Four Day Work Week: The Future of Work? - TLDR Explains 

As someone who does work a 4 day work week I can absolutely say it was the best decision I've ever made :)

bold of you to assume all of our hobbies are bongo-related then again, you're not far off

4 day work week? [Laughs in retail] [Then cries in retail]

As a freight train driver I already have a 4 day work week, but our days are longer. I do prefer it. Better 4 long days than 5 shorter ones.

They used to mock the idea of weekends and paid annual leave too and some studies / companies have shown a 4 day week can improve productivity (as shown in this video). The future is automation anyway, so bring on a 4 day week.

Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yees

I definitely think a 4-day-work-week is in the future. The question is just how far away that future is.

Spend more time with the family? Aaaaaargh!

I’m a mum of two young children and working a four day week is the best thing for my family! I’m definitely more productive in work!

You said $35 per hour for UK productivity but displayed $53...

I went from a 5 day work week, working 7 hours a day and 35 hours a week, to working the same hours in 4 days, doing 8.75 hours per day, and I quite enjoy it.

“OMG a 4 day week that’s insane” I say at pub job where I only get 20 hours a week maximum

2:52 "If your an employer"

The netherlands has a 29 hours work week, a small part of the working force does that but the major part of us here do the normal 38 a week.

Who else got a "4 Hour work week" ad before this video? 😂

just start with a 4x9 hour work week. You dont really notice working 1 hour extra each day. You do notice 1 extra day off each week.

I have recently cut to a four day week myself, and i truly wish it to everyone, my mental health has improved and i’m getting more done.

Hi TLDR. I think it's come to my attention now that in your (recent?) videos, you seem to say the numbers wrong. This has been consistently happening. Maybe some proof reading/ quality control before the videos go live? Anyway, this was an interesting video.

I remember a magazine article I read when I was in college in the 80s about how computers were going to revolutionize work. They were going to make us so efficient that we'd get our work done in 1/4 of the time and have that much more time for leisure. How'd that go?

I remember back in the U.K. in the 70's when a 3 day work week was proposed since computers and automation had improved workers efficiencies and there was an Oil shortage crisis. What actually happened was a lot of redundancies and those lucky enough to keep their jobs were worked harder to do the work of two people to make even more money for companies. I hope that the 4 day work week happens. We have been owed it for the last 50 years!

Less days working may also see a decrease in carbon emissions due to not travelling to work

Lol people ridiculing Corbyn for saying a 4 day week but that's actually proven multiple times to give more productive, healthier and happier employees.

Most Americans don't know this but America almost had a 30 hour work week all the way back in 1938. It was called the Black-Connery Bill and it'd passed through the senate, had nationwide support and the president was on board with it. Then the National Association of Manufacturers stepped in and were against it and the bill didn't make it through the house. That was back in 1938. It's 2020. Almost a century later and we still work 40+ hours a week. It's ridiculous that we don't have a maximum 25 hour work week at this point all things considered.

Post-human automation will accelerate our new relationship between ourselves and working (in general). In a hopeful sense, this should give an opportunity for humanity to explore ourselves / produce new concepts but seeing as the old world doesn't want to let go of the power-struggle its spent hundreds of years holding on to, I see major fundamental issues up ahead. There was a man called Jacques Fresco (died only a few years ago), who was an inventor and futurist who developed a resource based economy concept with plans for new cities. Its called the Venus Project for anyone interested.

When I moved from an Australian 38-hour week to a Silicon Valley 50-hour week, I noticed that there was at least 12 hours' more stuffing around in the Valley. At the company I later founded, we decided to just pay hourly. Our workers probably work an average of a bit under 30 hours per week, but every hour is productive, and we have much less turnover than other companies seemed to.

