61 British companies from various sectors, with a total of almost 3000 employees, participated in the experiment for six months. Individuals could choose how to distribute their free time over the week.
According to the initiators of the experiment, many people in the UK spend time at the office in a stressed and unproductive state due to overwork and a lack of free hours. To explore whether this could be different, they extended the weekend by one day.
Positive Results
It was estimated beforehand that the results would be encouraging, but they were even better than expected. 39 percent of the employees experienced less (high) stress. Sleep quality, physical and mental health, relationship quality, and personal financial control improved. The work-life balance significantly improved: 60 percent were better able to balance work with childcare or family responsibilities, and 62 percent could maintain a richer social life alongside work. The number of employees resigning decreased by more than half (57%), and the number of employees experiencing burnout symptoms decreased by over 70 percent. Absenteeism during the six-month trial period was on average about 65 percent lower.
Structurally Implemented
According to one of the researchers, employees were initially sceptical until they realized they had control over it. They became creative in improving their own productivity and flexibility. A caveat to this experiment is that only companies that were already open to a differently structured work week participated. Meanwhile, 18 out of the 61 companies have decided to permanently implement the four-day work week following the experiment.
