Juliet Schor recently co-authored a piece for CNN on “The case for the four-day work week“:
More recently, other forms of reduced worktime have been studied systematically. In Iceland, beginning in 2015, 2,500 public sector workers started working 35- and 36-hour weeks with no change in pay. Careful research found positive effects all around. Workers had less stress, more energy, better work-life balance, as well as steady or improved productivity.
Swedish studies of six-hour days for nurses saw similarly positive impacts, with their own well-being significantly improved, albeit with a modest increase in salary costs due to hiring more staff to cover shifts. A common finding is that people who work four-day weeks sleep more — which is a major contributor to well-being.
