In one 1930 articleBritish economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that inside 100 years, technological progress would have displaced a lot human labor that folks could be working 15-hour weeks – in the event that they worked in any respect.
Today, 96 years later, that vision has not exactly been realized. In Australia, research actually shows that we’re usually doing more work than we’re being paid for. An additional 3.6 hours of unpaid work per week On average
The practical reality of the four-day work week first emerged throughout the energy crisis of the Nineteen Seventies. But the concept gained momentum again when COVID forced a world rethink of how and where we work.
Now, interest in the concept is growing for other reasons. People have been urged to travel less because the Iran war has disrupted fuel supplies. Unions are pushing. Shorter working hours. And just last month, artificial intelligence (AI) giant OpenAI called for As a way for employers to experiment with the four-day work week, productivity gains firms are predicted to achieve from AI.
Our New researchPublished within the journal Nature’s Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, it explores the sensible experiences of 15 Australian firms which have tried to vary this model.
All but one in all them decided to proceed with the four-day work week. And none reported a drop in productivity.
What we did and what we found
In two years, we Interviewed 15 firms had formally conducted the trial. 100:80:100 version of the four-day work week.
This is where staff receive 100% of their normal pay, but work 80% of their previous hours, in return for retaining 100% of their previous productivity.
We interviewed key decision makers at the businesses that pioneered the concept of ​​the four-day week and played a key role in its design and implementation.
We desired to know why they were motivated to make the switch, what advantages and challenges they faced, and the way it impacted overall productivity and company success.
The firms we studied operate in a wide selection of industries, from logistics and property management to healthcare and publishing. About half were small firms, with two to 18 employees, while the opposite half were medium-sized firms with as much as 85 employees.
What triggered the switch?
Often, the four-day work week is promoted as a How to improve Productivity But interestingly, six of the 15 firms we interviewed clearly stated that their primary motivation was to scale back burnout.
Oh 2025 survey By Beyond Blue found that one in two Australian staff experience burnout, with the country’s young people and fogeys most in danger.
In our research, a female chief executive of a medium-sized health tech firm highlighted the importance of work-life balance and burnout prevention strategies for workers.
She said levels of “carelessness”, “absenteeism” and “people taking sick days and mental health days because they’re burnt out” were the important thing metrics she used to gauge the success of the four-day work week.
Another female chief executive of a medium-sized financial firm said:
We realized that after we sat down with clients every single day, and we were encouraging them to live their best lives, that it was a bit wealthy if we didn’t.
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Overall decision
At the time of our interviews – between early 2023 and late 2024 – 14 of the 15 participating firms were still running the 100:80:100 model, either expanding their original trials or moving towards full adoption.
Some admitted they were still within the “early days”. But one firm had already been running this model for about eight years.
One firm balked at the concept, but acknowledged that timing was an enormous consider the choice, because it was already going through a period of serious change on the time of its trial.
In terms of productivity, the six participating organizations showed that there was actually increased productivity after the introduction of the four-day workweek. The remainder of the firms said it remained “about the same”. Notably, not one of the firms reported a discount in productivity because of this of the four-day work week.
Firms made these assessments of productivity based on measures of their very own selecting, starting from revenue and profitability to projects delivered on time and a “net promoter score” (a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction).
When asked for his or her overall evaluation, firms awarded the 100:80:100 four-day work week model a mean success rating of 8.5 out of 10.
Limitations and lessons
Our research has limitations. For one, the actual model we studied continues to be relatively latest, so the variety of organizations we’re capable of study in Australia is small. We plan to conduct a follow-up study with the identical firms over the subsequent few years, testing how sustainable the changes were in the long run.
It’s also price noting that the people we interviewed often had a key role in deciding to trial the four-day work week, so their answers could potentially be biased.
But as we grapple with workplace burnout, and societal challenges about what to do with the productivity gains we’re getting from AI, the four-day work week may very well be an interesting a part of each of those conversations.