Shortening the work week

proved productivity, lowered stress levels, and benefited work-life balance among employees. Because of its success, Barnes and his business partner Charlotte Lockhart co-founded the 4 Day Week Global organization, which supports and guides companies interested in trying a four-day work week format.

in the U.S., Australia, Iceland, and more. Results of such trials have shown improvements in employee life and job satisfaction, lower levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout, better physical and mental health, and more.

If students were able to start experiencing broader ranges of content rigor and interact with more of their peers at a younger age, the transition from on-level or below-level classes to honors-level classes would be much easier to make, and might not exist at all, leading to a more unified and equitable education for all.

Alex Pang, Global Programs and Development Manager at 4 Day Week Global, explained the mission behind the organization— to “create” more time for people.

“If you move to a four-day week, that means that you are winning back 50 days every year. In other words, 10 working weeks [per year], and every five years, that’s 50 weeks or another year of your life,” he said in an interview with Silver Chips.

The four-day work week has gained traction in the past few years, with the world’s largest pilot launching in the U.K. in 2022. Since then, 4 Day Week Global has empowered companies all over the world to trial this new shortened week, including companies

Juliet Schor, a professor at Boston College and the lead researcher for the four-day work week trials, believes the four-day work week is an important step to minimizing the high burdens on employees. “We haven’t had a change in the statutory work week since 1940, so that’s 80 years ago. I think it’s definitely time to give workers a break— what we’re seeing is very high levels of stress, burnout, and overwork among employees… and a shorter work week is a really powerful way of addressing that,” she said. Similarly, Wen Fan, Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston College, noted that the trials saw extremely positive results as well as satisfied companies. “The four-day work week reduced the people’s sense of work or burnouts, perceived time in adequacy, their life satisfaction, job satisfaction, mental health, physical health. Everything related to wellbeing seems to have improved over time, which is really great given that we are only looking at a six-month trial,” Fan said. Because the four-day work week dramatically shortens work hours, many argue that there will not be sufficient time to complete work and stress levels will increase as a result. Contrary to this belief, however, the four-day work week has drastically increased productivity as well as returns for nearly all companies that have tried it so far. Furthermore, the four-day week reduces stress by allowing people more opportunities to take on new hobbies or spend more quality time with friends and family.

Pang explained that all the companies that have tried the new week have experienced improvements among their companies as well as their employees’ lives in general. “No company that sticks with a four-day week sees a decline in revenues or profitability or levels of customer service,” he said. “When you look at companies that have been doing this for several years, you find that people talk about being able to start families while also maintaining demanding careers and being able to do both in ways that they find satisfying and fulfilling.”

Recently, many states have begun proposing bills and legislation in favor of the 32hour week. California Congressman Mark Takano and Maryland State Delegate Vaughn Stewart are among many politicians supporting the four-day work week movement. Stewart was a leading supporter of the bill in Maryland before it was withdrawn in March 2023.

The U.S. should continue working to implement this bill in order to work towards a more modern and efficient work schedule. Pang shared his anticipation for the future of the four-day week.

“It is promising that we have seen legislation proposed in several U.S. states, including Maryland, as well as at the federal level with Representative Mark Takano and his proposal to change the standard U.S. working week from 40 hours to 32,” he said.

“I am optimistic that in the next few years we are going to see serious exper-

By Sela Colavito Staff Writer AN OPINION