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The Four-Day Week
For much of the twentieth century, the five-day, forty-hour week came to be seen as normal in many countries. It was itself the result of long campaigns: in the early days of industry, people often worked six days a week and much longer hours. Now a growing number of employers are asking whether it is time for the next step: a four-day week.
The idea is often described as the 100-80-100 model. Workers receive all of their pay for eighty per cent of their time, in exchange for keeping all of their productivity. In other words, it is not about doing less work, but about working in a more focused way.
Several large trials have tested versions of this. Between 2015 and 2019, public-sector workplaces in Iceland cut weekly hours by a few hours without cutting pay, and researchers reported that productivity stayed the same or improved in most of them. In 2022, dozens of companies in the United Kingdom took part in a six-month trial, and most of them chose to keep a shorter week afterwards. Employees in these trials commonly reported less stress and better sleep.
How can people do the same work in less time? Often, by cutting what doesn't add value. Companies in the trials shortened meetings, cancelled unnecessary ones and set aside parts of the day without email or messages so that people could concentrate. When time is limited, it seems, people become more careful about how they use it.
However, critics point out that the model doesn't suit every job. A hospital, a school or a restaurant can't simply close for an extra day, so these organisations would need more staff or complicated rotas. Others worry that squeezing five days' work into four could make the remaining days longer and more exhausting. There is also a question of fairness: if office workers get a shorter week, what about people whose jobs can't be reorganised so easily?
Supporters reply that the shape of the working week has changed before and can change again. Whether the four-day week becomes the norm or remains an experiment, the debate has made many people ask a useful question: how much of our working time is actually spent working?