On paper, it’s a plebiscite. The idea of the four-day week is supported by an average of 92% of employees worldwide (Qualtrics, February 24, 2022). New Zealand, Spain, Scotland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Japan and Iceland, among others, have tested it. It’s France’s turn to get involved: at the end of March 2024, the now-resigned Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, announced that he would launch an “experiment in all ministries” on the four-day work week, but without reducing working hours. Others have also gotten involved: the University of Porto submitted a report on June 24 on a one-year pilot project, conducted with 41 Portuguese companies, in partnership with the association 4 Day Week Global, whose objective is to push this mode of operation throughout the world. While 90% of the companies that accepted this experiment were satisfied, 10% abandoned this organization before the end of the test, which raises questions.
In Germany, of the 45 companies initially participating in a pilot project initiated in February by the management consultancy Intraprenör (which will release the results in October): one postponed the project period to 2025 and two ended the experiment after two months. For most of them, this experiment, which is still ongoing, was complicated to implement. The aim was to test the four-day week based on the “100-80-100” concept, i.e. employees should perform 100%, 80% of the time for 100% of their salary. According to a preliminary assessment by Intraprenör, after the first three months of the project, only 38% of the participating companies had actually reduced working hours by 20%, and 48% of them had stuck to 10% at most (which corresponds to a four-and-a-half-day week).
“Switching to a four-day week only works moderately,” concluded Tagesschau, the news portal of the ARD television channel, on July 1, 2024. Julia Backmann, professor for the transformation of the world of work at the University of Münster, quoted by the same media outlet, qualifies this: “We can certainly say that Germany is a little more conservative than other countries when it comes to reducing working hours.” The activist association 4 Day Week Global prefers to focus on the positive points: a better work-life balance, 66% less burnout and a 32% drop in resignations.
In the final report of the Portuguese experiment, 47% of employees said they were tired at the end of the day during this pilot project, compared to 71% before, and 42% of employees felt anxious before, compared to 27% after. In addition, 15% of companies say that productivity has increased (4 Day Week report on the long-term pilot program 2023, in the United States and Canada). But what is the real gain from these good results, especially if the changes have been costly and complex for the company?
Back to 5 or 6 days!
It is indeed the entire organization that needs to be rethought. In 2007, the American state of Utah redefined its employees’ work week from Monday to Thursday, allowing it to save at least $1.8 million in energy costs. The experiment was abandoned in 2011 after complaints from residents upset about not being able to access administration services on Fridays.
It is also difficult to form pairs for complex functions. “Our four-day work week turned into a failed two-year experiment,” says Larchy Gray, CEO of the Australian apprenticeship start-up Yarno, who was nevertheless enthusiastic about the idea in 2016. But in practice, the reality is quite different: he cannot stop work on Fridays and, more than once, disturbs an employee who is “off”. Result: return to five days, as in Belgium where only one worker in 200 has adopted this model. yet established as law in November 2022 (Tempo Team, 2023): too hard to work more daily.
“Easier said than done: the transformation project for organizations is far from being a simple process,” acknowledges 4 Day week (interim report on the German experiment). Is it relevant to cling to this Grail without reducing hours? 47% of workers would prefer a four-day week, but 50% want more flexibility in working hours (Qualtrics, February 2022). As for Greece, since July 1, it has moved to six days a week in certain sectors… to combat undeclared work and increase productivity!