In my previous job I worked a 3 day week, granted I was working a barely working time directive compliant set of hours for this, but it meant I could stay full time and also have additional days at home for childcare. While this was somewhat exhausting by the end of the third day, the four straight days off were relaxing and I generally felt energized at work. I also struggled to take my annual leave as I could often plan my out of work commitments around my working week and didn't get to a point where I ended up feeling like I needed to take a week off. Fast forward and I now work a 5 day week with the same number of hours. I'm far more tired, by Friday I can feel my productivity dipping and just two days off means I don't feel I've fully recovered from the last week by the time I start over again on Monday. I'm near the end of the year and wishing I had more annual leave available to take a week off to recover. FWIW the two jobs are mostly the same. I'm not totally sure on this notion of keeping the working day the same length when moving to 4-day weeks, I'd be happy to work 4x 10 hour days to get the extra full day at home, and 4x 9 hour days seems a fair compromise.

As someone who has a four day week because of the schedule for my classes in University I can say that it’s a wonderful idea.

It is also recommended to put your new free day in the middle of the work week to break it up some more. It resets your productivity during the week and prevents you from getting too used to the downtime. Another interesting idea would be to test different approaches to a work week that doesn't match a calendar week. It would be interesting to find out the ideal work rhythm

4 day weeks are great. Should be standard

Here in the states, our studio Wraith Games has a 24 hour work week (*basically* trimming off an extra day *and* an hour at the beginning and end of each day). We also allow team members to choose *when* they come in (or even work from home), so it's not a 1-to-1. We're also employee-owned, flat management, have unlimited PTO, and are zero-crunch (in additional to being paperless). Of course some people make it sound like it's a nightmare, but we're pretty happy with it and have been around since 2005.

If my memory serves me correctly; while yes, Japan did reduce their working week to 4 days and receive boosts to productivity, the government struggled to enforce this. Many employees still found themselves working Friday's and often pulling the same overtime at weekends. Workload didn't decrease and workers found it difficult to complete 5/6 days worth of tasks in 4. The Japanese government since tried Monday instead of Friday. They believed workers were more likely to stick to this. Their reasoning was that they would be under less pressure starting late, than finishing early. Many people actually work a 6 day week when it's already set to 5. Japan has struggled to make 4 a thing - even if they have perfected it now. A four day week sounds superb though.

By what, is productivity measured? Seems somewhat ambiguous

I remember hearing about a proposal for 3/3 whereby you work for a 3-day week and then have a 3-day weekend. With various companies choosing which three days to close completely or to have certain departments out at various times, there would be enough overlap to cover the workload while increasing productivity. This was much discussed in Silicon Valley back in the 90s when the Web was still new and people were struggling to sort out how to deal with the 24/7 nature of the Internet.

There's a HUGE difference between a handful of organisations deciding that this works better for their employees, and a blanket piece of legislations that forces ALL companies to adopt it.

I know many who do 12 hour shifts 3 days a week, but it's called the weekend shift and you end up getting a high salary.

TLDR I love your work, and I really really hope you can find someone to give your videos a final edit in future. These typos and mistakes are sending the languages teacher in me round the bend, and there's no need when you get all the hard stuff (like the data, the graphs, the script, etc.) right! Just have someone watch the video to check please!

2:51 "you're" please! TLDR is keeping the grammar police busy as always...😂 love your work by the way🤗👍

Back in the 1960s the TV programme Tomorrow's World suggested that by the year 2000 we could all be working a 20 hour week as a result of technological advances. The advances with automation, computers and robotics have been as dramatic as expected and the shorter working week was feasible but the benefits didn't filter through to workers as expected. Pay has increased but things like house prices have increased more dramatically so workers are hardly any better off. A 4 day week has been slow in coming but a 10 year horizon for its implementation seems sensible.

To clarify. 🇬🇧 : 38hrs & 🇳🇱 : 29hrs includes part-time work. Full Time the difference is.: 🇬🇧 : 41hrs & 🇳🇱 : 37hrs

The thing with work and everything is that rest is the most valuable resource for mental and psychical health

Increasing pay without any extra effort and decreasing working hours to reduce the overall amount of effort? I wonder what Labour voters would think when they're part of the mass redundancies.

An increase in leisure time and days may also boost consumption, the same way the 2-day weekend boosted holidays and tourism consumption. It might be a good thing to try if both productivity gains and increased consumer spending can be obtained.

In the Netherlands, there are many part-timers, whose partners work full- time.

