Research shows your team can deliver the same productivity in four days that is currently delivered in five, so why hold on to outdated practices that cost time, money and your people’s mental health?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve liked to work long days.

As someone who sleeps a maximum of five hours each night, I’ve always had more capacity each day than most people, and I’ve been able to very accurately pinpoint at which times my different skills are at their sharpest. 

In most of my jobs, whether agency-side or in-house, it would get to 5.30/6pm, knock-off time, and while my team filed out, I’d look forward to the peace, and the opportunity to get stuck in.

If I left on time, it would only be to hurriedly unpack and switch on the computer when I got home so I could pick up where I left off without breaking the line of thought. 

I dislike the disconnect of being in the middle of something, especially when working strategy or complex thinking, and pushing the pause button only to find the challenge swishing around in my brain for hours on end.

I dislike the time — even though it’s usually very little — it takes the next day to get back into the exact mindset of the night before so I can carry on where I left off. 

I hate interrupting a good mental roll!

So, for more than two decades, with the odd break here and there due to different types of jobs, older tech, and a little bit of travel, I’ve worked long days. 

Not long after I returned to Australia from an incredible stint in London, and following a particularly horrendous contract in Sydney, I somehow found myself working for one of Australia’s leading universities. 

And that’s where it all changed.

Governed by an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), strict on recording working hours, and dedicated to its flex-time model (any hour over was an hour you got back), within a very short time, I was summoned to the Director’s office to discuss the more than 120+ hours in overtime I had worked up. While she was over the moon with the output, she was also very invested in balance.  

Her solution: if you don’t want to switch off once you’ve switched on, don’t switch on one day each week. Keep doing the long days for four days of the week, and take the fifth day off. 

A good decade before today’s newspaper headline conversations, and the current union movements across various Australian states, and just a few years after the introduction of The Fair Work Act, my Director was encouraging me to take on a four-day work week. 

So I did, and I haven’t looked back. 

Not everyone works the same

If you were to ask me if I think the four-day work week is a good idea, I’d say an enthusiastic yes. 

For me. 

Initially, I used the time to finally start the IT post-grad studies I’d been wanting to do for so long, but couldn’t, because previous employers denied me the same flexibility they readily offered to my colleagues who were parents. 

I started passion projects, took on other clients to diversify my work, volunteered for charities, and I even took some long weekends. 

Monday to Thursday, I was at the Uni with 110% commitment. I was grateful, I was dedicated, and I was focused on showing them, through increased productivity and results, that their flexibility would be rewarded. 

Fridays were mine. 

For me, four days works. 

But in reality that’s not true for everyone. 

Productivity and performance

The strongest argument for or against a four-day week usually comes down to productivity.

If we take the trials and data at face value, there’s plenty of reason to believe it works.

In the UK’s 2022–23 four-day week pilot across 61 companies (Autonomy.work), burnout reportedly decreased by 71%, productivity remained the same or rose, and revenue increased. 

Of those companies that participated, 92% chose to continue after the trial. 

Microsoft Japan’s experiment saw productivity lift by 40% and electricity costs fall by almost a quarter (CNBC). In Australia and New Zealand, a six-month trial by 4 Day Work Week Global across 26 organisations found 95% wanted to keep the model, with staff turnover cut by more than half.

A further peer-reviewed study of 141 organisations across six countries published in Nature Human Behaviour (NHB), including Australia, saw improved productivity and increased job satisfaction. 

All of this is on top of reports from the Productivity Commission that Australians are already working increasingly long hours in record numbers, contributing to a productivity slump. In short, Aussies need a break, and more focus on outcomes than hours. 

Despite the long list of positives though, it’s not all upside. 

Compressing workloads into fewer days can create pressure points, with some participants reporting higher stress and reduced space for creativity. While four days may sound good in theory for families, in reality, longer hours can mean a greater reliance on childcare. And though many of us will give back wholeheartedly to the employer who gives to us, some will of course take it for granted. 

