Working a four-day week reduces burnout and improves job satisfaction, a large-scale new study has found.
The research from Boston College in the United States tested the effect of reducing employees’ hours to a four-day week with no reduction in pay.
The study held six-month trials reducing the working hours for 2896 employees across 141 organisations in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the US.
Outcomes of the trials were then compared with 12 control companies that did not transition to the shorter work week.
Researchers found that employees with a reduction of eight hours or more per work week self-reported experiencing larger reductions in burnout and improvements in job satisfaction and mental health, as compared with those at companies that maintained a five-day work week.
A small change in physical health was also seen, but the researchers said they expected this was less significant because changes in physical health take time to manifest.
Associate Professor Paula O’Kane, from the University of Otago’s business school, said it was good to see growing evidence that reductions in working hours could significantly impact well-being, reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction.
“While the study centred on a four-day week, the broader implication is clear: flexible and potentially individualised working arrangements can deliver similar benefits.”
O’Kane said research globally was showing that work structures needed a rethink.
“Traditionally, time spent working is used as a proxy for productivity, when in fact better rested and healthier people can be more productive in less time.
“Moving forward, it would be really good to think about output based measures of production and productivity – making sure that we understand what it is we want our employees to do in a week rather than how much time we want them to spend at work.
The traditional 9am to 5pm shift did not work for everyone, she said, and there was a growing body of evidence that non-traditional models of working were in fact working better for people. It was also already clear that the younger generation would be demanding more flexibility.
“If we look at the students that are coming through university and looking at how they operate their lives, they are going to want flexibility. We can see it already – they’re not going to accept the traditional structures.”
Organisations would have to start thinking about organising work structures differently if they wanted to keep attracting top talent in the future, she believed.
Dr Dougal Sutherland, principal psychologist at Umbrella Wellbeing, told RNZ’s Morning Report programme many studies in this area had shown productivity remained the same or even increased when dropping down to 32 hours of work a week over four days.
He said it also had positive effects on people’s overall well-being.
“Four-day weeks force businesses to look at productivity to use worker time more efficiently.”
The research is published in the Nature Human Behaviour journal.
