Four day week trial results: promise and limits.
The four day week trial results in Britain covered sixty-one companies and about two thousand nine hundred staff. Notably, burnout fell by seventy-one per cent, and revenue rose by an average of one point four per cent. However, the evidence has real limits.
What the British trial found.
Among the four day week trial results, the uk four day week study ran for six months with same pay and same output expected. In addition, stress fell by thirty-nine per cent, sick days by sixty-five, and staff leaving by fifty-seven. As a result, fifty-six of the sixty-one companies carried on, and eighteen made it permanent. Finally, employees rated the experience nine out of ten.
Four day week trial results beyond Britain.
Similarly, the iceland shorter working week ran across public sector workplaces between 2015 and 2019. There, about two and a half thousand people moved from forty hours to thirty-five or thirty-six, with no pay cut. Meanwhile, productivity stayed the same or improved. Also, Microsoft's Japanese offices tried five four-day weeks in 2019, reporting sales per employee up nearly forty per cent.
Why the evidence is not proof.
However, almost none of these trials had a control group, and the companies volunteered. Moreover, most cluster in knowledge work, while wellbeing findings come from self-reported surveys. Also, several academics worked alongside groups campaigning for the four-day week. In Germany, two large manufacturers stopped under economic pressure.
So read the four day week trial results as a demonstration. Thousands got much of what you want without giving up a salary, yet your employer may differ.
Use four day week trial results in your own thinking.
First, write down which result, burnout, stress or sick days, matters most to you.
Then note one way your workplace resembles the trial companies and one way it differs.
From the book.
So take it as a demonstration. Not proof. Thousands of people got a large amount of what you have been circling for twelve chapters, and they got it without giving up a salary, and the arrangement mostly survived. That isn't a guarantee that it would work where you are, and your employer may be nothing like those sixty-one companies.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 13: Staying is allowed, and it can be the win
Questions about four day week trial results.
Are four day week trial results reliable evidence?
They are a demonstration, not proof. After all, most trials lacked a control group, and the companies volunteered.
Did companies keep the four-day week after the British trial?
Yes, fifty-six of the sixty-one carried on with it. Also, eighteen made it permanent.
Did any organisations stop?
In Germany, more than forty-five organisations ran a version of it. However, two large manufacturers stopped under economic pressure.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 13, “Staying is allowed, and it can be the win”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 How to ask your boss for changes: the odds favour you.
- 02 William Morris useful work: the three hopes test.
- 03 Four day week trial results: promise and limits.
- 04 Flexible working request letter: number, date, review.
- 05 Job crafting: add the good, claim the training money.
- 06 Self employed median income: the hidden hourly gap.
- 07 Flexibility stigma at work: the real cost of staying.
- 08 Part time request denied: what Rasmus Dall did next.