Tuesday, August 11th 2026
Reducing the work week to four days appears to improve employee health and reduce the risk of burnout, according to the results of a pilot program developed in six countries.
About 2,900 employees from 141 organizations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States participated in the study, who reduced their working hours without reducing their pay.
Pre at the beginning of the experiment, the companies attended training programs for two months and changed the way of organizing work, with the aim of increasing efficiency and cooperation. Then the four-day work week, or a 20% reduction in work hours over a six-month period, was implemented.
After six months, employees who worked the reduced week reported less occupational fatigue, better mental and physical health, and more job satisfaction.
The study showed that the more work hours were reduced, the better employees felt about their work and, to some extent, about their health.
Even employees who reduced just a few hours of work per week reported better health and greater job satisfaction compared to the control group.
Most companies continued to apply the reduced work week a year after the program began, and the benefits did not appear to diminish over time as employees adjusted to the new schedule.
“There is no sign of a decline in employee well-being or productivity,” he said. Brendan Burchell, a sociologist at the University of Cambridge, who has analyzed four-day week programs in the United Kingdom.
The benefits of the reduced work week are mainly related to three factors: a greater sense of control and efficiency on the part of employees, reduced sleep problems and reduced fatigue.
This underlines the importance of sleep for health.
“The link between quality sleep and all indicators of health and well-being is extremely strong,” Burchell said.
In the study, employees worked an average of 40 hours per week before the experiment. A reduction of 20% would mean a working week of 32 hours.
This is already the average level in the Netherlands, while the average in the European Union is about 36 hours per week.
However, the results can serve as a guide for countries and organizations aiming to reduce the pressure on employees. In Spain, for example, the working week is expected to be reduced from 40 to 37.5 hours.
The pilot study also had some limitations. The employees did not have a control group to measure exactly how their lives changed after the reduced hours, which may have influenced their responses. Also, the participating companies may have previously been more inclined towards flexibility and employee well-being, which may have influenced the results.
The study focused mainly on high-income, English-speaking countries, so it remains unclear how a four-day week would work in other countries or work cultures.
However, Burchell called the study a “tipping point”, providing the most evidence yet. strong so far on how the four-day work week can be implemented in different organizations and countries.
More and more countries, such as Poland, Iceland, Germany and Portugal, are experimenting with shorter work weeks in response to increasing depression, anxiety and burnout among employees.
Source: prizrenpost
