In June of this year, more than 3,000 people working for 70 businesses agreed to take part in the world's largest four-day working week trial. The staff on the trial agreed to work a shorter week (80% of the week) for six months with no loss of pay but with the commitment to maintain 100% productivity. 

The programme is being coordinated by campaign group 4 Day Week Global, along with think tank Autonomy and academics at Oxford, Cambridge and Boston College in the USA. The researchers will analyse how employees respond to having the extra day off, in terms of productivity, performance, stress and burnout. 

However, while Joe O’Connor - Chief Executive of 4 Day Week Global - has stated that feedback so far has been “overwhelmingly positive from companies taking part”, some employers have stated that it isn’t working for them, whilst others have already decided that the shorter week cannot realistically continue once the pilot ends.

Samantha Losey, of communications firm Unity said that there have been difficulties on handover days, with staff taking different days off and that because the rest of the world hasn’t adopted a four-day week it had made the scheme “challenging.”

She stated:

“We agreed we’d go all the way through the pilot, but I’m questioning whether this is the right thing for us long-term. It’s been bumpy for sure.”

Other firms are also questioning whether they can sustain this on a permanent basis. Claire Daniels - Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Trio Media - felt that the shorter week had caused problems with hiring as she cannot guarantee that it will remain company policy beyond December.

She said:

“The only challenge is in recruitment currently as we cannot guarantee that we will continue the four-day week pilot scheme.”

Joe O’Connor of 4 Day Week Global reflected that:

“In a trial with 73 companies which is after all an experiment, it would be expected that this might not work out as planned for all companies and result in a 100pc success rate.”

Nonetheless, whilst some firms have reported concerns, others have found it extremely beneficial. Matt Bolton - Co-Founder of advertising agency Mox London - stated that it was “the best business decision” he’s ever made and similarly, many other companies taking part report that staff already seem happier and more motivated and productivity has even improved in many cases.