Rethink Work

Changing how we think about work

Working hours

There are currently 45 articles in this category    RSS

  • favicon4-day workweek advocates gain momentum as new study reveals 5th day is basically useless — Data aside, what workers want is enough time to be human beings outside of their jobs [2026]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconAI job layoffs are here: it’s time to revive the push for shorter working hours — While bosses used to push for workers to continue working at home outside standard hours, the introduction of the legal right to disconnect, combined with changes in social norms, has pushed back against this form of work intensification [2026]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Remote Working   
    Comments   
    Country: UK   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconMore than 200,000 UK workers switch to 4-day week since 2019 — the percentage of people in the UK who report working a four-day week has climbed from 9.8% in the final three months of 2019 to 10.9%, representing 2.7 million across full- and part-time work [2015]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week   
    Comments   
    Source: The Guardian    

  • faviconPre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today’s — One of capitalism’s most durable myths is that it has reduced human toil. This myth is typically defended by a comparison of the modern forty-hour week with its seventy- or eighty-hour counterpart in the nineteenth century [1991]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Leisure, Research, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: Various    

  • faviconGlobal, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury [2021]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Research, Workism   
    Comments   
    Source: Scientific Journals    

  • faviconWe’re Being Worked to Death by Capital — Long working hours kill more than 700,000 people per year, even as millions are unable to find enough work to survive. The irrationality of capitalism has a human price [2021]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: Workism, Workplace Dictatorship   
    Comments   
    Source: Jacobin    

  • faviconSocialism Won’t Get Rid of Work. But It Will Allow Us to Work Less Under Better Conditions — The only realistic and fair way to manage production under socialism is to democratically distribute and share in the burdens of labor [2022]
    In: Working hours    
    Topics: 4 Day Week, Worker Rights   
    Comments   
    Source: Jacobin    

  • 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