fourday Archives - usatoday24

One company tested the four-day work week. Now their workers think that the best thing is to work seven days

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Although in Spain Congress overthrew the proposal for the reduction of working hoursthe debate in Europe is more alive than ever and many countries are reconsidering their working day model with alternatives such as four day work week. Lumena small SEO services consultancy based in Cardiff, tested the four-day work week with outstanding results. However, its CEO considered that the idea could still be improved, so he decided to go one step further and test a model even more flexible: work seven days a week. From the four-day week to the 32-hour week. As Aled Nelmes, CEO of Lumen, told on your LinkedIn profilethe company had changed its four-day workday to a 32-hour workday. The difference may be negligible, implicit in this change is the elimination of an important barrier: the company will not impose whether its employees have to do those 32 hours in a certain number of days or at a certain time. It will be the employees themselves who decide when to work. According to its CEO, in 2023, Lumen implemented the four day work week. The results exceeded all expectations: staff turnover fell to zero, productivity increased, and employees felt more rested and engaged. According to Nelmes, “our workers reported being happier, having better health and being more productive.” According to a study published in the magazine Nature Human Behaviorscience agrees with the CEO. But the model could be improved. Seven days to complete your day. “The idea of the 32-hour week is to go further in the flexibility that the four-day week offered us,” explained Nelmes. In the system proposed by Lumen, the only condition is that employees comply with their projects and objectives, managing their time with total autonomy. Nelmes clarified in statements to The Confidential that “what I require is a lot of self-discipline, the ability to concentrate, self-regulation, initiative and independence.” The company looks for workers capable of directing their own time and offering the best of themselves. “I think we micromanage our workers’ daily lives too much, we assume what kind of day they should have to be productive. My argument is that this is not the case, we do not know, and we need to delegate that decision to each individual,” the young manager highlighted to El Confidencial. The exception: meetings and training. According to what was published for him Financial Timesthe only exception to Lumen’s total flexibility is the time the company spends on team meetings in which mandatory projects and training are defined. Overall, the CEO assures that they do not exceed three hours per week. This guarantees team connection and coordination without sacrificing individual autonomy. For everything else, each of the employees distributes their work week with total work flexibility and no check-in or check-out times. Results and surprises. During the three months that this new flexibility model lasted, Nelmes observed that, in reality, employees did not make major changes to their schedules. The majority maintained routines similar to conventional ones, adapting only small details to enjoy personal activities. “People like to have routines and structure, so many… still prefer to move within a standard schedule,” the CEO explained to The Confidential. Flexibility had been limited to adapting their work schedule to certain personal activities (playing sports, medical appointments, etc.) or to coincide with your children’s schedulesand then recover that time at another time of the week. According to Nelmes, the most extreme case is that of one of his employees, who took advantage of this flexibility to adjust her days of rest during the week according to the weather or her personal needs. Then, I worked on Sunday, because that was the time when found greater concentration and fewer interruptions. Flexibility with clear values and limits. As has counted the CEO, this model does not imply total disconnection from the company. Lumen takes great care in selecting its equipment to ensure that everyone shares commitment values and responsibility. “We wouldn’t hire someone who only wanted to work 16 hours in two days,” Nelmes says. In fact, the manager assures that they have had to let go of people who did not adapt to this level of freedom and demand. The goal is to allow employees to have enough flexibility in their workday to fulfill themselves as people and take care of their familieswhich also helps them save on daycare, cleaning or extracurricular activities. According to Nelmes, “if you let your employees be good parents, they will also be good employees.” The company especially seeks to attract fathers and mothers, convinced that flexibility improves both productivity and quality of life. An adaptable model, but not for everyone. Although the manager assures that the results obtained by his staff have been positive, he recognizes that this model is not viable or for all companies nor for all sectors. Consulting companies, banks, law firms or marketing companies can benefit from this approach as they allow the flexibility of teleworking to be combined with organization by objectives. However, it recognizes that it is an option that is difficult to implement in sectors such as the manufacturing industry, construction, hospitality or tourismwhere physical presence and fixed hours are inherent to the nature of the work. In any case, the results were so satisfactory that Lumen adopted this model permanently. A version of this article was published in June 2025 In Xataka | Spain already has its first municipality with a four-day work week. It is not in Madrid or Barcelona, but in a corner of Cádiz In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how they fared after implementing a work utopia: the four-day week Image | Lumen

