WorkFour and Common Futures Partnership

For more details about the partnership, visit Common Future’s website.

OAKLAND, CA – (January 17, 2024) –  Common Future, a multi-racial, women-led non-profit building a future where all people—no matter their race and class—have power, choice, and ownership over the economy, announced today that it is launching an incubation partnership with WorkFour, which leads the national campaign for the four-day, 32-hour workweek.

The four-day workweek has gained momentum in recent years as more companies and nonprofit organizations have experienced its proven benefits to both employees and employers. A U.S. pilot study showed that after transitioning to the four-day workweek, 69% of employees experienced reductions in burnout, 40% of employees felt less stressed, 74% of employees were more satisfied with their time, and 60% reported reduced levels of conflict in their lives. Employers also report it improved employee retention, lowered overhead costs, and reduced sick leave and burnout, and 95% of companies who pilot a four-day workweek have stayed with the new schedule.  

Common Future, which shifted to a four-day workweek in 2021 and has led other initiatives to bolster its own equity and power-sharing internally – such as compensation audits and a shift to a co-leadership model – felt the partnership with WorkFour is an ideal way to incubate new economic models that drive new pathways to economic equity. 

“We’re thrilled to partner with WorkFour to help drive America’s transition to a four-day workweek,” said Common Future Co-CEO Jennifer Njuguna, Esq., who led Common Future’s transition to a four-day workweek in 2021. “The paradigm of work is shifting, and a 32-hour workweek is becoming a necessary adaptation. People are pushing back against workplaces that don’t factor in their realities. Employers can make things more equitable by thinking about the experiences that people are having, whether that’s burnout or childcare, and being more responsive.”

“We’ve seen first-hand that a 32-hour workweek works well,” added Jennifer Njuguna. “We started exploring this idea as we were going through the pandemic – we wanted to reduce stress, improve flexibility, and empower our teams – and this move helped us do that. Over the past year, we attracted new talent and were able to double our team size.”

In 2023, WorkFour partnered with 4 Day Week Global to launch the first-ever U.S. pilot test of a four-day workweek. Trial results show the pilot results have since returned 70,000 days of free time to workers with no evidence of decreased productivity.

"We’re proud to partner with Common Future to build a future where we work to live, not live to work. Our vision and mandate at WorkFour is clear: a four-day, 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay in every workplace in America. We have a fierce belief in building the movement for the four-day workweek because countless workplaces across the country have already proven it is a triple-dividend policy that benefits everyone—workers, companies, and society,” said WorkFour Executive Director Vishal Reddy. “With an epidemic of burnout, a climate in crisis and improvements in automation, the moment has arrived for us to scale this movement in 2024.”

With the support of Common Future, in 2024 WorkFour plans on scaling the movement for the four-day workweek via policy and public advocacy. Together, Common Future and WorkFour see policy and public advocacy as necessary components to scaling this movement in order to ensure equity and that hourly, non-unionized, working-class, essential, and industrial workers have a four-day workweek. 

WorkFour’s leaders are actively working with House representatives to support the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, and are collaborating with elected officials from over 10 states who are pursuing four-day workweek policies.

About Common Future: Common Future is a multi-racial, women-led non-profit building a future where all people—no matter their race and class—have power, choice, and ownership over the economy. They do this by powering community-led solutions that advance racial and economic equity. Since its founding in 2001, Common Future has catalyzed 90+ initiatives, sourced 500+ community-led solutions, and worked with 200+ wealth-building organizations across the country to shift $280 million into communities of color. 

About WorkFour (formerly the National Campaign for the Four-Day Workweek): WorkFour leads the national campaign for the four-day, 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay for all workers and families in the United States. It was established to provide a central home for policymakers, employers, workers, and advocates to advance an equitable transition to a four-day workweek. WorkFour is a new structure uniting two existing efforts: 4 Day Week US and the 4 Day Week Campaign. Jon Steinman founded 4 Day Week US in 2019 as a policy advocacy group engaging lawmakers and thought leaders on developing and advancing 4-day workweek legislation to improve community health, civic life, and democratic engagement. Jon Leland, in collaboration with 4 Day Week Global, founded the 4 Day Week Campaign in 2020 to engage employers and the public in the US on adopting a 4 day workweek, recognizing the unique opportunity provided by the pandemic to reshape our relationship to work to be more environmentally sustainable and socially healthy. That campaign led to the first coordinated pilot of employers in the US adopting the 4 day workweek, including Kickstarter–where Leland serves as Chief Strategy Officer, and catapulted the issue into the mainstream discussion of the future of work.

Media Contact: Vishal Reddy, vishal.reddy@workfour.org