The four-day work week: the world’s biggest trial says yes

The world’s largest trial of a four-day working week has delivered striking results. Nearly 3,000 employees across 141 companies in six countries took part, and 90% of those companies decided to keep the shorter week permanently once the trial ended.

Productivity did not collapse, quite the opposite. Some companies reported gains of up to 40%, and London-based software firm BrandPipe saw its revenue jump by almost 130% during the trial period.

The benefits were not only financial. Employee burnout dropped by 71%, job applications to participating companies rose by 88%, and 93% of staff reported a better work-life balance, all without any cut in pay.

Autonomy also improved: 73% of employees said they felt a stronger sense of control over how they organised their own work once the extra day off was introduced.

The idea is no longer a niche experiment. More than 2.7 million UK workers, nearly 11% of the entire national workforce, already work a four-day week, following earlier large-scale trials in countries such as Iceland that ran from 2015 to 2019.

Adapted from Scientific American and 4 Day Week Global, July 2025