Don’t be surprised, if you learn one day that your working days have been reduced to the count of just four.
We might expect a four-day workweek in the future, as a new study shows that reducing working hours could significantly improve quality of life and even reap environment benefits.
The study published in Journal Nature Human Behavior didn’t reduce income as part of the trial. Good part, right! We all know, reduced pay can contribute to stress and ultimately affect work-life balance.
“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," according to, the study author, Wen Fan, who's an associate professor of sociology at Boston College U.S.
Employees were given a reduction in their weekly working time, dividing into three sets:
a) one to four hours,
b) five to seven hours,
c) and eight hours.
Before and after the six months trials, employee wellbeing was analyzed dividing into following four categories:
1) Burnout
2) Job satisfaction
3) Over psychological wellbeing
4) Physical health
Employees in all three sets where the working hours had been reduced saw a significant benefits to their overall health.
Surprisingly, the people whose work hours reduced by eight hours saw the largest benefits.
And, interestingly, 90% of the companies that agreed for the study ended up having been introducing a four-day work week culture, after the trial ended.
So, if you still didn’t enjoy four-day work week culture, need to worry not. Trials are already underway across the globe to test the results of reduced hours on both employees’ health and organizational outputs.
Till date, about 375 companies around the world have already been part of the 4Day Week Global (4DWG) initiative.
Becoming part of this initiative is now being perceived as a cost that can help reduce stress and improve work-life health.
