In Norway, leaving the office at three or four in the afternoon is neither a privilege nor an exception: it is the normal schedule for millions of workers. According to the Active Population Survey of Norway, the standard day in Norway It is around 37.5 hours per week distributed in shifts of 7.5 hours per day, and the real average is around 33.6 hours, which places the country among the developed economies. with fewer hours worked.
Yet even with that enviable starting point, Norway is questioning whether the five-day-a-week model still makes sense. The response that is taking shape points towards the four-day week, not as a utopia, but as an ongoing experiment with scientific data behind it.
A country that works little and produces a lot. In the Norwegian labor market, the idea of working efficiently within a limited schedule predominates. As described by Carla, a Spanish resident in Norway in one of his videos on TikTok: “Most Norwegians have my perfect work schedule, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., because it gives them plenty of time to do afternoon activities and spend time with family.”
Far from hampering the economy, this commitment to conciliation coexists with productivity levels per hour worked among the highest in Europe. According to OECD data Norwegian employees accumulate 1,412 working hours per year, compared to the OECD average of 1,740. For its part, unemployment in 2025 was around 4.7%, according to data of Eurostat.
Generation Z wants to go further. It is precisely the youngest workers who most strongly question the inherited model. According to the survey ‘Empowering Minds’ from YouGov, the invisible mental load derived from planning, anticipating and coordinating so much at work like at homeweighs especially on the younger generations in the Nordic countries. Raised in hyperconnected environmentsGeneration Z does not see the four-day week as a luxury but as logical evolution of smart work. And they have arguments to support it.
A Deloitte survey to more than 23,000 young people reveals that the balance between life and work is the top professional priority of Generation Z, above the career progressionand that only 6% aspire to reach a leadership position as their primary objective. For this generation, working well is not synonymous with work more.
The Nordic model has cracks. The problem is that this model, despite its virtues, has not managed to protect Norwegian workers from stress. The out of hours notifications and instant messaging have eroded the boundaries that Norwegian work culture had so carefully constructed, and sick leave due to mental disorders has continued to grow according to the official discharge records due to illness.
It is in this context where the four-day work week ceases to be a union demand to become an alternative worth considering. If having a shorter than average day already improves the well-being of Norwegians, reducing an entire day could be the lever Norway needs to stop the deterioration of mental health of its workers.
Productivity and well-being in four days. In 2024, the first Norwegian pilot program four-day work week. Eleven companies from sectors as different as hospitals, municipal services and consulting firms participated for six months under the 100:80:100 model (100% of the salary, working 80% of the time, with the objective of maintaining 100% of productivity). Same model they have followed other projects four-day workweek in the world, including that of Valencia in 2023.
The Norwegian experiment was monitored by the consulting firm The Rework in collaboration with Karlstad University and Boston College. The results collected in the official report that have just been made public, show that this day model combines the best of both worlds. Stress was reduced by 19%, participants went from sleeping 6.6 hours a night to 7 hours, and satisfaction with time for personal activities grew by 44%.
All of this occurred while perceived productivity increased by 13%. Of the ten participating companies that shared their business results, five recorded improvements and another five maintained the same levels of productivity and profits as before the experiment. That is, none of them worsened their performance by reducing the working day. In fact, the results were so satisfactory that ten of the eleven companies they decided to continue with the week reduced at the end of the test.
Image | Unsplash (Julian Zwengel, Jopopz Tallorin)
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