In the UK, a comprehensive trial began this week to test the effects of shortening the regular work week to just four working days on a range of metrics: from business performance, through gender representation in the workplace to employees’ sense of health and balance. About 3,000 workers at 70 British companies that have volunteered for the trial in the past six months began the new work format on Monday, which will last about six months and will be accompanied by researchers from Oxford and Cambridge universities as well as Boston College in the US.
The companies participating in the pilot will receive special training on how to make the change, will be accompanied by experts and will be given special attention regarding the ways of working. They will also be monitored comprehensively in terms of work and business results. The companies volunteered to employ all their employees for only four days a week, without increasing the number of working hours each day. In fact, as of this week, company employees are getting paid 100% of what has so far been defined as about 80% of a job.
The body that promotes the experiment is a coalition of organizations that support shortening the work week from five to four days, arguing that it will not hurt productivity – and may even increase it – and at the same time contribute to a sense of work-life balance, increase working women and save many resources . Similar experiments have already been announced in Spain, Ireland, the US and other countries, but the British experiment is considered the largest of its kind to date.
Checking conflicting data
In recent years the idea of shortening the work week has gained momentum, and now, against the backdrop of the so-called “great resignation” – workers who do not return to work after the changes caused by the Corona plague – it is seen as a possibility that will make work more attractive. A Microsoft trial in Japan found that productivity did not decline, and a partial but comprehensive study in Iceland (which examined a reduction in the number of working hours in general and not necessarily a waiver of a working day per week) found that employees’ sense of health improved significantly.
The number of weekly working hours in the UK is at the top of the global range – 48 hours compared to 35 in France, for example. The issue has sparked political interest in recent years, and Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has even promised voters to adopt a four-day work week if elected. He lost the election. Experts talk about “Deep Work” hours – concentrated and strenuous work that leads to effective results – as opposed to many hours that are inefficient and can be waived.
The researchers accompanying the current experiment promised to objectively examine conflicting data from recent years. In New Zealand, a recent study found that shortening the work week actually increased office pressures, and in general made work much more monitored and one accompanied by a steady estimate of productivity and efficiency.
Among the companies participating in the British experiment: the British arm of the Canon photography company, which deals in medical equipment; A software and trade management company called BEACON, as well as other software companies whose names have not been released.