Would a 4 day work week make us happier?

Traditionally the work week is 40 hours long, divided into 8 hours a day. This routine was established more than a century ago, and some consider it to be old-fashioned and less than ideal, particularly for obtaining an ideal life/work balance.

In the United Kingdom, the '4 Day Week Global' initiative was launched, in which 70 companies implemented the 32-hour work week, divided over four days while maintaining their 40-hour week salary. In other words, participants worked 80% compared to before but maintained 100% of their salary.

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Researchers from the University of Cambridge, Oxford, and Boston College have followed up on this initiative. After four months of application, the results are in and indeed very promising.

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To begin with, 63% of companies found the transition to the 4-day shift was positive and not at all problematic, while 78% of employees confess to being happier and less stressed.

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The percentage increases to 88% when qualifying the '4 Day Week Global' project, indicating that the initiative is working well.

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One of the most relevant results is that 86% of the companies confirmed that they will maintain the 4-day week once the experiment ends in December of 2022.

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In terms of productivity, 49% of workers claimed to have improved their performance, while 46% confirmed that they have maintained the same level of productivity.

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In short, 95% confirmed the improvement or stability of their performance, all while working 20% less hours than before.

By working fewer hours, employees had more time to rest, relax, and spend time with family. As a result, they had less stress and were more efficient at work.

Regarding financial concerns, the BBC reported that a family with two children would save an average of 3308,61 pounds per year ($3573,46) or 275,25 pounds per month with the four-day week.

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These savings, with inflation hitting families' pockets hard in many countries, could be one of the most efficient solutions to improve the economic situation of many.

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On the other hand, '4 Day Week Global' points out that the four-day work week would reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 127 million tons per year, equivalent to taking 27 million vehicles off the roads.

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But it hasn't all been good news. Some of the older companies in the project confessed they had difficulties adapting to the new work week.

Inflexible and outdated systems and positions that require 24/7 coverage have made it challenging to implement the four-day shift.

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Despite a few exceptions, the results are positive for both companies and workers and could be the beginning of a change in the current labor system. Unsurprisingly, the '4 Day Week Global' project has also been applied in Ireland, the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel.

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There are also those countries that have already embraced this type of measure. Iceland is one example; the law already includes a work week with a maximum of 35 to 36 hours, lowered from the previous 40, and many companies have adopted the four-day work week as their new norm.

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In Belgium, things are slightly different: the law contemplates going from 5 to 4 days of work a week. However, 40 hours must still be completed within those four days, according to the newspaper 'De Standaard.'

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In fact, in Belgium, they also offer the option of working extra hours during one week and accumulating days off for the next, as long as you work an average of 40 hours a week. Quite the opposite of what '4 Day Week Global' proposes.

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Some companies like Dell in the Netherlands offer the option of reducing the work week from 40 to 32 hours per week, with a proportional drop in the salary of 20%, as reported by The Register.

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Meanwhile, Canon is one of the companies that has implemented the reduction of the work week without reducing the salary of employees.

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It seems clear that, for the most part, workers and companies benefit from the four-day work week. Happier employees seem to produce better results according to the studies completed by initiatives like '4 Day Week Global.' One can only hope that governments and private companies alike acknowledge these benefits and begin to apply them so employees can enjoy a higher quality of life.

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