The UK is testing a 4-day working week

Platten’s, a fish and chips store in Norfolk, England, is also involved in the program.

“We believe that by providing our employees with a better work-life balance, they can work more efficiently and effectively,” said Callum Howard, a spokesman for the restaurant.

The four-day work week has been a dream job for decades. In 1956, then-Vice President Richard Nixon predicted such an agreement in the “not too distant future.” But the reality has been uneven around the world over the years, said in a telephone interview Dr. Shore, who also leads research in other studies.

Individual companies have adapted their approaches, especially after the pandemic destroyed the traditional work culture. In the United States, some companies have allowed employees to shorten their work week by cutting Friday, working in hybrid shifts, cutting wages in fewer hours, or setting their own schedules.

In New Zealand, Unilever launched a shorter trial period in 2020. In Iceland, experience with reducing weekly working hours to 35 or 36 hours, involving around 2,500 civil servants, expanded during the pandemic, with 86% of all Icelandic workers are already working or eligible for a shorter schedule, Dr Shore said.

Most of the effort is in the private sector, but the governments of Scotland and Spain have announced support, including subsidies, for a four-day work week, she said. Companies in Ireland and Australia begin testing on August 1, and two more tests begin in the United States and Canada in October.

Working from home during the pandemic was a major driver of the growing momentum for a shorter work week, Dr Shore said. “This has made employers realize that they can trust their workers,” she said.

Companies are also being forced to restructure their way of working.

“Companies that are really successful at this are eliminating activities outside of people’s records,” she said. “The most common reorganization of work is related to meetings – the excessive number of meetings, the excessive duration and the lack of efficiency in the meetings.”