As Silicon Valley perpetuates its workday, the four-day work week has found an unexpected ally: OpenAI

May 22, 2026 by usatoday24

While in the mecca of the technology industry celebrates the “996” model (from nine in the morning to nine at night, six days a week) as a mantra to not to be left behind In the AI race, the creator of ChatGPT stands out by proposing just the opposite: reducing working hours with a four day work week. OpenAI just published your report ‘Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First‘. In it, the company suggests that AI can be the perfect excuse for us to work fewer hours a week without losing a cent of our salary. The idea is not just an academic conjecture, but proposes a package of labor policies designed for the age of AI. Four-day days without touching the salary. One of the most surprising sections of the report refers to “efficiency dividends.” With them, OpenAI proposes that governments, companies and unions promote pilot tests of 32-hour days or four days of work per week without salary reduction, as has been established tested successfully in different countries around the world. The stated objective is to maintain the same levels of production and service, taking advantage of the automation options provided by AI and then making the leap to a model of permanent reduced working hours or cumulative vacation days for employees. The striking thing about the proposal is not its content itself, something that has already been implemented with success in some companiesthe key is who proposes the change. Instead of a union or a workplace welfare study, the idea comes from the company itself that is accelerating the transformation of the labor market around the world. Not just reduction in working hours: better pensions and care. OpenAI presents this measure as a way to redistribute part of the productivity benefits extra generated by AI, so that profits are not concentrated only in the shareholders or in the big technology companies, but that the entire population participates in this advance. The four-day week is just one of the most striking measures, but the report goes much further. OpenAI suggests that companies that profit from AI also increase their contributions to their employees’ pension plans (not just those of their managers as a bonus), and that they cover more of their employees’ healthcare expenses. He also proposes what he calls “benefit bonuses“, direct bonuses linked to improved productivity and subsidies for the care of minors and the elderly. If robots work, let them quote. The document recognizes that AI automation can lead to the massive displacement of jobs and further concentrate wealth in a very small number of large companies. That is why it calls for more robust social protection networks. Curiously, OpenAI’s postulate coincides with the statements made a few weeks ago did Bill Gatesarguing that if AI was to reduce dependence on human labor, taxation should shift from wages and contributions to capital gains and corporate profits. The document introduces the idea of ”taxes on automated work”, linked to jobs previously done by people who would be replaced by robots. In Xataka | The war in Iran has achieved something that no government has achieved: giving reasons to bring back teleworking Image | Unsplash (Nathan Kuczmarski)

Iceland has had a four-day work week since 2019. Seven years later, it delivers on all the promises of Gen Z

