Study Finds Four-Day Work Week Linked To Better Health

So, we’re all agreed! The five-day work week needs to go. Working just four days a week can help workers protect their mental health, according to researchers.A team at Boston College said their landmark study, involving more than 100 companies and nearly 2,900 workers in the U.S., U.K. Australia, Canada, and Ireland, had revealed the shift was associated with a high level of satisfaction on the part of both employers and employees.

That included an improvement in productivity and growth in revenue, a positive impact on physical and mental health, and less stress and burnout. A 2024 poll of more than 2,000 full-time U.S. workers found that more than half of respondents reported feeling exhausted from chronic workplace stress within the past year.An international study finds that a four-day work week is linked to better mental health. The report, published in Nature Human Behavior, shows less burnout and better job satisfaction among workers with abbreviated work weeks. Researchers conducted a six-month study involving nearly three-thousand employees at more than 140 businesses in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK. The study also showed workers were more effective on the job when given a four-day work week and reported better sleep and less fatigue.

Employee Burnout Rates Fall

Across the board, workers in the trial reported improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health, and even physical health. Burnout scores tumbled, while job satisfaction shot up by more than half a point (based on a 10-point scale). Employees also reported better mental health, alongside moderate gains in physical well-being.

Apparently these patterns failed to materialize in the control group, where both working hours and well-being scores remained the same. That contrast helps rule out broader societal trends or timing effects as explanations. Another key factor was that employees would use their third day off for doctor’s appointments and other personal errands that they might otherwise try to cram into a work day. Because of these changes, employers would have lower health care costs and less employee turnover with a four-day week, researchers found.