Imagine waking up on Thursday morning knowing it’s your Friday and you have a three-day weekend to look forward to — not just this week, but every week. That sounds like a dream but totally unrealistic, right? Well, for some employees and companies, this is already a reality.
The four-day workweek has gained a lot of momentum worldwide, with businesses testing shorter work schedules to see if employee productivity has any improvement. And let’s just say the results are promising. Studies suggest that working fewer days not only makes people happier, it makes them a lot more efficient in their jobs.
But the real question is: Is this just another workplace trend, or could it be the future of work? Let’s break down the science and research behind this new workweek model and whether we should all be pushing for a change in our schedules.
The 40-Hour Work Week is Outdated
For several decades, the traditional nine-to-five workweek has been the gold standard. But where does this schedule even come from?
In the early 1900s, labor unions fought to cap workweeks at 40 hours per week maximum. Before labor unions sought this change, people were often working six days and up to 16 hours per day. Henry Ford of Ford cars is surprisingly who we can thank (sort of) for popularizing the five-day, 40-hour work week in the 1920s. Ford believed that employees who were more well-rested were also more productive. So, while he had the right idea for that time, his old work week model doesn’t exactly hold up with the scheduling needs of 2025.
Technology has drastically changed the way that we work now, allowing for AI automation, remote work and communication tools that expedite our processes from anywhere in the world. Yet despite all of these innovations and working freedoms, companies still cling to the outdated, rigid 40-hour week model.
The Science is in Favor of Shorter Weeks
Research has been stacking up in favor of working smarter, not harder. Citing several benefits of the new four-day workweek model. The first major benefit that has been found in implementing the four-day work week is that companies that are using it see a significant increase in productivity and a decrease in time-wasting.
Think about all the pointless meetings, never-ending email threads, social distractions and cooler talk. People don’t realize it, but the time spent clocked in does not accurately reflect the amount of time spent working. One study found that a majority of employees spend only less than three hours of the eight-hour working day actually doing work. That’s right! The rest of the five and a half hours were used up with checking social media, discussing non-work-related topics and engaging in other non-work-related activities.
Microsoft Japan conducted a four-day work week study and found that employee productivity shot up by a total of 40 percent. Employees not only worked harder but they started to work more efficiently. Meetings became shorter, emails were more streamlined and people found smarter and faster ways to get things done.
Not only are employees more productive within this model, but they’re a lot happier and healthier. Companies that have run these four-day work week trials have surveyed employees feeling less stressed, more energized and turnover rates have become significantly lower.
Will This Model Become the New Normal?
The good news is that we’re already seeing a shift. Several major companies and even governments have tested shorter work weeks and found overwhelmingly positive results.
Some notable examples:
- Spain launched a nationwide four-day work week trial in 2021.
- New Zealand’s Unilever ran a year-long experiment and is considering making it permanent.
- Tech companies like Buffer and Bolt have fully switched to a four-day work week with great success.
Of course, not every industry can easily switch to this model. Fields like healthcare, customer service and manufacturing may require different approaches, like staggered shifts or flexible schedules. But for knowledge-based and office jobs? There’s a strong argument that we’re overdue for change.
