The 4 days a week program carried out in the United Kingdom by the non-profit organization “4 Day Week Global”, demonstrated the benefits of work focused on performance and reduced hours, which can be good news for the working world.
The pilot programme, run by the non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the UK 4 Day Week Campaign and think tank Autonomy, guided more than 60 companies and almost 3,000 workers through a six-month test testing the 4-day week, without implying a loss of wages for workers.
The general results that the study showed is that almost all the organizations that participated will adhere to the reduced shift, with 91% definitely continuing or planning to continue, and another 4% inclined to continue. Only 4% of the participants will definitely not continue.
Businesses rated the test an average of 8.5/10, with business productivity and business performance scoring 7.5/10. Revenue increased 35% during trial periods compared to similar periods last year, and hiring increased while absenteeism decreased.
Employee health and well-being also improved, with significant increases in physical and mental health, time spent exercising, and overall satisfaction with life and work. Rates of stress, exhaustion, fatigue, and sleep problems decreased.
The environmental results were also encouraging, with commuting time reduced by half an hour per week for the entire sample.
Juliet Schor of Boston College, Professor and Principal Investigator of the program, noted an encouraging consistency in the data: “The results are largely stable across workplaces of different sizes, showing that this is an innovation that works for many types of workplaces. of organizations”.
“There are also some interesting differences. We found that employees in nonprofits and professional services had the largest average increases in time spent exercising, while those in construction/manufacturing enjoyed the largest reductions in exhaustion and sleep problems.” Schor said.
Behavioral scientist and new CEO of 4 Day Week Global, Dr. Dale Whelehan, explained that the sample produced interesting differences in gender results: “While both men and women benefit from a 4-day week , the experience of women is generally better. This is the case for burnout, job and life satisfaction, mental health, and reduced commute time. Encouragingly, the burden of non-work tasks appears to be leveling off, with more men taking on more of the housework and childcare.”
For her part, the co-founder and CEO of “4 Day Week Global”, Charlotte Lockhart, gave a preview of what is to come: “Our team is delighted to expand the arguments in favor of a 4-day week today with this new research. world-class academic, and we look forward to adding our pilot results from Australasia to this data set in the coming weeks and our results from Europe, South Africa, Brazil and North America in the coming months.”
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