“Real-life examples of what a shift to a four-day workweek can look like in organizations exist across industries; for example, Common Future moved to a four-day workweek in 2021. I spoke with their co-CEO Jennifer Njuguna, to capture her thoughts on how organizations can move towards piloting a four-day workweek. Njuguna said, “One helpful approach is breaking it down into more manageable pieces. Running a pilot, for instance, communicates that you’re testing a hypothesis. It gives you a chance to see what works.” 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 that the pilot results have since returned 70,000 days of free time to workers, with no evidence of decreased productivity. WorkFour Executive Director Vishal Reddy emphasizes, “No organization needs to be the first; there are already trailblazers across industries and geographies. We now have a toolbox of examples to refer to for implementation.” This toolbox includes a list of over 200 organizations that have implemented four-day workweeks and 10 states that have introduced bills for a four-day workweek.”

“The implementation of artificial intelligence technology in various fields, from manufacturing to white collar desk jobs, could propel more companies, and perhaps someday the government, to consider a 32-hour week. Or at least, that’s what some of its biggest enthusiasts think: As Vishal Reddy, the executive director of WorkFour, the national campaign for the four-day work week, told me: “A combination of automation, employees’ mindshift around work after the pandemic, and a larger push for shorter work weeks will actually result [in its implementation].”

“The goal of the WorkFour campaign, says Vishal Reddy, is nothing less than to transform the four-day workweek from an aspirational or experimental workplace innovation to a reality for working Americans.

“We want for every worker and for every workplace to have this, regardless of the type of workplace that you’re in,” Reddy told NPQ. “This isn’t just, like, a ‘nice thing to have’ thing for organizations. This is a must-have and our country has to move in this direction.”

Jon Leland, chief strategy officer at Kickstarter and co-founder of the Four Day Workweek Campaign, is one executive who took the plunge. And he sees AI as a potentially transformative force in the equation.

“Does everyone just keep churning out stuff all the time and have that value accrue to shareholders?” Leland said. He would rather distribute the productive value of AI, he said, not just in the form of money, but also time.

“And how much time off? The UAW is advocating for a four-day, 32-hour workweek…At a 4 Day Week Global webinar held earlier this summer, Jon Leland, chief strategy officer for Kickstarter, enthusiastically touted the many benefits of abandoning the old 40-hour workweek and establishing a new 32-hour workweek that promises to contribute to a more resilient and “better balanced society.”

“Schor: Yes. So that affects the bottom line, because losing employees is expensive and training and attracting new employees is expensive, particularly in the current environment, when a lot of companies are going with unfilled positions. So there are multiple ways in which a four-day week can actually affect the bottom line. So it can affect costs, it can affect productivity. Many people just think productivity, that's the only thing.”

“In 1940, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to limit the standard workweek to 40 hours, with any additional hours eligible for overtime. Despite a more than threefold increase in productivity since, the 40-hour week has remained unchanged for 83 years. But it may be changing at last. 2023 could just be the year of the four-day, 32-hour week. Over the first few months of the year, Google searches for information about the four-day week rose by a factor of five. The media have produced hundreds of stories on companies that are offering 32-hour schedules. California and other states have considered legislation to enact or study a four-day week, and Riverside Rep. Mark Takano has introduced a bill on the subject in Congress.”

“Some experts said a combination of escalating market pressure and legislative activity could ultimately bring a nationwide four-day workweek standard; while others said such an outcome would prove nearly impossible, at least anytime soon...The U.S. could take incremental steps downward from 40-hour week to a 32-hour week within the next decade, Schor added, predicting that policies would start in statehouses and work their way to the federal level.”

“Are we on the verge of another workplace revolution? It’s possible to work fewer hours and keep the same level of pay and productivity, according to results of the largest-ever trial of a four-day workweek held in the United Kingdom. Traditional work routines were upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there’s increased demand for more flexible schedules. But in many parts of the world, even a five-day week is a luxury. So can a four-day workweek work for everyone?”

