Time for a 4 day week? Assessing the economic social and environmental impacts of reduced worktime
Co investigators: | Dr Orla Kelly (UCD) with Prof Juliet Schor Boston College and Dr Wen Fan
Funding organisation: FORSA-Non profit partners 4 Day Week Ireland and 4 Day week Global
Context
As the most popular form of worktime reduction, a four-day, 32-hour workweek has been gaining momentum in recent years. Given this growth in interest, 4 Day Week Global began supporting companies and non-profit organisations that wanted to try a four-day, 32-hour workweek with no reduction in pay. Boston College leads the research team in partnership with University College Dublin, Cambridge University and other academic partners. We are constructing a sizeable quantitative database of employee outcomes across different countries and types of companies and organisations. We collected data on time use, subjective wellbeing, physical and mental health, labour market behaviour, and energy use with a wide-ranging instrument. In February 2022, 4DWG launched the first of several coordinated international trials. It involved 614 employees across Ireland, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The research involved surveying employees at the beginning, midpoint and end of the trial, compiling time-use diaries of employees’ days off, collecting monthly data on organisational performance and interviewing employees and managers at the end of the trial.
Leading the Irish leg was Dr Orla Kelly, from the UCD Social Policy School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, who worked alongside Four-Day Week Ireland and trade union Fórsa.
Methodology
In Ireland, 12 companies took part in the six-month programme, and all reported a range of positive outcomes, including productivity and reduced energy usage.
Findings
- Following the trial, nine said they planned to continuing with the four-day-week schedule. Only one of the companies involved reported a decline in its monthly revenue growth.
- We found significant improvements across a wide range of well-being metrics, including positive affect, work-family and work-life balance, and several domains of life satisfaction.
- 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 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. Our findings hold important lessons for the future of work in this country.
- Follow these links to the global ((opens in a new window)https://www.4dayweek.com/us-ireland-results) and Irish (https://www.4dayweek.com/case-studies2/ireland) trial results.
- The results of our trial widespread international and national coverage across print television and online media including, RTE ((opens in a new window)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUOPW50Q2oo), Irish Times ((opens in a new window)https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/1130/1339085-four-day-week/) , Today FM ((opens in a new window)https://www.goloudplayer.com/episodes/four-day-working-week-trial-find-Y2RiNjQyNzBjMDY5OGVhZWFmZjU1YmJjOGZhZmZkN2E=) and and many other outlets. It generated a national conversation on the future of work in the country. The researchers are in the process of drafting several academic outputs from the project.
For further information please contact Dr Orla Doyle. Email: Orla (opens in a new window)Doyle@ucd.ie