Companies that were transferred to a 4 -day work week, without reducing pay, saw significant improvements in their employees’ well -being, according to a new study published in the Nature of human behavior Earlier this month. Led by sociologists of Boston College Wen Fan and Juliet Schor, the study was the largest of its kind, which involved 2,896 employees in 141 organizations in the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
“When workers want to deliver the same productivity, they could work very quickly to do the job and their well -being can really get worse,” Fan said. Fan said Nature. “But this is not what we found.”
Compared to a 300 employee control group of 12 companies that lasted a traditional 5 -day work week, businesses converted into a 4 -day working week showed “improvements to exhaustion, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health”. In addition, the individual workers themselves reported profits in terms of working capacity as well as “reduced sleep problems and reduced fatigue”. Based on the results of the study, the authors concluded that “the 4 -day employees who maintain income are an effective organizational intervention to enhance the well -being of workers”.
Washington, DC – March 14: Boston Sociology Professor Juliet Schor (R) testifies to the President of the United Auto Workers Shawn Fain before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Witnesses testified about the potential benefits and disadvantages of a 32 -hour federal work week. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Before the participating companies began their six -month period of reduced working hours, businesses took about eight weeks to rationalize their organizational processes and restructure work flow. Thus, in order to maintain their productivity, many companies involved in the study eliminated unnecessary meetings and other time -consuming, though deeply rooted activities.
Specifically, 90% of the companies involved in the study eventually decided keep Their 4 days of working, strongly implying that the benefits of a shortened work week exceeded any possible disadvantages or productivity losses. The findings in Nature of human behavior are largely consistent With previous tests and pilot programs conducted in other companies around the world. In conjunction, these studies could even provide some empirical indications for the often -reported Parkinson law: “The work is expanding to fill the time available to complete it.”
Taking into account these promising results, policy makers have begun to receive knowledge. Last year, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was introduced The Act on Thirty -Two Hours (S. 3947). True in its name, the bill will amend the law on fair labor standards to reduce the standard work week from 40 hours to 32 hours, with no corresponding loss in pay. If it entered into force, the bill would have highlighted the first decline in federal work week since 1940, when it was reduced from 44 hours to 40 hours.
“Transition to a 32 -hour work week without a loss of pay is not a radical idea,” Senator Sanders said in a statement when the bill was released. “The financial gains from the most important developments in artificial intelligence, automation and new technology must benefit the working class, not only the CEOs and the wealthy shareholders in Wall Street, it is time to reduce the level of stress in our country and allow Americans to enjoy better life.