Productivity improvement is clearly possible, but it doesn’t come without adjustments in how work is structured and led.

Balance, wellbeing and culture

The four-day model is often framed as a productivity play, partly because most businesses are focused on that single bottom line, but the bigger story may be the impact on people. 

Burnout, an increasingly challenging issue in Australia, fell by more than 60% according to a NHB pilot study, mental health improved by 41%, and job satisfaction also increased. In New Zealand, Perpetual Guardian’s 2018 trial saw stress drop by 7% and work–life balance climb from 54% to 78% of employees feeling they had it right (The Guardian).

These ripple effects matter. 

Better sleep, reduced fatigue, stronger focus all flow through into performance, morale, culture, and retention, each an incredibly important measure of success, and in turn, drivers of that financial bottom line. 

Under these conditions, leaders are also encouraged to rethink how they measure outcomes: it’s less about hours at the desk and more about what’s delivered. That shift can be uncomfortable, but the upside is a culture built on trust, engagement, and clearer alignment between work and life.

And while some leaders will inevitably argue some of their employees will ‘slack off’ given the chance, this raises an issue less with the length of the work week, and more with management and expectation setting, who they are recruiting, why, and whether the values of those people align with those of the company. Regardless of four days or five, should those people be retained? 

Why five days?

It’s worth remembering the five-day week itself is just a simple social construct that was ‘invented’ the same way any other is. 

Henry Ford popularised it in the 1920s, unions fought for it through the 1940s, and it was eventually legislated in Australia in 1948. It’s a construct born of an industrial era that looked very different from today, when six days of work was the norm, with only Sundays off for church.

And recently, we all had a very good example of how easily social constructs can shift… if big business and the powers-that-be support it.

Covid reminded us very little is set in stone. At the peak of lockdowns, almost half of Australians were working from home after years of being told it was not possible. 

We saw cost savings on fuel and travel, stronger family connections, and in many cases, steady or improved productivity. 

The lesson was clear: work can be organised differently, and people, and the businesses they work for, can thrive when it is.

People, Place and Profit over four days

Looking at the four-day week through a triple bottom line lens shows why momentum is building.

For People, burnout and turnover fall, retention rises, and gender equity improves as shorter hours can make it easier for parents to balance work and care. 

For Place, fewer commutes and shorter office hours mean less energy use and lower emissions. Microsoft Japan was a great example of this. A UK study by Platform London suggested national adoption of the four-day work week could cut emissions by 127m tonnes, equivalent to taking all their private cars off the road.

And for Profit? Trials consistently show revenue holding steady or rising, while recruitment and retention costs fall. Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand also saw customer engagement rise (one of the few studies that measured for this). 

For many businesses, the maths adds up.

Are we even asking the right question?

Still, the reality is, the four-day work week can’t be universal, and that alone is why some people argue against it (slightly irrationally as shift-based and other practices already exist in our 5-day world). 

Some industries can’t realistically compress schedules, and some employees don’t want it, preferring five shorter days over four longer ones (noting some models don’t suggest elongating days at all). 

Maybe the point isn’t whether everyone should move to four days. The point is that people are different, and workplaces stand to gain if they empower them to lean into how they work best, just as I have. 

The five-day week, down from six, once felt impossible to achieve. Now, it’s being challenged for four. 

Whether the answer is four days, hybrid models, or something else entirely, the companies that will flourish are those willing to experiment, listen, and build systems that get the best from their people.

At Write Way Up, we are focused on building strategies that help businesses grow — and keep growing — sustainably, no matter what this ever-evolving world throws at them. 

Guided by triple bottom line thinking, questions like ‘will a 4-day work week boost morale, productivity and profit?’ aren’t just hypotheticals, they’re exactly the kinds of challenges we explore with our clients to unlock better ways of doing business. 

Curious what smarter, more sustainable growth could look like for you? Reach out to our team.