The Largest Trial of the 4-Day Work Week Gets Underway in the UK

by MeetingScience | Feb 7, 2022 | Future of Work, Productivity

Today’s management tongue-twister (say it 10x fast): will the 4-day work week work?

In the UK, approximately 30 companies will take part in a 6-month trial of a true 4-day work week.

Researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College will measure whether productivity increases, decreases, or remains the same over a 4-day period (vs. five) and whether that productivity will be sustainable over time.

Already, we’ve seen some promise from companies like Microsoft Japan using four-day weeks in 2019 with comparable productivity gains vs. prior years. In Iceland, trials of the 4-day work week between 2015 – 2019 were dubbed an “overwhelming success.”

To learn more about how your company can participate in a pilot program around the world, visit 4dayweek.com/.

And if you can’t yet embrace a 4-day work week, then consider eliminating four of the recurring meeting on your monthly calendar to save at least one day from your work month.

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