New Study: Switching To 4 Day Workweek Reduces Burnout

Companies that switched to a 4 day workweek, with no reduction in pay, saw major improvements in their workers’ well-being, according to a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour earlier this month. Led by Boston College sociologists Wen Fan and Juliet Schor, the study was the largest of its kind, involving 2,896 employees across 141 organizations in the US, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.

“When workers want to deliver the same productivity, they might work very rapidly to get the job done, and their well-being might actually worsen,” Fan told Nature. “But that’s not what we found.”

Compared to a control group of 300 workers at 12 companies that kept a traditional 5-day workweek, the firms that switched to a 4-day workweek instead showed “improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health.” Moreover, the individual workers themselves reported gains in work ability as well as “reduced sleep problems and decreased fatigue.” Based on the study’s results, the authors concluded that “income-preserving 4-day workweeks are an effective organizational intervention for enhancing workers’ well-being.”

Before the participating companies began their six-month trial period of reduced work hours, the businesses were given approximately eight weeks to streamline their organizational processes and restructure workflow. So to maintain their productivity, many companies participating in the study eliminated superfluous meetings and other time-wasting, if deeply ingrained, activities.

Notably, 90% of the companies that participated in the study ultimately decided to keep their 4-day workweeks, strongly implying that the benefits of a shortened workweek outweighed any potential downsides or losses in productivity. The findings in Nature Human Behaviour are largely consistent with previous trials and pilot programs conducted at other companies around the world. Combined, these studies could even provide some empirical evidence for the oft-cited Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Given these promising results, policymakers have started to take notice. Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act (S. 3947). True to its name, the bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours, with no corresponding loss in pay. If enacted, the bill would have marked the first reduction in the federal workweek since 1940, when it was lowered from 44 hours to 40 hours.

“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” Sen. Sanders said in a statement when he released the bill. “The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life. It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.”