People Are Loving the World’s Biggest Four-Day Workweek Trial – and They’re Just as Productive

86% of survey respondents said they’ll likely want to stick with a 4 day work week after the trial ends.

Three and a half months ago, the biggest four-day workweek trial in the world to date kicked off in the UK. Over 3,300 employees from 70 different companies—including everything from large corporations to small neighborhood pubs—started getting 100 percent of their pay for working 80 percent of their typical schedule. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? The catch was, they had to maintain 100 percent of their productivity.

Translation? Get the same amount of money for doing the same amount of work in less time.

It still doesn’t sound like a bad deal. The six-month trial reached its halfway point earlier this month, and a report summarizing results thus far was released last week. The Cliffs Notes version is, it’s going well; unsurprisingly, people like having an extra day of their lives back.

The trial is being run by 4 Day Week Global, a nonprofit coalition of business leaders, community strategists, designers, and advocacy thought leaders invested in the transition to reduced working hours.

Researchers from Boston College, Oxford, and Cambridge are monitoring the trial’s impact on employee productivity and well-being, looking at indicators around stress and burnout, health, sleep, energy use, and general job and life satisfaction.

In a survey given to participants, 88 percent said the four-day week is working well for their business, with just under half of respondents rating their productivity at “around the same level.” A third said their productivity has improved slightly, and 15 percent said the experiment has made them “significantly” more productive.

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86% of survey respondents said they’ll likely want to stick with a 4 day work week after the trial ends.