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The largest trial<\/a> ever conducted of a four-day workweek<\/a> found that the schedule had a positive and noticeable impact on employee well-being.<\/p>\n The global study was published on Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour<\/i><\/a> and led by Boston College researchers Wen Fan and Juliet Schor. The researchers found that four-day workweeks, where employees work 32 hours a week instead of the traditional 40 hours with no reduction in pay, markedly improved employee health. Workers reported feeling happier, healthier, and higher-performing.<\/p>\n Related:<\/b> This Country Just Implemented a 6-Day Workweek for Employees<\/a><\/p>\n For example, nearly 70% of employees reported less burnout<\/a>, over 40% said their mental health<\/a> improved, and 38% experienced better sleep.<\/p>\n “Beyond maintaining productivity, people just feel so much better,” Schor<\/a> told CNBC<\/i><\/a> about the study findings on Thursday. “They feel on top of their work and their life, and they’re not stressed out.”<\/p>\n The researchers followed 2,896 employees on a four-day workweek<\/a> for six months, spanning 141 companies in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand. A control group of 300 employees on a standard five-day workweek was used to compare.<\/p>\n Two weeks before the four-day workweek began, employees were asked questions like, “How would you rate your mental health?” and then they were asked again after six months on a four-day workweek schedule. The control group was asked the same questions in the same timeframe, but without starting a shorter workweek.<\/p>\n Fan<\/a>, an associate professor of sociology at Boston College, was initially worried<\/a> that worker well-being would “worsen” because employees would feel pressure to be more productive on a schedule with a reduced number of days. But the findings showed that worker stress levels<\/a> fell. After six months, employees working four days a week instead of five reported an improved ability to complete their work and decreased fatigue. The control group, meanwhile, did not report any significant changes.<\/p>\n “The results indicate that income-preserving four-day workweeks are an effective organizational intervention for enhancing workers’ well-being,” the researchers wrote in the study.<\/p>\n Related: <\/b>‘Love It!’: A Town in Connecticut Is Experimenting with a 4-Day Workweek \u2014 and It Seems to Be Working<\/a><\/p>\n Companies are opting to stick to the four-day workweek<\/a> once they try it. The researchers stated that over 90% of the companies in the experiment kept the four-day work week after the six-month trial period.<\/p>\n Schor wrote in The Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/a> last month that on the employer side, organizations that piloted a four-day workweek found it noticeably improved their bottom line, with revenue increasing and resignations decreasing.<\/p>\n Related: <\/b>Kevin O’Leary Thinks a Four-Day Workweek Is the ‘Stupidest Idea’ He’s Ever Heard<\/a><\/p>\n Over 245 global businesses and nonprofit organizations have trialed a four-day workweek over the past three years, reaching 8,700 employees around the world, Schor noted.<\/p>\n One major company that utilizes a four-day workweek is crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which started its shortened workweek as a pilot program<\/a> in 2021. Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor told investor Kevin O’Leary<\/a> last year that employees are “very productive’ within the four-day week structure.<\/p>\n “I love the fact that the people at our company have [other] interests,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the<\/i> <\/i>Level Up conference<\/i><\/a> to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success.<\/i><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The largest trial<\/a> ever conducted of a four-day workweek<\/a> found that the schedule had a positive and noticeable impact on employee well-being.<\/p>\n The global study was published on Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour<\/i><\/a> and led by Boston College researchers Wen Fan and Juliet Schor. The researchers found that four-day workweeks, where employees work 32 hours a week instead of the traditional 40 hours with no reduction in pay, markedly improved employee health. Workers reported feeling happier, healthier, and higher-performing.<\/p>\n Related:<\/b> This Country Just Implemented a 6-Day Workweek for Employees<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n