Is it time to shorten the 40-hour workweek?

Do you feel a bit sluggish after weekends? Would taking Friday or Monday off do the trick? Researchers from UK think tank Autonomy and the non-profit Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Alda) tend to agree in their joint report. They claim that 40-hour workweeks aren’t necessary and even harmful to our well-being.

Getting used to a new way of working

The report presents the results of a large-scale 4-day-week trial held in Iceland between 2015 and 2019. More than 1 % (2 500) of the country’s working population participated in the pilot programme. Public sector employees cut their working hours by about 5 hours a week, or 35-36 hours instead of 40, with no reduction in overall pay. Findings showed that productivity and services remained the same or improved across most settings. Well-being improved considerably, from stress and burnout to health and work-life balance.

“This study shows that the world’s largest ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector was by all measures an overwhelming success,” Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy, told the ‘BBC’. “It shows that the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks – and lessons can be learned for other governments.” Alda researcher Gudmundur Haraldsson added: “The Icelandic shorter working week journey tells us that not only is it possible to work less in modern times, but that progressive change is possible too.”