UK’s 4-day work week trials show massive gain in revenue, employee satisfaction and many climate benefits

Despite what finance influencers on the internet try to peddle, we know that Mondays can be awful. Torpedoing back into the vortex of corporate deliverables from the fantastical highs of a peaceful weekend can be jarring; it's no wonder Garfield hates them. But a new study has suggested something so dastardly and paradigm-altering there's a chance it could even solve the Monday conundrum.

4-Day Week Global, a New Zealand-based group advocating for a four-day work week instead of five, have released the results of their largest-ever trial so far, and they're promising. Especially so when it came to workplace satisfaction and, somewhat surprisingly, the environmental impact as well.

The massive six-month trial involved 61 organisations in the UK, spanning almost 3,000 workers that only worked a four-day work week from June to December 2022. The best part? The workers weren't penalised for the decrease in hours.

Furthermore, out of this massive portfolio covering many different industries, only three organisations decided to pause the experiment, while two are considering shortening the hours even more. Organisations revenue rose by 35% from a year earlier, and by 1.4% during the trial, and the companies involved rated the overall experience an 8.3 out of 10.

But a company would be nothing without their employees, so how did this bizarre experiment fare for them? Quite well, apparently.

To perhaps no one's amazement, none of the 2,900 workers wanted to return to the prevailing five-day work week, with a hefty 15% even alleging that no amount of extra money could persuade them otherwise. In addition, they faced less burnout, and absenteeism dropped from two days to only 0.7 days a month.

Saving the planet, four days at a time

With climate change at the forefront of most large-scale decisions, it's hard not to look at what this major step could mean and gauge its feasibility if more institutes also wanted to opt in. So what are the downsides other than the fact that we might have to start exclaiming, 'thank god it's Thursday!' instead?

Lucky for us, not much, really. One less work day meant that employees spent about 21% reduction in the distance commuted to work, cutting a large portion of emissions out of their footprints, according to one of the companies involved.

In fact, Juliet Schor from 4 Day Work Week Global alleges that this might be the straw we need to pull at to meet many of our climate targets.

"Although climate benefits are the most challenging thing to measure, we have a lot of research showing that over time, as countries reduce hours of work, their carbon emissions fall," she notes. An earlier study by her even showed that a 10% working hour reduction equated to an 8.6% fall in carbon footprint.

When not working, these people tended to engage in pro-environmental behaviours that cut their weekly emissions significantly, such as hiking or stay-at-home hobbies. Also, carbon emissions related to the transmission and storage of data — which can consume as much electricity as 50,000 homes for large businesses — significantly dropped as well.

However, since this was only a six-month trial, there is still much more research to be desired to give a clearer picture. For example, employees could eventually start planning more carbon-intensive activities when presented with a three-day weekend, such as taking the odd flight or even driving large distances for leisure activities.

More pilot studies are required to paint a clearer picture. This UK trial only substantiated what we knew from previous smaller experiments in the US, Ireland and Australia, which also showed significant revenue and employee productivity gains. It will also be fascinating to see whether such systems hold up in a country as massive and diversified as India.

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