May 14, 2026 by usatoday24

Iceland was one of the first countries that dared to experiment with the four-day workday and new working day models maintaining the salary. Today, Iceland has not only managed to reduce the working hours of 86% of its population, but it is also among the most dynamic European economies. These data show that the four-day work week and the reduction of working hours are not incompatible with growth. Pioneers of the four-day work week. Between 2015 and 2019, the country implemented a pilot program in which 2,500 public employees reduced their working hours from 40 hours a week to between 35 and 36 hours. The Iceland test data indicated that productivity levels were maintained and the well-being of workers who reported lower levels of stress and well-being was considerably improved. improvements in work-life balance. The reactions were immediate and the Icelandic unions reached agreements with the companies to take this model to other sectors. According to the study monitoring of the experiment of reduction of working hours carried out by the Autonomy Institute of the United Kingdom and the Association for Sustainability and Democracy (ALDA) of Iceland, as a result of those negotiations, 86% of Icelanders already work under some form of reduced hours. “This shows that the public sector is prepared to be a pioneer in reducing the working week, and other governments can learn from this lesson,” said Will Stronge, research director at Autonomy Institute. Years of implementation are beginning to bear fruit. Monitoring of test data in Iceland has continued to see the long-term effects on the impact of the reduction in working hours both among employees and on the country’s economy. ALDA and the Autonomy Institutejust published a study in which it analyzes the impact after four years of reduced working hours available to the majority of its population. Between 2020 and 2022, for example, 51% of its workforce already had access to reduced working hours, including a four-day work week or a five-day work week with shorter days. In parallel, the study revealed that Iceland’s economy was growing faster than that of most of its European neighbors. According to the report World Economic Outlook April 2024 prepared by the International Monetary Fund, Iceland’s economy recorded growth of 5.2% for 2024 and 4.9% for 2025. Greater well-being for employment. The International Monetary Fund report points to the strength of employment in Iceland as one of the keys to its economic growth. According to the ALDA study By 2024, 78% of Icelandic workers are satisfied with their current job. 62% of those who have adopted reduced working hours claim to feel more satisfied with their working hours, while 97% have stated that shorter working hours have made their balance between work and family easier. Impact on the Icelandic economy. The authors of the study point out that Iceland had always worked more hours than its surrounding countries, obtaining lower productivity. However, they highlight that, after the change in working hours, the productivity in Iceland has increased 1.5% annually on average over the last five years. “This is a possible break with the past, when productivity was lower in Iceland than in neighboring countries.” The data provided by the study reflect a behavior very similar to that recorded in the test of the Valencia four-day week: Having more free time encourages the local economy and recreational activities. The study estimates the improvement in the internal economy at 10% after implementing reduced working hours. The key is not the reduction of working hours. The conclusions of the study reflect an idea that was also put on the table in the conclusions of the test of the four-day work week in Germany: “A probable cause of this change (in productivity) is the optimization of work and the reorganization of work shifts as strategies aimed at reducing effective work hours,” the study notes. This clarification reveals that the key to the successive successes in terms of productivity of the tests of the four-day work week would not be a consequence of the reduction of the working day itself, but of the prior optimization process that is carried out in these experiments. Happy future. Iceland’s experience is especially positive for generation Z, definitely the labor cohort that most enthusiastically embraces hybrid or reduced work formats. As we have seen in other countries, Sean Norway or Germany, and as various studies point outGeneration Z has a strong preference for the four-day week. Both socio-labor trends and cultural priorities point in that direction. And the case of Iceland is important because it underlines that the economy is not suffering. In Xataka | Germany is considering the most ambitious labor reform: it wants to eliminate the limit on eight-hour days a day Image | Einar H. Reynis

It is not that Germany is promoting the four-day work day, it is that it is the country that works the fewest hours per year

April 28, 2026 by usatoday24

In May 2025 and through the Eurostat dataa reality was confirmed that sometimes confuses a story: the myth that says that Germans work harder than Spaniards did not stand with figures in hand. The key, as we comment thenwas in the quality of the labor market: a good part of German workers work fewer hours per week in part-time jobs, but they did so for more years than Spanish workers. And now the OECD has arrived to put Germany in your place. Work identity crisis. Germany, traditionally associated with discipline and productivity, today faces a paradox: according to the OECDis the developed country where fewer hours worked per year, just 1,331 compared to the 1,898 of Greece or the 1,716 of Portugal. The situation represents a symbolic blow for a country that just a decade ago imposed austerity policies on southern countries, stigmatizing them as not being hard-working. The drop in workload is combined with a economic deterioration palpable: unemployment has exceeded three million people For the first time in a decade, the economy has contracted for two consecutive years and the GDP is already lower than in 2019, while Spain and Greece are growing at rapid rates. greater than 2%. The debate about work. we have been counting. The reduction in hours worked has become on central theme in German politics. Chancellor Friedrich Merz warns that four-day work weeks and an overemphasis on “life balance” will not sustain the country’s prosperity. The data they are striking: German workers enjoy longer vacations than the legal minimum, numerous holidays and an average of 19 sick leave a year, compared to 16 before the pandemic, a change that experts attribute more to culture than health. Scandals like that of a teacher on leave since 2009 receiving full salary have reinforced the perception that labor laxity is unsustainable. The roots of the phenomenon. They counted in the Washington Post that specialists maintain that it is not about laziness, but rather structural barriers. Almost half of German women work part-time, a figure that exceeds 65% in the case of mothers, which translates into one of the largest gaps in full-time equivalent employment in the entire EU. Historical factors also weigh in: in West Germany, working mothers were stigmatized like “crow mothers”while in the East, under the socialist model, full-time employment was promoted with daycare from an early age. Currently, cultural differences and a child care system with short hours persist that prevent many families from holding full-time jobs. Proposals and resistances. The experts match in which expanding daycare centers and extending their hours would be decisive, but technical solutions collide with politics. Changing the tax system from joint to individual filing could add the equivalent of half a million jobs full-time, but it is perceived as “anti-family” and difficult to approve. For their part, businessmen they claim less bureaucracy and more immigrationwhile some researchers advocate for simple reforms that free up hidden work hours. However, government responses have been considered timid and insufficient, and the feeling of postponement persists. The four-day elephant. Paradoxically, while political leaders call for more work, more and more companies are experimenting with shorter work weeks. In 2024, 45 companies will test the four day week with equal salaries and reduced hours, with positive results: higher productivity per hour and more satisfied employees. The majority of these firms plan to maintain the model, consolidating the trend in favor of free time. Thus, Germany moves between two poles: a productive system that suffers stagnation and pressure to lengthen working hours, and a society that increasingly values life outside of work, drawing a clash of visions that puts not only the economy, but the identity of the country at stake. Image | International Tr In Xataka | Germany seeks a revolutionary change in its labor system: making working more hours profitable In Xataka | Germany tried working four days a week: seven out of 10 companies no longer want to work five days a week A version of this article was originally published in September 2025

