by Krystal Kasal
via Phys.org

Working long hours week after week, with no end in sight, takes a toll on employees. Long work hours have been shown to significantly decrease mental and physical health and lead to less productivity at work. This can also cost companies more in the long run by increasing health insurance costs and spending more on employee turnover.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees and companies have begun to reimagine the way work can be done. One example of this is the increase in employees working from home—a change that has stuck around far longer than the height of the pandemic. Now, organizations like 4 Day Week Global (4DWG) are pushing for shortened work weeks across the world, claiming that the benefits of a reduced work week will increase health, happiness and productivity for all.

These claims are not difficult to believe, but to back them up, 4DWG recruited researchers at Boston College to conduct a trial to test out a four-day work week. The trial reduced the work hours of 2,896 workers from 141 organizations across Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S.

The employees were surveyed at the beginning of the trial and after six months of working reduced hours. While some employees reduced their hours by a full day, others reduced their hours by anywhere from 1–7 hours. Acting as a control for the study, 562 employees from 12 additional companies worked their normal ~40 hour week and were surveyed along with the trial participants.

All participants were paid 100% of their normal salaries, despite reduced hours. The researchers believed this was a key aspect of the trial, since pay reductions are generally risk factors for increased stress.

The results of the study were published in Nature Human Behaviour. Unsurprisingly, the results showed improvements in happiness and mental health across the board. The main highlights of the study were improved work ability, better sleep, and less fatigue. Specifically, company-wide surveys showed a reduction in burnout by 0.44 on a 1–5 scale, an increase in job satisfaction by 0.52 on a 0–10 scale and improved mental health by 0.39 on a 1–5 scale.

There were also improvements in self-reported ratings of physical health, which increased by 0.28 on a 1–5 scale. This is likely due to better sleep and more time to exercise. The study authors note that some improvements in physical health may take longer than a six-month period, however.

Furthermore, the surveys indicated that improvements increased with increased reductions in hours. Group results were split up between 1–4 hour reductions, 5–7 hour reductions, and 8 hour reductions. Mental health and well-being improvements increased with each group, respectively.

The study authors do note some limitations associated with this study. All of the companies involved were smaller and all were in higher income, English-speaking countries, possibly skewing the data. The control group was somewhat small and this was not a randomized controlled trial. The self-reporting nature of the study also creates some limitations in reliability.

The study provides helpful support for those interested in switching to a shorter work week. The results were impressive enough for 90% of the participants to continue shortened work weeks.