Seventy companies in Great Britain have been experimenting with the short working week for several months, ie in which Fridays are no longer worked. The experiment is being studied by the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, together with Boston College. The research will measure the impact of a shorter week on productivity and well-being in a study to be published in February. Meanwhile a report from the 4 Day Week Global movement – captured in a video series by the Financial Times – has already found that physical and mental health, work-life balance and satisfaction would increase and the revenues of the companies involved would also increased by an average of 8%, while absenteeism would have been reduced and resignations decreased slightly. biased? Maybe, but soon the results of the university study will tell us if this is really the case.
«Before the pandemic, the idea of the 4-day week was still a marginal concept – explains Joe O’Connor, managing director of 4 Day Week Global to the Financial Times – The impact of the pandemic has turbocharged the four-day movement ». But the economy has deteriorated in the meantime and many are now wondering whether employers will back off flexible working policies implemented during the pandemic. Snap, which announced layoffs earlier this year, recently asked employees to come to the office four days a week. In the meantime, however, the practice of the 4-day week is spreading not only in England, but also in Italy, experimentation is being considered: Intesa Sanpaolo has studied the initiative and Lavazza has introduced it in the new employment contract.
From Financial Times interviews with entrepreneurs and workers, satisfaction is palpable and transversal, from the smallest commercial companies to those in the finance sector.