Companies exploring the option of letting employees work four days a week hope to reduce job burnout and retain talent seeking a better work-life balance, according to the chief executive of an organization that promotes the idea. The trend is gaining traction in Australia and Europe, says Dale Whelehan, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, which coaches companies through the month-long process of shortening their employees’ work hours. in August encouraging employers to trim work schedules to four days.
American companies haven’t adopted four-day weeks as broadly, but that could change. Nearly a third of U.S.
CEOs polled by accounting firm KPMG in 2024 said they are exploring alternative work schedules such as a four-day or four and a half-day workweek. The Associated Press spoke with Whelehan about the reasons why companies might want to consider the change. His comments have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Why should organizations switch to a four-day workweek? A: The bigger question is, why shouldn’t they? There’s a lot of evidence to suggest we need to do something fundamentally different in the way we work. We have issues of burnout. We have a recruitment and retention crisis in many industries.
We have increased stress within our workforce. leading to health issues, issues with work-life balance, work-family conflict. We have people sitting in cars for long periods, contributing to a climate crisis.
We have certain parts of the population that are able to work long.
