More Support for the Four Day Workweek

Momentum continues to grow for a four-day workweek. Joe O’Connor, Four Day Week’s global pilot program manager, says he hopes a new test—this time in Ireland that will be launching in June—will serve as a model for companies around the world. So far, 20 companies have signed on for the six-month test, which will be running complementary to a program in the US and Canada starting in April 2022. Researchers from Boston College and University College Dublin will support the programs with studies into carbon impacts, productivity, and wellbeing compared to the standard five-day workweek. “The remote working revolution has forced companies into a space where they've had to design much better metrics for actually measuring what people are getting done,” said O’Connor. “That opens the door for this idea that ‘can you work less hours?’” The answer seems to be yes. The now well-known pilot program in Iceland showed that well-being improved, and political leaders in Belgium and South Korea have said they are planning on truncating their countries’ standard working hours.