the four-day work week

March 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Various tests carried out around the world have revealed that reduce the work week of five days and 40 hours to four dayscontributes to improving not only the well-being of workers, but also their productivity and commitment to their work. However, there is something about the four-day work week that, currently, is of much more interest to leaders: the savings in fuel consumption that implies that workers do not take the car to go to work. For this reason, the president of the Philippines has decreed that officials in several offices of the Philippine executive would go to work only four days a week to save energy for the crude price increase due to the war situation in Iran. The four-day work week as an economic measure. This is not the first time that labor flexibility has been used as an economic tool. In fact, in Spain it was asked to prioritize teleworking after the DANA of Valencia or to avoid risks when traveling due to meteorological threats. However, what is unusual is that the four-day work week is used to prevent officials from traveling to their workplaces and thus save fuel in the face of an imminent supply crisis in the archipelago. As stated in the Memorandum Circular number 114A published by the Philippine government, the average will affect all officials starting March 9. The four-day week for efficiency. In his statement, President Marcos highlighted one exception, “We are temporarily adopting a four-day work week in certain executive branch offices. This does not apply to those providing emergency or essential services, including police, firefighters and other frontline services,” leaving emergency personnel out of the workweek cut. Along with this, the president ordered all public organizations to reduce their electricity and fuel consumption by between 10 and 20%, also prohibiting non-essential travel, study visits and all face-to-face meetings that can be held electronically. Each organization must also appoint a person responsible for energy efficiency and submit monthly consumption reports. A country hostage to foreign oil. Although the measure may seem somewhat exaggerated after only a week of conflict, the Philippines does not produce its own oil and depends on fossil fuel plants to generate much of its electricity. That makes the minimum swing in prices of the crude oil is transferred immediately to homes and businesses. In his message, Marcos explained that the conflict in the Middle East has affected the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and that, when that route fails, prices rise around the world. The president warned of the concrete consequences if the strait were to close, fuel prices would skyrocket in the market. Something that, in fact, it’s already happening in much of the planet. The private sector, on guard. At the moment, the reduction in working hours only applies to the public sector, but the debate on the convenience of applying it to the private sector is already being debated among political groups. Senator Francis Escudero encouraged companies private companies to study staggered shifts or flexible working, arguing that reducing traffic in large cities would have a significant economic impact. According to senator’s details According to a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), traffic jams in Metro Manila cost the country approximately 3.5 billion pesos a day (about 51 million euros). However, businessmen do not have the same opinion. “For manufacturing, we have been operating with limited resources, and further reducing work days could put our commitments at risk,” assured to The Inquirer Ferdinand Ferrer, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). A story that repeats itself. Although the four-day work week is a concept that sounds novel, it is actually not something new for the Philippines. Already in 1990, during the Gulf War, the Department of Labor and Employment implemented the week of four days with the same objective: to cushion the economic impact of a sharp rise in crude oil. History repeats itself under very similar conditions. The difference with the European debate on the four-day week could not be greater. There are no employee well-being studies or analysis of productivity for companies. The Philippine government’s vision is much more pragmatic: reduce its energy bill as quickly as possible. In Xataka | Spain already has its first municipality with a four-day work week. It is not in Madrid or Barcelona, but in a corner of Cádiz Image | Unsplash (Haberdoedas, phyo min)

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