Media release
From: Springer NatureSocial science: Four-day workweek improves worker well-being
Four-day workweeks without a reduction in income are found to boost workers’ job satisfaction and physical and mental health, driven by enhanced work performance, lower levels of fatigue and fewer sleep problems, reports a paper in Nature Human Behaviour. The findings highlight the potential for organizations and policymakers to improve employee well-being by reevaluating workplace hours.
Initiatives that reduce working hours — such as a 6-hour workday or a 20% reduction in working time — have recently been trialled around the world. For example, the 4 Day Week Global initiative has run trials in many countries, with participation from approximately 375 companies, to understand how a shortened workweek — without a reduction in pay — can result in a better working environment.
To test the effects of the four-day workweek (with no reduction in worker pay) intervention, Wen Fan, Juliet Schor, and colleagues conducted 6-month trials that involved 2,896 employees across 141 organizations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, and the USA. Using survey data, they compared work- and health-related indicators (including burnout, job satisfaction, mental and physical health) before and after the intervention. They also compared these outcomes with those from 285 employees at 12 companies that did not trial the intervention.
Fan and colleagues found that after the four-day workweek intervention, there was a reduction in average working hours of around five hours per week. Employees with a reduction of eight hours or more per workweek self-reported experiencing larger reductions in burnout and improvements in job satisfaction and mental health, as compared with those at companies that maintained a five-day workweek. Similar, though smaller, effects were observed among employees with 1–4-hour and 5–7-hour reductions in their workweek. These benefits were partially explained by a reduced number of sleeping problems and levels of fatigue, and improved individual work ability.
The authors suggest that shorter workweeks and reduced working hours without a reduction in salary can help to improve job satisfaction and worker health. They note that a key limitation of the study was companies self-selecting to participate, and resulted in a sample that consists predominantly of smaller companies from English-speaking countries. They call for future randomized studies on worktime reductions, possibly through government-sponsored trials.
