Out of 61 UK companies that took part in the largest experiment ever carried out in Europe on the 4-day working week, 56 said they wanted to continue on this path, reducing the working hours of their employees by 20% while leaving intact the salary.
The results of the survey, conducted by the University of Cambridge and the American Boston College coordinated by the non-profit organization 4 Day Week Global, in collaboration with the think tank Autonomy and the campaign group 4 Day Week Campaign, will be presented today in the Chamber of the Municipalities.
But the outcome is already known, and it is unequivocal: almost all of the sample welcomes the revolution of the working week, also thanks to the new ways of working learned and developed during the pandemic. Of the 56 companies that expressed satisfaction with the project, 18 confirmed that this setting has become a permanent change within company dynamics.
Positive effects not only for executives, but also for employees: out of a total of almost 3,000 individuals, 40% said they felt less stressed, and the overall number of sick days decreased by two thirds.
Although the experiment was carried out in a period of “major resignations” in which many workers left their jobs in search of greater flexibility, the sample concerned proved to be much more inclined to keep their jobs: compared to the same period in the previous year, there was a 57% drop in staff departures from the companies that participated in the programme.
Almost all the companies chose Friday as a day off “extra weekend”, while others left freedom between Monday and Friday: a solution which – according to employees – allowed them to better reconcile working life with the family one. Without affecting the company’s turnover, which indeed had a slight increase. Only a few have complained of the increase in workloads in the 4 days actually worked.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, considers the experiment “an important turning point”: “In a wide variety of sectors of the economy – he declares – these incredible results show that the four-day week for equal pay it really works. It’s definitely time to start spreading it across the country.”
A bill on the matter already exists: it was presented last October by Labor MP Peter Dowd, who would like to lower the maximum working week from 48 to 32 hours.
