| Four-day workweek 'brings improvements in workers’ well-being' |
A four-day working week could bring significant benefits to workers' mental and physical health while also improving performance, according to a new study by researchers in the U.S. and Ireland published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. Income was not reduced as part of the six-month trials, which involved almost 3,000 employees working across 141 organizations based in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. Employees were given a reduction in their weekly working time of one to four hours, five to seven hours, or eight hours. “We see global trends (not just in high-income countries, but in many low- and middle-income countries) where workers are struggling with burnout, long work hours and little time for themselves and for their families,” said study author Wen Fan, associate professor of sociology at Boston College in the U.S., adding: “Our four-day work week is a potential way to reimagine how we can reconstruct the work arrangement in order for workers to benefit, and the societies to benefit as well.”
