Four Why? Four Day Work Week: Great or Long Monday in Disguise?
Hi everyone,
Thursday seems like a good day to share some thoughts and this has been on my mind recently…
There was a big study published last year in Nature Human Behaviour that followed nearly 3,000 employees across 141 companies and six countries through a six-month four-day work week trial. Same pay, one less day. And the results were pretty definitive with: less burnout, better sleep and folks actually enjoying their jobs more. Around 90% of the companies decided to keep it going after the trial finished.
Turns out that it wasn't really the extra day off that made the difference. It was that companies had to strip back how they worked just to make it possible. Fewer unnecessary meetings, simpler processes, more trust in people to get things done. The four-day week was almost just the excuse to do what probably needed doing anyway.
Which got me thinking about this community, I’m still getting to know you all, but I assume there’s likely a healthy spread in work situations here.
- For those of you who work regularly on-site five days a week: does this appeal?
- For those who already have WFH flexibility, would it make a difference?
- For those of you in more reactive roles (on-call or live environments) does it just move the problem?
- For those who already do a 4 day week, is the hype real?
And be honest: do you think the work would actually shrink, or would the Monday task list just grow accordingly?
I’ve gone back and forth (see what I did there?) so let me know what you think and which category you belong to!
Read more here:
🔗 The 4-Day Work Week in 2026: What the Research Actually Shows — SUCCESS Magazine
Penny for your thoughts?
Kirk
