, an entrepreneur who instituted a four-day week at his New Zealand company, Perpetual Guardian, and provides a platform for those interested in a four-day week practices.
The pilot study for the U.S. and Ireland, which included 903 employees from the participating companies, 495 of which responded to the researchers’ surveys, is small. Still, it offers a snapshot of how workers feel about the approach: They reported greater control over their schedules, higher levels of productivity and a greater sense of how well they were doing their jobs.
But none of the 27 companies that participated said they were planning to end the approach, says Schor, who has researched long work hours in America. “I am not saying that every company can succeed tomorrow with this model. ... But what I think is going to happen is it’s going to be viable for more and more companies.”
, mounting layoffs and the threat of a recession, they see increasing interest in the approach, including from larger companies that have not been as involved in early trials.that it was expanding its four-day week trial in New Zealand to Australia after encouraging results.