Dozens of companies across North America are staying, or planning to stay, with a four-day work week after participating in a pilot project organized by the non-profit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global and researchers at Boston College.
"How would I go back to that five-day life? It would be very difficult," said Khan, who works in client services for Sensei Labs, a Toronto-based software company. Joe O'Connor, the former CEO of 4 Day Week Global who helped lead the study, says it's the largest trial of its kind in North America to date and the first that involves a "relatively strong participation" from hundreds of Canadians from a total of nine companies.
The study had companies, most having between 11 to 25 employees, voluntarily try a four-day work week for six months between February 2022 and April 2023. Researchers let companies choose the best way to reduce hours as long as they maintained pay at 100 per cent. "That can be, perhaps, more difficult to scale up in a larger company with lots more people, lots more complexity," said Shen.