What it’s really like to have a 4-day work week

TFor many people in corporate America, working five days a week—Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.—seems as habitual as brushing your teeth. But it was not always so. In the late 19th century, a full-time industrial worker could easily spend 100 hours a week at work. It wasn’t until around 1940, after a concerted effort by unions, that the 40-hour work week became standard in the US.

Now, nearly a century later, there’s a growing push for an even more condensed schedule, with major companies — including Panasonic, Kickstarter and the online thrift store ThredUp — experimenting with four-day work weeks. “We’ve all been working too much and we’re wasting our lives,” says Charlotte Lockhart, co-founder of 4 Day Week Global, a group that advocates for shorter work weeks around the world. “It’s affecting our health, our planet and our communities.”

Lockhart’s group advocates what she calls the “100-80-100 rule”: Workers achieve 100% of their productivity goals in 80% of the same number of hours, while earning 100% of their normal salary. For some companies, getting there is as simple as canceling a few meetings and making better use of technology to free up time, while others need to completely overhaul their workflows and scheduling systems. But, Lockhart says, employers in fields ranging from hospitality to law enforcement have found success with reduced hours.

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Pilot studies in countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and South Africa suggest that shorter working weeks can help employees reduce burnout, manage stress, sleep and exercise more, spend more time quality with loved ones and feel happier and healthier. . Employers also see benefits, including lower turnover and absenteeism rates. The study in Spain even recorded a drop in fuel emissions due to fewer commuting trips.

Additional trials are underway in countries including Germany, Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Much of the research into shorter work weeks, however, has been done by advocacy groups like Lockhart’s. Independent research, such as a conducted by Gallup in 2022sometimes they show a more complex picture.

In the Gallup poll, people who worked four days a week were slightly more they would likely report feeling burnt out compared to those with traditional schedules – potentially because they had to accumulate the same amount of work in less time. This result is in direct conflict with the results of pilot studies conducted by groups such as 4 Day Week Global; in fact, Lockhart identified reducing burnout as one of the biggest benefits of a condensed schedule.

Lawmakers in states like Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii and California appear to be focusing on the positive, introducing bills that would encourage four-day work weeks or at least allow for more research into them. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, pressed for four-day weeks too.

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It’s not a new phenomenon that people want to work less, says Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College who studies work schedules. But with growing support from employers and lawmakers, she believes radical change is on the way. “Pre-pandemic, it seemed like something that would be great, but it wasn’t realistic,” says Schor. “As soon as the pandemic emerged, thinking changed because people felt very besieged, stressed and exhausted. It became common sense that we should do this.”

Companies that have already joined have taken different approaches to implementing a shorter work week. Some go the full 100-80-100 system, while others take more modest measures, like asking employees to work four 10-hour shifts a week or giving half a day off. TIME spoke with employees at four companies who are testing these schedules to learn more about the real-world effects of a shorter work week — and whether they change lives as much as the hype suggests.

Name: Ashya Majied
Age:37
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Work: Brand and marketing lead at Be Equitable, a company that partners with organizations to promote equity and inclusion in workplaces.
To schedule: Monday to Thursday, with Fridays off for the entire company.

That first Friday we had off, I woke up and went downstairs to make some tea. It happened to be a sunny day. I looked out the window, smiled and thought, ‘I’m so happy. That’s what the research was talking about. I understand why this works. It makes you want to go harder on the other days of the week to get that feeling on Friday.

Should I really be intentional about my time during the week? Yes. But everything can be done in four days. Always could.

Having a weekday to take care of business – to call the doctor’s office, to call the mortgage company, to clean the house – has been huge. This Friday I’m going to do my nails in the morning. I used to try to press it at lunchtime, because my nail tech only works during the week. Now, I don’t have to feel that guilty feeling or work late to make up time; I only schedule my appointments on Fridays. This peace of mind is priceless. I’m also Muslim and the day we go to the mosque is Friday. Our country’s other major religions are off on their important days, and now I am too. Fridays off mean I can better support my spiritual well-being, and I love that for me.

