{"id":40116,"date":"2026-04-03T16:47:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40116"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:47:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:47:44","slug":"4-day-workweek-supported-by-landmark-productivity-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40116","title":{"rendered":"4-day workweek supported by landmark productivity study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>New research reveals what 9-5ers have long understood: the five-day workweek is a waste of time.<\/p>\n<p>A report<span style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u00a0from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.4dayweek.com\/long-term-2023-pilot-results\" target=\"_blank\">nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global<\/a>\u00a0f<\/span>ound that employees can accomplish as much in a 33-hour workweek as in a 38-hour workweek. <\/p>\n<p>Experts maintain the 5-hour gap is filled not with productivity but procrastination.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global\u00a0found that employees can accomplish as much in a 33-hour workweek as in a 38-hour workweek.  <span class=\"credit\">Song_about_summer \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The report, the largest of its kind and the first to explore the long-term benefits of the four-day workweek, reveals that the longer employees maintained a four-day work schedule, the shorter their workweeks became, without compromising output or productivity. <\/p>\n<p>Over 18 months, the 4 Day Week Global report followed workers in the US, Canada, Britain, and Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>These workers were given a paid day off each week, but an identical workload to measure whether they could accomplish the same amount in a compressed time frame. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>It turns out, they could, and they did. <\/p>\n<p>The report highlighted that workers reduced their average work time by about 4 hours during the first 6 months of the trial period and that, within the same window, reported improvements in burnout, overall health, and job satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p>Experts maintain that workers were able to shave hours off their average work time by eliminating time sucking inefficienies like meetings, giving them more hours to dedicate to uninterrupted work. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>While the schedule was a boon for workers, it was equally beneficial for employers who reported a 15% increase in revenue over the course of the trial.  <span class=\"credit\">Liubomir \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Those who kept their 4-day schedule for a year whittled another hour off their workweek and reported even greater improvements in their mental and physical health. <\/p>\n<p>While the schedule was a boon for workers, it was equally beneficial for employers who reported a 15% increase in revenue over the course of the trial. <\/p>\n<p>In a surprise to absolutely no one, a vast majority of workers (89%) voted to maintain the four-day plan, and, perhaps owing to the revenue increase, every participating organization agreed. <\/p>\n<p>Previous studies have explored the short-term effects of an abbreviated work week. <\/p>\n<p>In 2023, 61 UK-based businesses with roughly 2,900 employees<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/02\/21\/most-companies-in-4-day-work-week-trial-say-they-wont-go-back\/\"> adopted a four-day schedule<\/a> for six months. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Previous studies have explored the short-term effects of an abbreviated work week.  <span class=\"credit\">Backcountry Media \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>Revenue at the participating firms jumped by 35% during the six-month trials compared to the same period one year earlier. The companies also noted upticks in hiring and decreases in employee absences and turnover.<\/p>\n<p>Workers at the companies reported major improvements in their well-being \u2014 with 71% reporting a decrease in burnout, 39% feeling less stressed than before the trial, and 40% experiencing less difficulty sleeping.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is truth to the idea of working \u2018smarter, not harder,\u2019 and research supports that well-rested, motivated employees tend to be more productive and creative,\u201d Sunny Bonnell, CEO of branding agency Motto, previously told <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/29\/lifestyle\/would-a-4-day-work-week-work-in-the-us-experts-weigh-in\/\">Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bonnell argues that a 4-day workweek can encourage people to \u201cprioritize high-value tasks, minimize distractions, and focus on outcomes rather than hours worked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/08\/29\/lifestyle\/this-generation-of-americans-want-a-4-day-work-week-the-most-study\/\">A 2025 survey<\/a> of 2,000 Americans examining\u00a0lifestyle factors and attitudes toward work-life balance found that 69% of employed respondents think they could do their job in 32 hours a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The same survey found millennials <span style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">the most likely to support a four-day workweek (75%), with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/21\/lifestyle\/new-survey-reveals-gen-zs-frivolous-work-expectations\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gen Z<\/a>\u00a0slightly less enthusiastic<\/span> (70%) and Gen X similarly compelled (70%).<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/03\/lifestyle\/4-day-workweek-supported-by-landmark-productivity-study\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research reveals what 9-5ers have long understood: the five-day workweek is a waste of time. A report\u00a0from\u00a0nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global\u00a0found that employees&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}