Can the four-day working week ever be a reality? Image: this Is Engineering from Pixabay
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What if every Monday was a bank holiday?
It might seem utopian: but two-thirds of Brits believe that most people will enjoy four-day working weeks within half a decade, a new survey by the Four Day Week Foundation has found.
More than 200 companies in the UK – employing some 5,000 staff – have already permanently adopted the 32-hour week for employees with no loss of pay.
Most Brits expect to follow them. Some 68% of people surveyed by Spark Market Research on behalf of the foundation agreed with the statement “in five years’ time I think the four-day working week will become the norm”. That rose to 78% among people aged 18-34.
The tide is turning against the five-day week, said Joe Ryle, the foundation’s campaign director – and the change will make the lives of workers “happier [and] more fulfilling”.
“As hundreds of British companies and one local council have already shown, a four-day week with no loss of pay can be a win-win for both workers and employers,” he said. “The 9-5, five-day working week was invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose. We are long overdue an update.”
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A 2022 pilot of the policy yielded positive results. In 2022, 61 companies – totalling 2,900 employees – trialled the model. 92% made it permanent.
How many Brits work a four-day working week?
Five-day, 40-hour weeks have been the standard for decades – but it hasn’t always been this way. In 1870, industrial employees logged 60-90 hours a week, clocking in for up to 15 hours a day, six days a week.
Work patterns have changed before, advocates of the four-day working week argue – and they could change again.
For 200 companies (with 5,000 employees) signed up to the 4 Day Week Foundation’s Employer Accreditation Scheme, they already have.
In fact, these figures are the tip of the iceberg, because they only represent accredited organisations. The total number of workers on a four-day week in the UK is much higher.
According to an Owl Labs survey of 2,000 UK workers in July last year, 6% of full-time workers – or around 1.5 million people – are already working the shortened week.
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As take-up surges, the new model has become a frontier in the ever-expanding culture wars.
The last Conservative government was actively hostile towards the concept. When South Cambridgeshire District Council piloted it, then-local government minister Lee Rowley advised them to “end your experiment immediately”. Rishi Sunak said that the council’s constituents “deserved better”.
Meanwhile, work-from-home – another aspect of the flexible work revolution – has come under increasing attack. Amidst this growing mud-slinging, Labour have backtracked on their support for a shortened work week.
Labour’s 2019 manifesto included a commitment to a four-day working week, a pledge that was removed from the party’s 2024 policy document.
In November, Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said it is “not government policy to support a four-day working week”. He was responding to civil service demands for the shorter work pattern.
Nonetheless, campaigners believe the idea’s time will come. Several key cabinet ministers have previously expressed support for the idea.
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“If you can deliver within a four-day working week, then why not?” now-deputy PM Angela Rayner said at an event in 2023. “I think people will cotton onto the fact that it’s really good if it works for their sector and boosts productivity.”
Last year, UNISON – the country’s largest union – backed the model, describing it as positive shift for worker’s rights.
“The fight for decent working hours has always been at the heart of union campaigning,” the motion, submitted by UNISON’s Dorset branch, read.
“Trade unions fought for an eight-hour day in the 19th century and a two-day weekend in the 20th. In the 21st, it is time to take the next step and win a four-day week with fair pay for all.”
If the new research is anything to go by, young workers will push this change. 78% of the 18-34 demographic believe that the four-day working week will soon be the norm.
The survey “clearly shows a desire for change in traditional working patterns,” said Lynsey Carolan, managing director of Spark Market Research.
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“The core workforce of the next 50 years are making their feelings known that they don’t intend to go back to old fashioned working patterns when there’s other options now available,” she said.