Good topic! More to come for sure now that the debate is open

This is the kind of smart, workable and worker-friendly measure that corporations will LOATHE. They've invested so much in automation to save money and many apparently see paying humans as a (for now) unavoidable evil.

During my career I had two periods where I had 4 day work weeks and life was GREAT. I was healthier and happier with the drop in income barely noticed. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control it could not last, but hopefully I will get back there some day, especially now that I have a child.

The working week is now 24/7 because your're now expected to be available via cell at all times. In my day, you got extra pay for being "on Call" outside of regular work hours. Thats whats making us sick.

The railway has had a 4 day week for decades. 35 hour week too. The down side is it is averaged over the timetable. Swings & roundabouts.

My university has 4 days for studies, 1 for optional CCA (or none at all)

4 days work week is necessary to be implemented at the global level EU+US in order to artificially create more jobs to compensate for the automation with the prospect for 3 working days in far future, tariffs can be imposed on the rest of the countries that don t comply in order to become a standard worldwide

What they (the parties) are not saying is that employers won't let everyone take the Friday off. Shifting days off, or a mid-week off will be the terms on which this is offered.

I think for many people, there is a problem with travelling time to work. Even if one is lucky enough to travel only 30 minutes to work, that is five hours per week. So a four day week working ten hours per day would effectively reduce time necessary by one hour. However 30 minutes is a dream for those in places like London where many people travel well over one hour per journey - or more. So I would suggest increasing the working day to ten hours and working four days and then taking it from there.

Having one day off in the week and two at the weekend is satisfying.

our 4 day week is 4x 9 hour days with a rotating day off each week, so every 5th week is a 4 day weekend, if a holiday falls on our day off, thats our day off, with 1 machine costing up to 1000000 each and 1 operator per machine, it means you can hire another operator without having to fork out for another machine, so we have 5 machines and 6 operators

Hell, decades ago people thought we would have minimal working days/hours, due to increased productivity from computers. Where are we in 2019? Working more then ever, producing more then ever, and utterly wrung out & exhausted.

I've just started working a 4 day week to save on travelling as my employer moved my place of work to 65 miles away. My records show I'm basically working harder in the 4 days to do the same work I did in 5, yet getting paid 20% less. My employer gets the same work for 20% less, lower NI, lower pension and less travel costs, so for them it's a win win. But as the government take 52% off me in NI and Tax I'm really only 10% worse off and the public purse is 10% worse off too. So it's expensive for the public purse as it is costing them nearly £4k/year in Tax and NI contributions. I do enjoy the 3 day weekend but for me 1) I'm having to work freelance on the 5th day to top my pension up and 2) it's easy to just waste the time and be not reap the benefit of it. It actually doesn't feel the ground breaking epiphany I had expected. Losing the money for my pension is my biggest concern though and I would still work the 5 days if they had not moved my place of work.

it doesn’t matter how many days workers work, the work load will still be constant, meaning they will be forced to spend time at home working or studying anyway

I just recently discussed this topic with my father and younger brother who laughed at me for suggesting that people will work much less in the future. They then admitted that in 1000 years people won't work nearly as much as they do now but when I asked "what about it in 500 years, or 100" they preferred to change the topic.

I love the footnote!

I'm a self-employed translstor and work about 4-5 hours a day, around six days a week (I really do need one day off a week). That equates to between 24 and 30 hours a week, which is slightly less than the proposed 4-day work week.

I imagine it could be very closely related to the type of work being done.

I'm already on a four day work week and it is awesome every Monday off.

My fear is that the increase in productivity will only be temporary. I believe most of those studies mentioned only measure productivity for a few months. It's possible that productivity could settle back to it's normal numbers. Thursday will be the new Friday and now we're back to square one. Kind of like how adding a lane in traffic only temporarily reduces traffic, but over time the delays go back to where there were before.

How will this work for people who have jobs like dinner ladies who have to make and serve food to school children FIVE days a week?

