Sofia Betica
BBC World Service
We work five days, enjoy the weekend, and then prepare for the depression of going back to work.
But what if it doesn't have to be that way?
Reducing the workweek to four days significantly improves employee well-being, a major study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
Researchers from Boston College in the United States (US) tracked four key indicators: burnout, job satisfaction, and physical and mental health in 141 companies in the US, United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand.
"We found big improvements in worker well-being," Wen Fan, lead author of the study, told the BBC.
"Companies have seen productivity and revenue growth."
"After the pilot project, 90 percent of the companies that participated in it decided to continue implementing the four-day work week," he explains.
These findings align with a growing body of research finding that a four-day workweek is associated with better health, work-life balance, and increased overall life satisfaction.
This study follows recent research that showed that long working hours can change the structure of the brain.
If the health benefits are so obvious, then what's holding us back?
- What a four-day workweek looks like in the Balkans
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Culture of overwork
China is known for its "996" work culture, which involves working hours from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week.
In India, employees in the fast-growing technology and financial sectors often face relentless pressure to work long and unusual hours to meet demands.
"In countries like China, India, the US, and the UK, it's an honor to spend long hours at work," says Professor Ven.
Overtime is so common in Japan that there's even a word for death by overwork - karoshi.
"In Japan, work is not just a job, it's almost like a social ritual," explains Hiroshi Ono, an expert on the country's labor market and work culture.
"People come early in the morning and stay late, even when there's no real work to do, just to show commitment."
"It's a kind of performance. Like in martial arts, there's a proper way to do something."
He explains that this behavior is fueled by the community spirit in Japan.
“There is a strong stigma against those who smuggle themselves for work.
"If someone starts taking Fridays off, others will ask themselves, 'What's the reason they can't come to work today?'"
What seems incredible to many is that even legally mandated benefits, such as paternity leave for fathers, are rarely used in Japan.
"Men can take up to a year of leave, but very few do so because they don't want to burden their colleagues," says Ono.
However, Professor Wen Fan believes that pilot projects like hers are slowly starting to change the way work is viewed, even in environments with a deep-rooted tradition of overwork.
In Iceland today, almost 90 percent of people work part-time or have the legal right to shorten their workweek.
Pilot projects have been implemented or are underway in several countries, including South Africa, Brazil, France, Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Botswana.
Earlier this year, Tokyo began a pilot project for a four-day workweek for civil servants.
A similar initiative for civil services during the summer was recently launched by Dubai.
South Korea will begin testing a 2025-day workweek at 4,5 companies starting in October 67.
Unbalanced business and private life
"Since the coronavirus pandemic, more and more people feel that their work and life are out of sync.
"And that trend cannot be reversed," says Karen Lowe, the organization's executive director. 4 Day Week Global.
Her organization is helping companies around the world, from Brazil to Namibia to Germany, to test the four-day workweek model.
One of her organization's greatest successes is the police department in the city of Golden, in the US state of Colorado, which has 250 employees.
Since the introduction of the four-day workweek, overtime costs have been reduced by almost 80 percent, and the number of employee layoffs has been halved.
"If it can work in a police department, where the job involves patrolling, field work, and responding to emergencies and emergencies, then it can work anywhere," Lowe says.
"When we started the first pilot project in 2019, only a few companies were interested."
"Now there are thousands. The evidence is there, but what's missing is understanding."
Lowe says it's a common misconception that a shorter workweek means less productivity.
In practice, the opposite often happens, she says.
Microsoft Japan tested a four-day workweek in 2019 and saw 40 percent higher revenue per employee compared to the previous year.
However, the company has decided not to make this change permanent.
Karen Lowe says that the situation in large companies is much more complex, as they have multiple departments and operate in different countries and time zones.
In Professor Wen's study, productivity remained largely flat because companies reduced the volume of less-than-essential activities and tasks.
Instead of unnecessary meetings, agreements were made by phone or text message.
Another common misconception, Lou adds, is that employees have to work much harder to make up for a day off.
"The key is not to compress five workdays into four, but to waste less time."
"Now that artificial intelligence automates a large number of tasks, we can identify such inefficient activities even more easily," she explains.
A health intervention that delivers results
The introduction of the four-day workweek was not just a small change in the workplace, but a lifesaver, claims Charles Davids, director of counseling at the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa.
His team provides psychological support to more than 30.000 students and says that before the change was introduced, staff were exhausted.
"The absenteeism rate was high."
"People kept reporting that they were sick, but not because they were lazy, but because they were barely surviving. They had no strength left," he says.
South Africa is one of the countries with the highest levels of mental stress in the world.
Charles' team of 56 employees was emotionally exhausted by constant conversations about trauma and problems, the large number of students using their services, and the lack of resources.
He decided to trial a four-day workweek, despite resistance from senior management and skepticism from his own team.
"They thought it would never work, but it did, and the results were extraordinary," he says.
In the year before the pilot project, the team had a total of 51 days of sick leave.
Over six months of a four-day workweek, that number dropped to just four days of sick leave.
Employees reported sleeping better, having more physical activity, and being able to pursue hobbies.
"They spent their weekends with their family, instead of doing backlogged housework," says Charles.
"I thought most of them would use that day off to work privately and earn extra money, but only one employee did that."
Charles believes that improved employee well-being has led to better job performance.
"They were more focused on their work and had more empathy, and this directly reflected in the quality of care for students," he adds.
Not a universal solution
However, this kind of change is not feasible to implement everywhere.
"The structure of a country's economy and its level of development are very important," says Professor Wen Fan.
“In Africa, many work in agriculture, mining or the informal sector.
"Flexible working is not yet being considered for such cases," adds Karen Lou.
It is more difficult and different to organize low-skilled and manual jobs, and employers in these sectors often seek to maximize profits rather than consider changing working hours, says Low.
However, there are some developments.
Professor Wen's study also included companies in the construction, manufacturing and hospitality industries, and some of them reported positive results.
"The model can work in various sectors, but I wouldn't want to present it as a solution for everyone."
"It's not a universal formula," she says.
Changes are driven by young people
Experts agree that they are younger generations the biggest drivers of this change.
A survey conducted worldwide in 2025 showed that for the first time in history, work-life balance was the most important thing, even ahead of income.
In South Korea, many young workers say they would accept a lower salary in exchange for a shorter workweek.
"We are seeing increasing resistance among the younger generations."
"They have a fundamentally different understanding of the purpose of work and what they want from life," says Professor Ven.
Movements, such as mass layoffs following the coronavirus pandemic (mainly in the US), "silent resignation" (the refusal of employees to work more than is strictly necessary) and a trend in China known as tang ping (rejecting social pressure to work too much and not have great business ambitions) show that young workers are finding ways to express dissatisfaction and reject the culture of burnout at work, he points out.
These changes could reshape work norms over time.
Hiroshi Ono already sees certain changes in Japan.
"Paternity leave is now used by 30 percent of men in Japan, and previously it was almost unthinkable."
"It shows that people are increasingly prioritizing their own well-being," he says.
Karen Lowe agrees.
"For the first time, employees are really starting to resist, and the younger they are, the more they demand change."
She believes momentum is being created.
"The coronavirus pandemic served as the first turning point.
"I hope the next one will be a four-day workweek," he concludes.
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