“But 32-hour weeks may be slow to catch on in a big way and likely won’t work for everyone. The five-day workweek has been entrenched in American work culture for much of the past century. In 1940, the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended to require overtime after 40 hours. A May survey of 3,000 workers by California employment law firm Bisnar Chase found two-thirds of respondents believe the current system is appropriate, with some even willing to work longer than 40 hour weeks if it means retiring earlier…The four-day workweek is not about lowering our ambitions, rather it’s the expectation that with focus, good leadership, better processes, and the better balance a four-day workweek provides, we can typically get done what we need to get done in four days,” said Jon Leland”

“The program, dubbed the “Massachusetts Smart Work Week Pilot,” will accept applications from employers across the state. Priority will be given to certain employers so that the program has participants from all sorts of industries, locations, and sizes…The 4 Day Week is proving to be an invaluable investment wherever it is implemented. Organizations see rising productivity, people are happier and healthier, and the benefits only scale up from there. With this bill, Massachusetts is poised to lead the nation towards a better future,” Jon Steinman, founder and board member of 4 Day Week US, said in a statement.”

“When it comes to helping workers in distress, “so much of the effort goes into making them feel better rather than actually changing the nature of work,” Leiter says. “The kinds of results that [the researchers are] reporting are more substantial than many of those [wellness] programs. Because again, a lot of what these programs are doing are helping people tolerate the situation that they’re in rather than changing [that situation]. It’s a much more profound thing to do—to change the nature of work—than it is to help people put up with what they’ve got.”

“Overall, the trial’s findings show that a shortened workweek pays off — for both the workers’ and a company’s bottom line. Employees reported greater satisfaction with different areas of their lives, with company revenue staying constant. Forty-four percent of employees reported being more satisfied with their household finances. “You have no idea what this will mean to my family – the amount of money we will be able to save on child care,” said one employee…’It’s been a huge success, I think maybe beyond what I could have anticipated given how challenging the U.K. economy has been,” said Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College and the trial’s lead researcher.”

“At the beginning, this was about pandemic burnout for a lot of employers. Now it’s more of a retention and recruitment issue for many of them,” said Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Her team helped conduct the study with the nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global; U.K.-based think tank Autonomy, which focuses on issues including the future of work and climate change; and researchers at Cambridge University.”

“"Although climate benefits are the most challenging thing to measure, we have a lot of research showing that over time, as countries reduce hours of work, their carbon emissions fall," she says. A 10% reduction in hours is associated to an 8.6% fall in carbon footprint, according to a study co-authored by Schor in 2012.”

“Data from the US Energy Information Administration also shows people in the US burn nearly 10% less fossil fuels on weekends than they do on weekdays. So he believes shifting Friday from a weekday to a weekend day could represent a significant improvement in fossil fuel emissions. "These numbers show that the four-day week can really have a substantial impact," Jon Leland says.

“Leland and Byrne said they both support the effort in Maryland, and hope other states follow suit. “It’s going to take us a while to get there, but I really do think it’s where the future of work is headed in this country,” Byrne said. Stewart’s bill was introduced with eight cosponsors, and a companion bill has been introduced in the Maryland Senate by state Sen. Shelly Hettleman, a Democrat from Baltimore County. While the bill is just beginning a long road toward potential passage—it’s set to receive committee hearings next month—Stewart said he’s optimistic about the legislation’s chances. “

“On the employee side, we’re also seeing extremely positive results. We found that people’s wellbeing went up quite a lot: their work stress went down, their burnout rates went down, their job satisfaction went up, their physical health went up, and their mental health went up. Another interesting thing is at the beginning of the trial, we asked them to rate their current work ability compared to their lifetime best as a measure of self-rated productivity, and that went up significantly. People felt at the end of the trial that they were more productive, they just were performing significantly better.”

“A global study into the four-day workweek has reported positive results all round. 33 companies and 903 workers are trialing a four-day workweek over a period of 6 months and in a recent survey, the vast majority reported they would not go back to a five-day workweek after it has ended. A survey conducted by 4 Day Week Global shows that 97% of the 495 respondents want to stay with a four-day workweek and so do the 27 companies that responded.”

“…talks about a “100-80-100” model, where pay and output stay the same, but hours drop to 80%. Schor says that can work for many businesses. But for jobs that are especially prone to burnout, like healthcare—where workers already work nonstop—a “100-80-80” model might be better, where a doctor or nurse works four days, doesn’t try to maintain current productivity, and someone else is hired to cover the fifth day.”