The 4-Day Week Experiment: a success a century in the making

[Epaminondas]

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/30/business/4-day-work-week-results/index.html

The 2022 and 2023 experiment in the US, Ireland and now the UK have just concluded: without any loss of productivity, the 94 companies (33+61) which tried this out have saved money due to a variety of factors including a significant drop in turnover rates and less sick leave. 95% of them will maintain the 4-day week.

Could we finally be moving towards Keynes' vision of a 15-hour week he predicted for his grandchildren? (Economic possibilities for our grandchildren, p.5)

[lfromnj]

Maybe for office based jobs but the simple fact is that a worker covering a hour at a resturaunt or factory can not have their hours reduced and the factory be as productive . So either A. This will cut down on office jobs overall or B. Lead to a laptop vs factory class country.

[Blue3]

Maybe for office based jobs but the simple fact is that a worker covering a hour at a resturaunt or factory can not have their hours reduced and the factory be as productive . So either A. This will cut down on office jobs overall or B. Lead to a laptop vs factory class country.

Well there’s also automation coming for those jobs.

[Make Canada Boring Again]

     I am sceptical of the four-day work week, both the benefits of it and whether or not it will ever become a reality. I hear a lot of studies about how the four-day work week maintains the current level of productivity, which may be true, but reducing the total amount of hours worked also reduces the amount of hours one has to produce output. All OECD countries have reduced the amount of hours worked in the last several decades so I doubt continuously doing this will be sustainable in the long term (will we once have a 2-day or 3-day work week with equivalent or increasing productivity?). A Stanford study has shown that productivity per hour peaks at 50 hours a week, so I am not sure we can reduce the amount of hours worked to 15 or 25 hour work weeks and maintain the same productivity. Some studies regarding the 4 day work week have also found increased productivity but also increased stress as a result. So it's a really mixed bag and I am not sure it is applicable to all workplaces.

     Also, one more thing worth pointing out, most of the study mentioned in the CNN article was done in the United States and Ireland, which are two of the most high-productivity countries in the world. I wonder if the results would be the same in wealthy countries with lower productivity in GDP per hour worked. I think countries need to work on policies to increase productivity and economic growth as well if they want to reduce the amount of hours worked rather than just expect it to remain the same.

[Ragnaroni]

I don't know what I'd do with 3 days off? Saturday is all the sh**tty work I gotta do (shopping etc) and Sunday is "relax with nothing open" day. I will have too much free time and it SCARES me!

[Cassius]

Frankly, it would be nice for them to link to the study as opposed to just regurgitating the spin. It would be interesting to see the data on which companies were picked for the trial, and on how, regarding the increase in profits from the previous year, they separated the impact of the four-day week from the impact of it being early 2022 when the trial began (as opposed to early 2021, when the UK, Ireland and the US were still writhing under the impact of COVID lockdowns).

[President Johnson]

I'm actually in favor of the four-day week, but only if that overall leads to a reduction of working hours in general. Having just four days with routinely ten hours of work is not the solution and something I wouldn't welcome. However, several scientists in this field agree that the standard 40-hour week as fallen out of time. It was actually some kind of compromise during the industrial age.

I think there isn't an universal fix for all professions across the board and there will be much more individual solutions, deepening on different businesses and job descriptions. As to when people work and also where people work, with remote work for office professions in particular.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

I mean I've advocated for schools extending their hours from like 4 to 6 in exchange for only having it four days per week. Don't see why offices should be any different.

[Zinneke]

Maybe for office based jobs but the simple fact is that a worker covering a hour at a resturaunt or factory can not have their hours reduced and the factory be as productive . So either A. This will cut down on office jobs overall or B. Lead to a laptop vs factory class country.

Great post but you forgot c. we go to a Francoist style labour market where you work your office job in the morning, have a siesta and your manual job in the evening, simply because Western democracies are ageing and there are going to be massive labour shortages.

US doesn't have that problem though.

[Mike88]

I have no problem with a four-day week, I even support it, but, at the same time, the issue is if it's feasible everywhere. In my country, for example, I have a lot skepticism that it could be implemented across the board as we are dealing with a low wage, low productive and low capitalized economy. If problems already accumulate with the current 5-day work week, with a 4-day week they are bound to aggravate. It can work in some companies with a stable work force, but overall I have huge doubts on its success.