Hypothetical scenario · estimate
Scenario: a four-day work week
What if the work week in office-type jobs became four days instead of five, on the same pay, as in the published trials.
7.3 millionemployed people in office-type occupations covered
48fewer working days per employee per year
705.1 millionfewer commute trips per year
Possible gains
- In the 2022 UK trial (61 organisations, about 2,900 staff), 71% of participants said their burnout fell (self-reported survey).[1]
- In Iceland's 2015–2019 trials (about 2,500 workers), output and service delivery stayed the same or improved in most workplaces.[3]
- A tech company in Japan reported that sales per employee rose 40% in a one-month trial in 2019; this is the company's own figure.[4]
- One fewer working day means fewer round-trip commutes on the roads for people who travel to a workplace, as the third number shows.
Possible costs
- Burnout and satisfaction in the trials were reported by participants, and the organisations had committed to take part; results may overstate the effect.[1][2]
- Work that needs presence all week (health care, for example) is harder to organise; four-day-week trials there are small or weak in method.[6]
- In the trials the shorter week followed a reorganisation of work, on the same pay; the results may not repeat without that.[2][6]
The balance (estimate)
Clearest gainers: Office workers in organisations that could reorganise their work: lower burnout and higher satisfaction in the trials, and fewer commutes.
Clearest costs fall on: People in jobs that need cover all week, and organisations that find it hard to reorganise their work.
Strength of evidence: medium — Foreign trials and published studies, with results mostly reported by participants; no direct Saudi measurement.