I really feel like I needed an extra day to rest. The state of the world, to me, feels like the weight of the world and that hurts me. The four-day work week takes some of that weight off. It gives me a little energy, a little boost in a world that is hurting.

I wouldn’t want to go back to working five days a week, but I would if necessary. For any role you play, there are pros and cons. This is a great professional.

Names: Greg and Kelsey Brown
Ages: 36 and 33, respectively
Location: Missoula, Mont.
Jobs: Greg is vice president of operations at Linehaul Logistics, a freight brokerage. Kelsey is a counselor at a public school.
Schedules: The Browns, a married couple, have four-day work weeks. At Greg’s company, employees have different days off (Greg’s is Friday) and work 10-hour shifts on scheduled days. Kelsey’s school has Monday through Thursday hours for students, teachers and staff. She works nine-hour shifts.

Kelsey: As mundane as it may seem, it’s good that we do our chores on Friday so that we can make the most of the weekend. I’m also looking forward to training for an hour on Fridays. I go to classes at Orangetheory Fitness. This little piece alone has helped my overall health and well-being. I also use my three-day weekends to catch up on sleep, because I have to wake up at 5:30 am to get to school on time when I’m working. Sometimes I think, ‘Man, it would be nice if I didn’t have to be at work until 8 or 8:30 like other schools,’ but I don’t think that in any way outweighs the other benefits of my schedule.

I get so much more done with my personal time compared to when I worked five days a week at previous jobs. At the end of the three days off, instead of watching Sunday Scaries, I’m ready to go back because I feel refreshed and recovered. I believe this makes me better at my job because I feel ready to work on Mondays. Before, it was like, ‘Damn, where’s the weekend going?’

It’s amazing that Greg and I also have a four-day schedule. We’ll spend this extra time together or we’ll be spontaneous and go out of town.

Greg: It definitely helps traveling with our daughter too. We love camping and this extends our camping weekends.

I don’t always take Fridays off because I’m a manager and because some weeks I have to leave work early to meet my daughter at the bus stop after school. I feel bad about taking advantage of the four days I have to leave early because I’m not doing my full 10-hour shifts.

When it’s someone’s day off, someone else has to replace them. This is difficult, because you are doing two jobs. It can also be kind of stressful being away, handing over the baton, and making sure that when you get back, it’s not all crumpled up or destroyed. But when I can do it, taking Friday off gives me extra time to decompress. It’s very common to work long hours and weekends in this industry, so having that extra time 100% to myself helps me manage stress.

As a manager, I’ve seen how this schedule helps my employees too. I know we’ve seen less turnover because of this. It’s also easier to hire. We have one person who voluntarily does the five-day work week because he didn’t like the four-day schedule, but that’s an exception. Everyone else wouldn’t want to go back to five days. It can be difficult to implement a four-day work week and stick to it, but it’s definitely worth it.

Name: Siobhan Stewart
Age:36
Location: Richmond, Virginia.
Work: Marketing communications manager at Pixite, a company that makes creative apps.
To schedule: Monday to Friday afternoons during a 4.5 day week.

Honestly, a five-day schedule seems arbitrary to me. It didn’t look and doesn’t feel balanced. You should be on top of your game and drinking plenty of water and your social life and your mental health and self-care. How do you fit that into a five-day work week? In previous jobs, I couldn’t do it in a way that made me feel at ease. I’m also a writer, and that wasn’t something I had the energy for when I was working five days a week.

Now that I’m working out 4.5 days a week, I feel lighter. I feel happier. I no longer have Sunday Scaries and I attribute that, in part, to the feeling that I had enough time to rest and recharge over the weekend. On a Friday afternoon, I can read, work on my novel, journal, catch up on some chores, go for a walk with my husband, or just relax. We’ll do long weekends, take off and go somewhere. Even though you have a few extra hours, you feel like you have a little extra space. During the winter, getting outside to take advantage of the extra daylight is also important.

In general, if you are less stressed and overwhelmed and feeling better, I think you are a better and more productive worker. This has been my case. It’s hard to imagine leaving this job. Being a middle-class American means you have to trade your time for money, and when a company gives you time, it’s almost like an existential gift — like you’re getting a piece of your life back.