Is a shorter working week bad for employee health and productivity?

For many, a four-day work week sounds ideal. However, a recent study has shown that “compressed” schedules can, in fact, be highly detrimental to employee health and well-being.

Advocates of the shorter work week concept suggest that benefits include increased productivity and job satisfaction, as well as a reduction in costs and environmental impacts. A number of high-profile organizations have taken on the idea, with KPMG, Amazon, and Google adopting schemes to give their employees greater flexibility with the structuring of office hours.

However, not all the evidence is positive. Professor Allard Dembe of Ohio State University has published research showing that shorter work weeks lead to an accumulation of stress, fatigue, and poor mental health. The four-day week means that workers must fit more into each day, which often means increasing the length of shifts on those days. Longer work days are more inefficient and even dangerous, with the risk of suffering an industrial accident rising “by 37% for employees working more than 12 hours in a day.”

Additionally, Dembe points to the problem of extended daily hours allowing workers less time to socialize and spend meaningful time with their children and families in the evenings.

The four-day working week may not be perfect, but Professor Lonnie Golden of Pennsylvania State University suggests a solution of moderation and flexibility. Occasional four-day weeks, or only working half days on Fridays, are examples of ways that employees and businesses can strike the all-important balance between well-being and productivity.

Eugenio Proto, writing for IZA World of Labor, emphasizes the importance of employee happiness in motivating “greater effort, increasing output without affecting its quality and thus boosting productivity.” Therefore, it is key for employers and workers to take the potential negative impacts of shorter, intensified working weeks into careful consideration.