I think one of the things that Labour, the Greens and pretty much no-one has pointed out is that this is a step towards a "No Weekends" society which while it sounds at first silly could be hugely beneficial. The first few things off the top of my head If every person worked a different 30 hour work week then you could have someone "in the office" 8AM to 8PM 7 days a week allowing a huge productivity boost to being a UK company vs EU or US with their weekends and such, especially for things that're not strictly tied to any given time zone like most jobs. So while no given worker works more than 4 days a week the businesses themselves can get a huge boost by having smaller premises for the same total number of staff, something call centres already take advantage of by having several workers all use the same desks. Many companies might, therefore, use 40% (or) more hours to of the week conducting their business when compared to a simple 5 day working week. People never end up fighting the ever-present "But I work office hours" problem when they need something, many banks now open on weekends but there are still a huge number of things that only ever open 9-5 M-F if more businesses worked to no set weekend it would allow everyone more flexibility without taking time off work or paying excessive out of hours rates to fit things in for them, even if one plumber or carpet fitter was on their weekend another would be available. As a result, this would subtly but undeniably reduce rush hour pressures, with less than half the workforce heading to work at 8AM on a Monday morning or coming home at 5PM on a friday, cars, buses, trains would all have less congestion. The loads on these systems would instead be spread out over the day with some people starting/ending earlier, others starting/ending later and some on less traditional days will equalise out the pressure on these systems exactly to the extent businesses want to spread out the number of hours they need people available, making the commute a lot more comfortable. Schools by definition would need more staff to provide the same level of education. However there's the option to shake up the entire sector a little, as parents now have no implicit 9-5 M-F requirement it might become desirable to have schools open 7 days a week too, maybe even changing the way we educate allowing schools to have a less pressured school environment since the students have more time in school to learn. One option might be to have compulsory core lessons in the mornings every day and optional fun and relaxation type classes (PE, Art, Cooking, Reading and so on) as part of the school day in the afternoons where it's up to the parents when the children end their school day, allowing people to make seeing their children an active choice rather than an annoying necessity. Parents would have the ability to clean their houses and shop and more while the children are attending the compulsory parts of school on their non-work days also allowing them time to destress on their own and those afternoons where they want their children with them become family time rather than using the electronic babysitters we know as TV and Computers. School holidays might even be able to be reduced since there are more teachers they could spread their holidays over the year by taking turns (like the rest of the working population) and keep only a hand full of set holidays for the students while at the same time allowing parents to take their children on holiday whenever they find convenient even if they're missing school for a week or two. There's more but yeah there's a lot of knock-on effects this might have that are positive.

Depends on what the actual work is.

This sort of thing never takes into account hourly wage workers or the fact that big companies such as WalMart or Amazon, will use it as an excuse to cut employee hours and force them to search for a second job because they can no longer survive on one.

This has to be the evolution of the work week.

For the last 2 years i have worked a 4 day week. I get the same amount of work done, if not more because im happier to be at work now i have more free time! I also work 1 of those days at home. It has added an extra hour to my work days as i start at 8 instead of 9 but its still better than 5 days a week.

Dutch here and where I work (office hours in a hospital) , a full-time job means 36 hours a week. So I work 4 days of 9 hours. Effectively I am at work 9 hours and 45 minutes, as I have a 45 minute lunch break that is my 'own' time (so not paid). And any appointments (doctor, dentist, garage, packages etc) I try and mostly succeed in scheduling on my free Monday.

I've been working 4 11s for 6 years now, and we have a rolling schedule so our staffing is healthy all week long.

I'm on 4 on 4 off. Works really well for me.

4:37, did you misspeak on the productivity or is that tag wrong?

4:35 was there a mistake in displaying the productivity of the UK and Germany? the numbers presented run counter to what you're saying

Im in America, and we take so much work home with us that it's basically a 6 day per work week already

I went from 5 to 3.5 days employment last year. I feel no worse off financially it's unreal how much £ I have saved, not only can I shop around for deals and do basic repairs myself but also I don't feel a constant need to "pick myself up" from being knackerd most of the time by buying new goodies, not to mention I've managed to get the groundwork for my own business set up during my new free time. Also my employer loves my improved focus and attendance record and is close to creating another 3 day job for someone else who would still be unemployed if I was full time.

Depends on the job tbh I see a lot of people throwing the "work smarter not harder", yet many of the most expert level people in my field work harder and smarter. 38 hour week is fairly easy to live with if you enjoy what you do and get paid for it.

