Rethink Work

Changing how we think about work

Working hours

There are currently 38 articles in this category    RSS

  • faviconThe four-day, thirty-two-hour week: analysing organisational success and failure — Based on data from 200+ global companies trialling four-day, 32-hour weeks with full pay, 90% maintained the schedule. Firms that failed to reduce stress or had more white males were likelier to revert, aligning with legitimacy theory [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: Scientific Journals    

  • faviconIceland approved the 4-day workweek in 2019: nearly 6 years later, all the predictions made have come true — Iceland’s success proves that their predictions were far from utopian, and that a profound change in our relationship with work is not only possible, but desirable [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: IS   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconNew research on work time reduction via a four-day week finds improvements in workers’ well-being [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconWe Shouldn’t Have to Work This Hard — We can reclaim our time for pursuits that give life meaning: creativity, connection, contemplation, and labors of love. To do it, we’ll need to confront the economic elites who preside over the rat race [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Worker Rights, Workism   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Jacobin    

  • faviconFour-day week could alleviate cost of living crisis, thinktank claims — Campaigners and economists in favour of a 4-day week tended to focus on the benefits to workers in the form of increased leisure time and potential improvements in productivity, but the policy would also help UK workers struggling with the increased cost of living [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconOf Course We Should All be Working Less — There’s a lot about work in our society that is undesirable and harmful. The fact that we have to earn a wage in order to have our basic human needs met — housing, food, water, electricity, transportation, education — is coercive. And if we’re not independently wealthy, we must work or starve [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Leisure, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Current Affairs    

  • faviconCounty workers wanted a pay hike, but got a 4-day workweek instead, saving the county ~$1 million, increasing job applications by 85%, decreasing turnover rates by 43%, and having a positive effect on employee happiness [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconGerman firms tested 4-day workweek — here’s the outcome — more than 70% participating organisations said they were planning to continue with the project. Some said they would extend the trial phase, while others are considering implementing reduced hours directly [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: DE   
    Source: DW    

  • faviconAfter decades of incremental reduction in working time, recent years have shown signs of a reversed evolution. In response, the labour movement has reasserted its historic aim gradually to reduce working time, which can be beneficial for society at large (PDF) [2017]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: ETUI    

  • faviconHow the reduction of working hours could influence health outcomes: a systematic review of published studies — findings suggest that the reduction of working hours with retained salary could be an effective workplace intervention for the improvement of employees’ well-being, especially regarding stress and sleep [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Mental Health, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: BMJ    

  • faviconCould working less save the planet? Rethinking both Why and How we work should be central to overcoming environmental breakdown, while also improving wellbeing and building a more just society. More wealth has not, on average, made rich nations happier [2019]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: New Statesman    

  • faviconReduced working hours and work-life balance — Swedish study shows more positive relationship with work, colleagues, family, and clients, as well as more time allocated to friendships and romantic partners, and having access to more sources of formal and informal social support [2020]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Country: SE   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconGive workers right to request four-day week with no pay cut, unions and MPs say — It comes as businesses across the country pilot or switch to a four-day week, amid emerging evidence it is good for workers’ wellbeing [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Independent    

  • faviconMore rural school districts are moving to a four-day week to attract and retain teachers — The extended weekend is a draw because it gives teachers more work-life balance [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: CNN    

  • faviconEnforced return to office leads workers to seek new jobs — Two-thirds of recruiters have seen an increase in applicants looking for new jobs who are working at companies that are mandating five days a week in the office, according to a survey [2024]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconDrastically Shorter Workweeks Needed to Fight Climate Crisis, Study Finds — Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being [2019]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   

  • favicon‘I love the four-day week’ — Independent school says its four-day week model is designed to offer pupils “increased opportunities for independent exploration and personal development. This approach not only fosters independence but also promotes a more balanced and fulfilling educational experience” [2025]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconHow widespread could the four-day workweek really be? — Many trials of the shortened workweek have shown positive results. It’s an increasingly viable solution for some firms – but for others, this new set-up won’t be on the table [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: BBC    

  • faviconThe Four-Day Week research from the Henley Business School — Too good to be true? Not according to this research. Surveying 500 businesses and 2000 employees, the report explores the benefits of working fewer days to both organisations and workers [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconWork less, pollute less — Reducing working hours would give people more spare time, lead to a fairer distribution of labour and wealth, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. But this bold vision is too frightening for some [2021]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: FR   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconFree days for future? Longitudinal effects of working time reductions on individual well-being and environmental behaviour — participants reported increased well-being, more intent-related pro-environmental behaviour, less car commuting, and decreased clothing expenditures [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Research   
    Comments   
    Source: ScienceDirect    

  • faviconAmericans Work Hundreds of Hours More a Year Than Europeans — In developing countries, workers are putting in these long hours because wages are low and they’re trying to make ends meet, the report says
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Research   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconNo more Fridays — The results of the 6 months trial shift to a 4-day workweek in 2022 were overwhelmingly positive: companies in the program reported increased revenue and improved employee health and well-being, and had a positive impact on the environment [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: Business Insider    

  • faviconAmerica is facing a spiritual crisis. More leisure time is the cure — We haven’t made meaningful adjustments to the workweek in the 85 years since, and a reckoning is long overdue [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Leisure   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: MSNBC    

  • faviconFour Days a Week: This Labor Day, Let’s Talk About Laboring Less — Keynes speculated that people would still want to work, but perhaps only 15 hours a week. Then the rest of the time, each human would have to figure out “how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well” [2023]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Country: US   
    Source: The Intercept