Four-day week: can it work?

After completing a six-month pilot in 2022, during which 61 companies trialled a shorter working week, the 4 Day Week Campaign is launching a second nationwide trial on 4 November. It hopes the data gathered will further back up its argument that cutting the number of days and hours worked by a fifth for the same amount of pay improves employee wellbeing, boosts staff retention and increases productivity.

Photograph: iStock/MicroStockHub

The first pilot found that over the six-month period there was a 65 per cent reduction in the number of sick days taken by staff, while revenues of the companies taking part rose by an average of 1.4 per cent. Most of the businesses that were involved in that trial have kept the four-day week in place, according to its organisers.

The latest pilot will take a broader approach than the previous trial and will include other forms of flexible working, such as compressed hours and a nine-day fortnight.

“This was in recognition of the fact that in not all cases are companies able to go straight to a four-day working week – sometimes there’s a journey to get there,” Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, tells Safety Management. “There are lots of companies across the country that are moving to nine-day fortnights, which is halfway there.

A second UK-wide four-day week trial will begin on 4 November. Photograph: iStock/Adam Webb

“In general, we don’t advocate for compressed hours because it can result in four very long working days which, in some cases, can exacerbate stress, burnout and overworking, which the four-day week is trying to tackle. But, at the same time, it can sometimes be an important first step on road to a true four-day week. That’s why we’ve allowed for it on this trial.”

Government plans

The UK Government’s new Employment Rights Bill, which was laid before Parliament on 10 October, made no specific mention of the four-day week. However, the Bill includes a reform to make flexible working “the default”, with employees having the right from day one to request flexible working arrangements which could include a four-day week through compressed hours.

“The Employment Rights Bill will change the law to make flexible working arrangements the default and requestable by an employee. This could include an employee working longer hours over four days, but we will not be imposing this arrangement on business,” says a Department for Business and Trade spokesperson. “Employers will be able to refuse these flexible working arrangements if they are not reasonable under a specific set of criteria.”

Among the criteria listed in the Bill, a business can refuse a flexible working request if it adds a cost burden, if it has a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand, if work cannot be re-organised among existing staff, or if it has a detrimental effect on quality and performance.

Ryle from the 4 Day Week Campaign says the flexible working reforms in the Employment Rights Bill are “very encouraging” and will “help to normalise new ways of working, such as a four-day working week”. However, he adds that he would like to see “more detail on the grounds by which an employer will be able to turn down requests for flexible working”.

But not everyone believes a four-day week is the answer to productivity woes and employee wellbeing concerns. The focus should be on the number of hours worked each day rather than the number of days worked per week, according to Abigail Marks, professor of the future of work at Newcastle University Business School.

“I think it’s really important that we look at working hours and working patterns, both in terms of flexibility, because our lives are all very complex, but also in terms of overwork and wellbeing and health,” says Professor Marks. “I absolutely support the principles of the four-day week campaign on that basis, but I don’t think it gets to the core of the problem in the UK in terms of work.”

Pointing out that the UK is “the least productive country in Europe but one of the most overworked”, she suggests that “we are unproductive because we work too many hours”. Workers, particularly those who spend most of their time in front of a computer, “are not productive for more than six hours”, argues Professor Marks, adding that “we need to do six-hour day trials instead of four-day week trials”.

Product of industrialisation

Describing the standard 38- to 40-hour week as “a product of industrialisation” that is no longer relevant to many professions, she says: “I personally believe that with a six-hour day working five days, instead of a 12-hour day over four days, we would be more productive.

“Imagine you started work at 8am and finished at 2pm – it would be so much better for the balance of the rest of your life, and you would probably be much more productive in those six hours.” A shorter working day would improve worker wellbeing and could also provide benefits when it comes to childcare and other caring responsibilities, adds Professor Marks.

Simon Ursell, founder and chair of environmental consultancy Tyler Grange, is an advocate of the four-day week, having permanently adopted this way of working after leading his company through the original six-month trial in 2022. However, he believes the focus should be on the right type of flexible working for individual businesses rather than solely looking at flexibility through the lens of a four-day working week.

“If, as a leader, you’re sitting in any organisation or business in the private sector, the public sector or whatever it might be and you’re not questioning your working hours and your working practices, I think you are going to have a serious problem,” Ursell tells Safety Management. “The four-day week has been very successful at Tyler Grange, working Monday to Thursday and taking Friday off. But I don’t think that’s really the issue here. It’s much more an issue around the five-day nine-to-five and whether it is fit for purpose.

