Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
This article was written by Emily Boyer for Work Design Magazine.
Burnout is rising. Focus is fractured. Productivity is stalling and honestly the five day work week is starting to feel outdated. What if working less actually made your team better?
The four-day workweek isn’t a brand-new idea, but it has gained some serious momentum in recent times. For years, the five-day, 40-hour schedule was simply the default, rarely questioned and widely accepted as the cost of doing business. But times are changing, expectations are shifting. And more people are starting to question whether we really need five full days to do great work.
We’ve seen the studies. We’ve watched major companies take the leap and test the model. And the results? Teams are happier, more focused, and just as productive. But we kept coming back to one question: could this actually work for us?
We think it can. Because we’ve tried it at Work Design, and it’s working.
The Reality is Simple: The Old Model isn’t Working Anymore.
Let’s be honest – the two-day weekend doesn’t cut it anymore.
More and more people are feeling stretched thin, and many people are losing motivation for jobs they once genuinely enjoyed. The days feel longer, attention spans are shorter, and the usual two-day weekend just isn’t sufficing anymore. Forty hours of mental output can’t be undone by a quick Saturday-Sunday reset anymore. That’s where the four-day workweek comes in, not as a perk or vacation, but as a real solution.
And this shift isn’t just wishful thinking. In 2022, the United Kingdom conducted a study to test the shorter week. One year later, 54 of the original 61 companies (89%) chose to continue with the model. Even more telling: 82% of the surveyed companies reported positive impacts on staff well-being. These studies show that reducing our workweek isn’t out of reach anymore, it’s a strategy with long-lasting benefits.
From Reporting to Doing
Work Design had been covering the 4-day workweek for years, so this wasn’t new for us either. When the chance came to try it within our own company, we jumped at the chance, beginning with a small-scale test involving two employees. The idea was met with immediate enthusiasm, both from those participating and the rest of the team supporting the shift.
We also didn’t go in blind. We leaned on the experience of people we trust, like our Circularity Editor, Cynthia Milota, who’s written extensively on the topic, and other industry experts with first-hand knowledge. Their insights helped us avoid some of the common missteps to make sure we were building something thoughtful, not just trendy.
Getting Started
The first week was a little bumpy and our team actually had to push the launch back by a week. But once we got into it, things began to click.
While not everyone had the luxury of experiencing the transition to the 4-day workweek, everyone felt the benefits. Publisher, Michelle Weiss stayed available all five days but found unexpected benefits. The extra day without internal meetings offered uninterrupted time for focused work and provided “a dedicated no-internal meeting day that allowed for focused work and opportunity to invest in upskilling,” she explained. That kind of space is rare and powerful.
More stories for you
What’s Actually Working
Since implementing the four-day workweek, team members have reported noticeable shifts not just in how they work, but how they feel about their work. While not all workflows changed, the mindset around work did. With the compressed week, more team members focused on time management and became more aware of how they used their time. Meetings got more intentional. People got better at prioritizing. And even though the structure didn’t drastically change their jobs, it changed their mindset.
What We’re Gaining
One of the clearest benefits was improved productivity, a strong sense of personal control over time, and reduced burnout.
Project Management Lead, Katie Sargent, who has been with Work Design for more than 5 years, says she feels “less scattered and pulled in multiple directions.” Structuring her week by theme, calls on Monday, focused work midweek, and project collaboration later, has helped her prioritise more effectively and “allow [her] full attention to be on work.” She also mentioned a huge emotional shift: “I no longer feel the ‘Sunday scaries’ and am energized at the beginning of the week.” Just as importantly, she feels that her company is “prioritizing [her] health and well-being outside of the office.”
For Emily Ambery, in editorial, the time crunch of a shorter week was actually motivating. She felt that the shorter week made her more organized and forward-thinking. It pushed her to plan ahead and be more thoughtful. She found herself able to “dedicate more time and care” to all her projects.
More Than Just a Schedule Change
What stood out in both interviews wasn’t just better productivity, it was trust and a deeper connection to the work and people behind it.
Emily expressed how the new structure brought a sense of shared accountability: “We all held each other accountable for getting deliverables and projects done in the four days,” and noted that the move demonstrated a real commitment to trust in the company culture.
That trust and flexibility also led to stronger human connections. Katie noted that she actually feels more connected to the company now than she did before the shift. “We share stories of what we’re doing over the weekend and support each other outside of the office,” she said.“ I find myself speaking about the company more than ever before.”
This all points to something bigger: employee experience. Emily described a great work experience as “an environment where you feel supported and empowered to do your job and help with projects that are important for the company and you.” She added after that because of Work Design’s structure and workflow, the four-day workweek felt like a natural fit. And once it was in place, it worked.
This aligns with Cynthia Milota’s insights in her article on employee experience, where she emphasizes that how employees feel at work matters more than how many hours they’re there. In fact, research shows that a high-quality work experience has more than 2.5 to 3 times more impact on performance than just reducing hours. Redesigning the experience of work, creating space for autonomy, purpose, and mutual accountability, can be just as powerful as changing the schedule itself. The real win isn’t simply time off, it’s creating a better way to work altogether. One built on trust, autonomy, and space for people to thrive.
How We Did It
Here are some best practices from our experience.
- Developed complete alignment with the goal and set metrics to ensure no loss in productivity and to prevent burnout.
- We chose our model from the following:
- Compressed (4 x 10 hours): Slightly longer hours, fewer days. [we chose this one]
- Reduced hours (4 x 8 hours or less): True reduction in hours with maintained or increased productivity.
- Flexible model: Different teams or individuals choose which day off.
- Involved employees in the design; Specifically selecting Fridays to be the day off, determining a shared schedule for coverage on Fridays, how would would handle holiday weeks, method for communicating this switch, revising weekly reports and establishing checkins. Coverage went beyond checking a dedicated email throughout the day and included escalation protocols and a small amount of additional cross-functional training.
- Captured the details of the plan in an HR compliance document with individual sign-off in advance being required from all participating employees.
- Ran a 90-day pilot filled with plenty of options for formal and informal feedback.
- Celebrated the success and shared stories of what the experience meant to each of us. Finally, we wrote this article!
That’s exactly what the four-day workweek is helping us do. Who is joining us?
