Trials of four-day working week hailed as 'a resounding success'

Women in the trial reported a significantly greater improvement in life satisfaction, had larger gains in sleep time, and reported feeling more secure in their employment. File Picture: iStock

Ireland's first-ever trial of a four-day working week has been described as "a resounding success", with all 12 companies that tested the new schedule now planning to continue it into the future.

Employees were universal in their praise of the trial, reporting reduced stress, burnout, and fatigue while being able to sleep more each night and spending more time on hobbies, as well as community and voluntary work.

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.

The trial was backed by the trade union Fórsa and in partnership with Four-Day Week Ireland, University College Dublin, and Boston College, and the results will be presented at Dublin Chamber of Commerce today. It examined the financial, social, and environmental impact that a four-day working week would have on businesses and employees in Ireland. 

The companies that took part committed to operating a reduced work week with no loss of pay. Similar trials are taking place in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand under the Four Day Week Global (4DWG) campaign. 

According to the report, most of the companies instituted a four-day, 32-hour schedule, with a typical day off — usually Friday — but some opted for different configurations.

According to the results of the Irish trial, published today, nine of the 12 participating companies are committed to continuing with the four-day-week schedule. The other three are also planning to continue, but have not committed to continuing long-term yet. Seven companies provided data on revenue, with six out of seven companies reporting monthly revenue growth, while one saw a decline.

Employee reaction

Amongst participating employees, the reaction was universally positive, with 100% wishing to continue with a four-day week.

Workers reported an average increase in sleep time from 7.02 hours a night to 7.72 hours. Time doing hobbies (including exercise) grew by 36 minutes a week on average.

The trial was particularly successful for women. They reported a significantly greater improvement in life satisfaction, had larger gains in sleep time, and reported feeling more secure in their employment.

The report states that the findings should serve as a strong signal to employers across many sectors that it is time to explore the possibility of retiring the nearly 100-year-old convention of the five-day, 40-hour week and begin to embrace a four-day, 32-hour week.

'Significant improvements'

Dr Orla Kelly of UCD said that the research can provide key learnings and lessons for the future of work in Ireland.

“We found significant improvements across a wide range of wellbeing metrics, including positive affect, work-family and work-life balance, and several domains of life satisfaction,” she said. 

Conversely, stress, burnout, fatigue, and work-family conflict significantly declined. Levels of sleep deprivation have also fallen dramatically. 

"We observed an increase across three forms of pro-environmental behaviour.”

The organisations that took part in the study were engineering firm Allied Consultant Engineering, not-for-profit Codema, performance management company Frankli, business services company Optimum, recruitment company Rent a Recruiter, manufacturing company Soothing Solutions, business consultancy Stillwater, and IT service providers Typetec.