Inside the companies trying a four-day week
Shorter weeks with the same pay are moving from pilot schemes to permanent policy at a growing number of firms. Here is what changes, and what does not.
By Daniel ReyesBusiness Editor
2 min read
The idea sounds almost too good to be true: work four days, get paid for five, and keep the business running just as well. Yet across sectors from software to accountancy, a growing number of employers have tried it, and many of them have decided to keep it.
What actually changes
The shorter week rarely works by squeezing five days of work into four. Instead, companies that succeed tend to start by cutting waste. Recurring meetings are shortened or scrapped, internal emails give way to shared documents, and teams agree on blocks of the day when nobody can be interrupted.
Coverage is the next puzzle. Customer facing teams usually stagger their days off so that the phones are always answered, while project teams pick a common day off so that nobody comes back to a flood of messages.
The shorter week rarely works by squeezing five days of work into four. It works by cutting waste.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Office based teams with measurable output tend to adapt fastest. Shift based industries such as healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing face harder maths, because their work is tied to hours on site rather than tasks completed. Some have experimented with shorter shifts or nine day fortnights instead.
Questions to ask before trying it
- How will you measure whether the work is still getting done?
- What happens when a busy season arrives?
- How will customers reach you on the day off?
- Is the pilot long enough, ideally six months, to get past the initial excitement?
The four-day week is not a magic fix for burnout or a poorly run team. But for organisations willing to rethink how they spend their time, it has become a credible option rather than a utopian one.
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