Here in the United States the way it works is that there is a base minimum wage (set federally and by States (sometimes more locally like by counties/cities), most Federal/State law basically sets up a framework so that if you work more than x hours per week (usually 40 hours) you have to get like 1.5 times pay (some states offer more). This generally doesn't apply to salary workers or workers in very small businesses. So this is the framework I am used to... the push by the political left here has been to increase that minimum wage and make it a livable wage (as in set up a legalish formula to calculate what it should be so that legislators don't have to keep raising it each passing year) and some have suggested that formula could be localized.... the second aspect of this push has been to decrease that base set of hours from ~40 hours a week downwards to ~30 hours a week... and increasing pay for different kinds of more laborious work and hazardous work... as well as overtime pay (like to public holidays and the weekends). This framework I really actually kinda like... except... I honestly don't think its very fair that a worker who has worked their way up from $8 an hour to say $15 an hour through hard work, loyalty, and taking on management responsibilities be suddenly paid as much as an incoming worker who is none of that or worse the opposite of that. So I think this is where the argument for augmenting this with a universal basic income becomes very potent to me. Many here argue that $15-17 an hour is what the wage would be if the wage increased with market productivity and/or with inflation... which is a pretty factual argument it really just comes down to if you agree or how much you agree with the idea of a minimum wage law... So suppose that basic income is $340 a week... and the minimum wage is increased to $11.33 an hour... so that way everyone gets a raise... at least hypothetically... and it takes the burden off of less profitable parts of the economy to come up with all of that wage increase AND it increases the economic mobility/stability/wellness/happiness of the whole population... Despite that... basic income is still not understood all that well, nor the studies into it all that well known, and even those studies are not entirely conclusive on the subject but what is known is encouraging...

4 day working week is only good for office workers. I average 70 hours a week. I work in an industry were if you don't sign the working time exemption (allowing you to work more than 48 hours per week) no one will employ you. So if they do introduce a 4 day working week. Lots of jobs and industries will recieve opt outs.

This policy makes literally no sense. So people working would be losing money because they’re no working anymore. And then what about hospitals? Are people only allowed to be ill Monday through Thursday?

I had a fill-in job as a production welder in 1984 in Ashburton with a 4 day week 10 hours a day Mon -Thurs and overtime if you wanted on Friday. This was excellent in reducing the commuting time and cost of going to work. Obvious.

I work for a big international company in the Netherlands. The job market is terrible here. We are getting the minimal wage for hourly work and the employers hardly want to give us hours ... and almost all of us are contingent/flexible-workers by contract, which means the employers are able to cut back our hours to zero. If we will work less hours, we will get paid less. I wouldn't mind being paid less if someone would provide me affordable housing. The cost-effectivity is insane in the Netherlands. It's good that Speed-drug is illegal, otherwise the dutch employers would force us to take that before every shift. The 4-day work week is a great idea on paper, but the implications are much grimmer. If someone can pay me the same salary for working 4-days, then I agree, but without crazy workload expectations.

I need this, now

I'm interested in what sort of discussion there would be about where the extra rest day should go. The obvious answer is Friday, just tack it on the weekend, but I'd be interested to see if there's an argument to be made for Wednesday, or not having a set day and letting each workplace choose their own day.

As an American who has worked 4 day 10 hour shifts they are worth it. You really fell it on the third day off. You are able to get a ton of crap done you might not be able to with only two days off.

It's frustrating that so many people assume that you'll do less hours over the week and that that even means you'll have Friday off. I do 4 on 4 off and it's fantastic. It means I work about half of the weekends in the month, but if it was a normal work pattern, that wouldn't matter. Everyone could hang out and/or have drinks with friends anytime during the week. I do the same hours as my Monday to Friday friends, earn about the same money but get 3 to 4 days off per week instead of 2. I think the longer day is worth the compromise personally.

Only one of my previous jobs had 4 10 hour work day and overtime Fridays. That was probably the best work schedule.

