A four-day working week has been tried in Britain

A trial of the four-day working week in the UK, the largest in the world, has shown that the vast majority of the 61 businesses that took part in it from June to December will continue with the shorter working week, as most employees feel less stressed and feel better about themselves. their work and life more balanced.

Businesses, according to findings released this week, reported that their income remained mostly the same despite one less working day during the week, and for many it even increased compared to the same six months a year earlier, reports N1.

The four-day work week has been shown to have multiple benefits, said David Frain, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, who helped during the trial with the shorter work week. He believes that the success of that trial should motivate other companies to try it.

The University of Cambridge team collaborated with researchers from Boston College, the Future of Work Research Organization Autonomy and the Global Nonprofit Community for the Four-Day Workweek to determine how businesses from a variety of sectors – from marketing to finance and nonprofits and their 2.900 employees to respond to reduced working hours, while the salary remains the same.

It is not surprising that employees said that it benefited them, that the number of those who said they were tired of work decreased by 71 percent, that 39 percent fewer said they were under stress, and that 48 percent more those who are more satisfied with their work than they were during the five-day work week.

Among employees, 60 percent said that during the four-day work week it was easier for them to balance work and obligations at home, and 73 percent said that they were more satisfied with their lives in general. There is less fatigue, they slept more and their mental health improved, the findings show.

This is exactly what was discovered by the fast food fish restaurant "Platens" in the English coastal town of Wales-Next-d-Sea, which is especially important because the catering industry often works all seven days a week.

"Everyone is focused, everyone knows what they are doing, everyone is fresher," said Kirsty Wainwright, the head of that restaurant, and explained that "they come to work in a better mood and not only do they pass their mood on to the guests, but the guests also get better service." .

A four-day work week allows people to have one non-working day to do housework and other chores and then two days off "to see friends, family, do whatever they want," said Wainwright, who emphasizes that "that's what it's all about: work to live, not to live to work".

In companies that introduced a shorter working week, it did not affect revenue, the findings say, but revenue increased by 1,4 percent during the trial in 23 companies, and 24 recorded an increase in revenue of more than 34 percent compared to the same six-month period a year earlier. .

At the Plattens restaurant, boss Wainwright explained that this was because, due to the shortening of the working week to four days, "productivity skyrocketed."

In addition, in the companies that participated in the research, the probability of employees resigning decreased by 57 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, and sick leave decreased by 65 percent.

As many as 92 percent of companies that tried the four-day working week say that they will continue to work that way, and 30 percent that they have decided that it is a permanent change - they will not return to the five-day week.

Charlotte Lockhart, co-founder and managing director of the World Non-Profit Community for the Four-Day Working Sunday, said the "incredible success" of the pilot program in the UK mirrored earlier findings from similar trials in Ireland and the US.

Although there are sectors that cannot introduce shorter working hours because they need staff 24 hours a day, such as healthcare and first aid, the pandemic has nevertheless changed the way the world works, and having learned from that experience, people are now looking for a better work-life balance of life.