A four-day work week can improve employee well-being while sustaining productivity

The length of a standard work week has been steadily declining for well over a century. In the 19th century, some factory workers in Canada were expected to work 72 hours each week. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the standard work week reached the current 40-hour norm. Today, the overwhelming majority of workers in Canada are in favour of further reductions. Many companies have already experimented with a four-day work week with reduced hours, and 91 per cent of them have chosen to stay with it. The model has proven successful elsewhere, writes Jean-Nicolas Reyt in The Conversation, outlining five reasons Canada should move to the four-day model . In Iceland, a large-scale trial of a four-day work week with no reduction in pay led to increased productivity, improved employee well-being and reduced stress levels.