Less than 12 months ago, the world’s largest trial of a four-day working week was hailed as a “major breakthrough” after 92% of companies involved said they would keep to the shorter week following the pilot.
Tracking 61 companies, the findings mirrored results from previous studies of companies across the world including Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada, who all reported enhanced productivity and employee satisfaction following a reduction in work hours.
The past few years have also seen a notable shift in work attitudes, helped in large part by the pandemic.
As the world went into lockdown, employers were forced to reconsider the workplace in a new and innovative way and even to this day, are still struggling to get workers back in the office.
With a much greater focus now placed on flexibility and work-life balance, such a shift in values has not only led to remote working requirements but calls for additional supports including universal basic income and reduced working weeks.
International non-profit advocacy group, 4 Day Week Global, emerged in recent years, an organisation dedicated to revolutionising the world of work. It led many of the successful trials.
Their former CEO is Irishman Joe O’Connor, who throughout his adult life has been motivated by ensuring better work-life balances for employees across the world.
A native of Kilmore in Co Roscommon, Mr O’Connor started his career working across various unions in Ireland, before landing the top job at 4 Day Week Global and relocating to New York.
Today, he is the CEO of Work Time Reduction, an organisation he co-founded with UK consultancy firm Curium Solutions, that designs and implements shorter work-week trials for companies eager to explore the benefits of more flexible working hours.
Moving on from 4 Day Week Global, Mr O’Connor and his team — which also includes his partner and chief operating officer, Grace Tallon — say they have stepped away from just advocacy and now work with firms directly to support their transition to reduced hours.
“What I do now is far more personalised and tailored to individual companies,” he explains.
“We look at the specific needs of the firms we work with, and implement a strategy that suits them most efficiently.”
Speaking on its uptake, he said interest among firms across multiple industries was “undoubtedly apparent.” In just one year since its launch, the organisation had 53 companies engage with Work Time Reduction’s diagnostic process and formed 13 new strategic partnerships.
Now working in Toronto, Mr O’Connor notes reduced working hours do not necessarily mean four eight-hour shifts a week, adding different structures will suit contrasting industries and that reduced hours can come with much flexibility.
“A lot of us already work four-day weeks in some way and without even noticing. If you include unnecessary meetings, inefficient technology, workplace distractions and several other issues, how much time are we left really with?”
In last year’s pivotal study of British firms, at least 56 out of the 61 that took part said they planned to continue with the four-day working week, while 18 firms confirmed the policy had become a permanent change.
Just three companies said they paused the four-day working week in their organisation for the time being. These results were also achieved with no change or reduction in employee salaries.
The findings also revealed a major reduction in stress and illness rates among the almost 3,000 staff involved in the trial. In addition, around 39% of employees said they were less stressed compared with the start of the trial, while the number of sick days taken during the trial dropped by about two-thirds.
The report also noted people were much more likely to stay in their jobs, despite the trial taking place amid the “great resignation” period where workers had been quitting at record rates in search of greater flexibility.
The trial also saw a 57% drop in staff leaving the participating companies compared with the same period the previous year, with levels of anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and burnout decreasing substantially, while more staff reported balancing care responsibilities had become easier.
The results even found company revenue increased slightly over the trial period.
Similarly, Ireland’s first-ever trial of a four-day working week was described as “a resounding success” in late 2022, with all 12 companies involved choosing to continue it into the future.
Like the UK, Irish employees were almost universal in their praise of the trial, reporting reduced stress, burnout, and fatigue while also being able to sleep more and spend more time on hobbies.
All of the companies and organisations that took part in the six-month experiment also reported a range of positive outcomes, including productivity and reduced energy usage, while all but one noted an increase in revenue.
“We’ve seen the benefits of worldwide trials. Four-day work weeks lead to happier, healthier employees, and we see that across several indicators,” Mr O’Connor said.
As with any progressive work initiative, several companies have pushed back against reduced working hours, with one notable critique being employee pay.
As Mr O’Connor explains, Work Time Reduction focuses on a 100-80-100 model, whereby employees work 80% of their hours, for 100% of the pay, while committing to ensuring 100% productivity.
“We hear people say that these initiatives are lazy and favoured by people who don’t want to work, but a lazy employee would probably prefer a five-day week as it grants them more time.
So how far are we now from a four-day working week? While a shift in culture and the subsequent domino effect is sure to aid the transition, the real answer, Mr O’Connor says, lies in artificial intelligence.
“As more organisations adopt shorter work weeks, this will push other employers to do so to keep up with competition in the industry. However, the main elephant in the room is AI.”
“If we as a society decide to use it for good, it can provide us with the opportunity to work less.”
The past 12 months have seen the rapid progression of advanced technology, with ChatGPT, and other AI-enabled chatbots soaring in popularity and engraining their capabilities across several facets of everyday life.
As AI continues to develop, many business leaders and shorter working week advocates have praised its ability to increase productivity across a myriad of industries, which can in turn translate into fewer working hours.
Just this week, the managing director of Dell Technologies Ireland, Catherine Doyle, said the growth of AI “will result in the emergence of a two-way human-machine partnership in many workplaces across Ireland”.
“History has shown us that advances in technology drive gains in productivity that make reduced working hours possible,” Mr O’Connor said.
“It’s up to us really — are we going to use it to just achieve baseline cost savings or do we want it to genuinely improve people’s lives? If employers and employees work together on this, it can be an easy win-win.”
