UK Employees Participate In Four-Day Week Trial

This article was updated on September 18th, 2024

In what is said to be the largest pilot scheme of its kind, almost 3,000 employees from 60 UK companies will try out a four-day work week.

Employees from a variety of enterprises and philanthropic organisations, including the Royal Society of Biology, a Manchester-based medical device company, and a Norfolk fish and chip shop, will participate in the scheme, which will run from June to December.

It’s part of a drive to get businesses to switch to a shorter work week as a way to improve working conditions and raise production. Academics from Cambridge and Oxford universities, as well as Boston College in the United States, are conducting the trial in collaboration with 4 Day Week Global, 4 Day Week UK Campaign, and the Autonomy thinktank.

“Increasingly, managers and executives are embracing a new model of work which focuses on quality of outputs, not quantity of hours,” said Joe O’Connor, the chief executive of 4 Day Week Global. “Workers have emerged from the pandemic with different expectations around what constitutes a healthy life-work balance.”

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted many people and businesses to reconsider their working patterns, with remote, hybrid, and flexible working becoming increasingly popular and vital to employees.