to a level that it would be a very foolish decision to go back to five days,’ one manager said.
During the trial, the research team observed a decrease in commuting among employees and an increase in pro-environmental behaviour, including active travel. In addition, many organisations decreased energy use by closing on a Friday.
One worker’s testimonial summed up the positive response, which as a four-day worker, I would wholeheartedly concur with:
‘Life has gotten so much better, just a much better balance, Oh, my God! Like, I don’t know how people who don’t have it can function. Especially when you work a full-on and intense job. Before the four-day week, I didn’t feel I had the time or capacity for all the other parts of my life that needed attention. Having that extra day is a game-changer.’
Other organisations have conducted similar experiments to reduce working hours without sacrificing output.
Spain’s third-largest city, Valencia trial a four-day week by scheduling local holidays on four consecutive Mondays throughout April and May 2023. The new temporary working week affected 360,000 workers who used the additional downtime to do sporting activities, relax and prepare meals.
Results showed people in the programme had higher self-perceived health status, reduced levels of stress, were less tired and were more personally satisfied.
In a separate study in the UK in 2022, involving 73 companies and 3,300 employees, the results were similar. Four days’ work for five days’ pay benefitted both employees and workers. Almost half the respondents said productivity improved slightly or significantly, and the majority (86%) stated it highly likely they would continue with a four-day week after the study.
For families, the results from the UK study were very positive, with the time spent by male workers looking after their children increasing by 27%. But traditional metrics, like time spent in the office are deeply ingrained in corporate culture.
Barnes acknowledges this, suggesting that ‘because we don’t measure productivity properly, we often default to time as a surrogate.’ One of the key obstacles he suggests is that senior leaders are often too risk averse to experiment with new ways of working.
Barnes notes that the four-day work week isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, suggesting that in some sectors like public service, ‘you might need a journey towards proper productivity measurement before you can implement it,’ compared to private companies with more explicit productivity and revenue metrics.
But it is doable, and a Citizen’s Assembly would explore the key elements of how to introduce a four-day week that includes the public sector to maximise wellbeing and minimise any impact on productivity.
As a public sector worker, who works a four-day week I can vouch for the benefits in terms of improved productivity while I am at work, while being transformative for my brain space, strength, heart, lungs, balance, sleep, creativity and most of all my sanity.
Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor and former director of human health and nutrition, safefood.
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