“It’s become so ingrained in our culture that it’s not questioned, and there’s an issue for me around leadership and saying, ‘what is the right thing for my organisation?’ If you don’t question that, I think you are at fault, especially given the pace of change in working practices and in technology that we’re currently seeing.”

Ursell believes the Monday to Friday nine-to-five will become a “vanishingly rare working pattern” as more employers implement different ways of working that are the most efficient for their individual businesses.

“There are loads of different ways of working and the four-day week is one of them, but I don’t think it’s necessarily right for everybody and I certainly don’t think you should mandate it,” he says, noting that the way we work has changed dramatically because of the pandemic and technological developments. “The world of work is changing rapidly, and leadership has to evolve. It cannot sit there in a suit and tie in an office, shouting at the wind: ‘Oh, I don’t like change and oh, you’re lazy if you don’t do five days a week, nine to five’.”

Since moving to a four-day week Tyler Grange says it has seen an increase in both productivity and profitability, and its staff are happier and less fatigued. Ursell admits that there have been “plenty of problems” along the way, with bank holidays being particularly challenging. To companies considering a four-day week, he recommends plenty of forward planning, involving staff early in the process and being willing to implement new systems and new ways of working.

“We were two years before we switched it on – talking about it and we did six months of optional Fridays before we started doing the trial,” he says. “One of the reasons Tyler Grange was successful with this was because our team was really into it, understood it and knew that it wasn’t about a day off. It was about being more productive and the extra time was to be used to help [staff] be more productive.”

Mixed results

The four-day week hasn’t worked out for every company that has tried it. Supermarket chain Asda began a four-day week pilot for some members of staff last year, which involved working four 11-hour shifts. The trial was abandoned after workers reportedly found the shifts exhausting, although the retailer is understood to be exploring different types of flexible working.

Supermarket chain Asda dropped its four-day week trial. Photograph: iStock/coldsnowstorm

Appliance care specialist Domestic & General has seen mixed results from its own experimentation with the four-day week, although it continues to explore the approach alongside other forms of flexible working.

Domestic & General’s chief people officer, Anna Capitanio, says the company is “committed to providing flexible working as a key benefit for attracting and retaining the top talent in its teams”. She adds: “Beyond our day-to-day approach, which lets colleagues choose when to work from the office, we’re constantly exploring new options such as our second trial of the condensed working hours into four days.

“So far, it has received mixed feedback – while some enjoyed it and were more productive, others found it stressful, and it undermined their overall wellbeing. But it continues to be something we explore and measure the impact of.” Domestic & General is also considering options such as term-time contracts and school-hour working patterns, so parents can work around their children, and 30-hour weeks.

Another concern about the four-day week, according to Professor Marks, is that “it is quite divisive, in that it only applies to a certain proportion of the population”. Self-employed people, those on low incomes and workers in fields such as healthcare might find it difficult to cut their working hours, for instance.

“While it’s not exclusively for middle-class, white-collar occupations, it does privilege that type of work,” she says. This is disputed by Ryle from the 4 Day Week Campaign, however. He says that with the right scheduling, flexible working can be implemented in sectors such as education and healthcare, and it could help with staff recruitment and retention.

Some schools are working towards giving teachers a nine-day fortnight. Photograph: iStock/Highwaystarz-Photography

Ryle points to Dixons Academies Trust in northern England, which said in January that it was working towards giving teachers a nine-day fortnight through the use of “creative and dynamic scheduling”. The Trust said its aim was “for teachers to be afforded the same flexibility that’s abundant in many other sectors and is even expected in the post-pandemic world”.

The 4 Day Week Campaign is working with another school that “wants to do a true four-day week”, says Ryle, noting that “you can be creative with shift and rota patterns to make it possible”. On healthcare workers, he says: “Obviously, you can’t close hospitals on a Friday. But if you’re [scheduling] staff over four days and giving them a better work-life balance, not only is that going to be good for job retention, but those staff are going to be performing better and they’re much less likely to make mistakes.”

Ryle believes it will take “at least a decade” for most of the UK economy to transition to a four-day week, and this will only be achieved if the Government, business leaders and trade unions work together.

He has the following warning for businesses that decide against implementing more flexible ways of working: “I think there’s a real danger for some companies – particularly the dinosaur companies that are talking about forcing people back into the office five days a week – that they’ll get left behind and be seen as being stuck in the past.”