Gambia experimented (in a limited way) with a 40 hour work week spread over 4 days from 2013-2017. The Americans had similar experiments at various levels in Utah a number of years ago, a 4 day work week isn't at all outlandish. The question therefore isn't one of general viability, but rather viability in the United Kingdom specifically.

Henry Ford implemented what he preached. Is the Green Party working a 4 day week with confidence in what they are saying? Microsoft found 40% increase in a 4 day week but doesn’t have a 4 day week. I’d always be weary of those that’s talk a good talk but watch other walk the walk.

I just started a new job and the company has a 4 and a half day week. 8.5 hours for 4 days and then 3.5 on Friday. We have total flexibility for our hours between 7am and 8pm. I’ve absolutely never been happier with my work life balance and everyone working there seems so happy with it. Everyone works hard and cares about the company. I myself am definitely more invested in producing high quality work because I feel like the company is investing in me and not using me. My previous job however was the total opposite, everyone tied to their desk and monitored for errors and productivity. I was told off for taking 5 minutes away from my desk to stretch out every hour when I first started because I never assumed a workplace would treat me like a naughty child who needs to be watched. (This was necessary for me because of a disability and I had to go through MONTHS of HR spiel to be allowed those few breaks, and my colleagues hated me for it!) I was burned out and so was everyone else. Nobody enjoyed working there, everyone was just biding their time for a better life situation so that they could leave. I used to take sick days because I would get so stressed and wound up before work that I really couldn’t face it. I said to myself I had to stay for at least 6 months so it didn’t look bad on my CV and so I used up ALL of my holiday entitlement to put a half day in every week!...I ended up leaving without another job lined up and was unemployed for nearly 3 months. But it was still the right decision. At my new workplace I’m receiving exactly the same salary and I’m definitely more productive because I care about putting back into the company that is investing in me as a person.

I work 4 days but 10hrs each day. I love the 4 day work week and would love to have 8hr days but in my work the extra 2 hours a day definitely correlates to more production as we already push and work as hard as we can. However because I am trying to save and get ahead I end up working 5 or 6 days but the 5 and 6th are a double time and I will admit a couple of weeks into doing even just 5 days a week consecutively I notice myself slowing down visibly and feel more sluggish and struggle to drag myself to work kind of thing.

OT: I chuckled when the ellipsis on the link card to the Labour manifesto summary at the end of the video perfectly lined up with Jeremy Corbyn's teeth at around 6:58. Cheers :)

I think an awful lot of office workers don't get much done on a Friday anyway. It would certainly save many people a huge amount of money in commuting.

If there are 5 working days and you take away 1, this is one fifth of all days, so given that you work the same every day, you actually work 20% less, not 25%. To my knowledge, better proposition than 4 day workweek is 6 hours workday. If there is a factory/hospital with 8 hour shift, that means workers are replaced every 6 instead of 8 hours, so you get 4 instead of 3 shifts, which would mean 1/3 increase in employment, also meaning there is more need for workers, so workers have better position to keep their 8 hour total payment.

Taking a two years long break after working full time for a year is marvelous! My income was average. I just spend a little. Shopping simply doesn't turn me on. Most things I like are cheap (calories, internet, knowledge) or even for free (friends&mates, libraries, volunteering, walks). I understand that for some ppl shorter hours might appear strange (since from early school days we are functioning in 5-days work mode). But from my perspective it's so offbeat. In a way I am glad that those ppl don't force me to work (pretend to work) 5 days a week. Probably from history pov it's surreal. Crazy.

Both my mother and sister have 4 day work weeks.

I'm sure other people have said it but there are companies that work 4 on 4off work weeks, in the NHS a vast amount of staff work 38 hours but choose to do so by working 13 hour days.... I was one of these people then when I moved around in the NHS working somewhere like operating theatres when consultant doctors get to a point where they can dictate their hours Monday to Friday 8- 6 means getting your hours done in 4 days it's so much better than what I do now where I work 5 days a week and get super angry when 1 day of a weekend is gone to housework.

So basically it's the laffer curve put into productivity. The idea that there's apeak in input to get a positive outlook and much of what we do is on the too far end. Makes sense. Though it's not intuitive.

2:55 you used the wrong you're

Scottish Government is now trialing the 4 day work week.