Four-day week: Does working compressed hours make you happier?

Like many full-time workers Laura Etchells had longed for hours more flexible than the traditional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.

The mum-of-two from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, now works her full-time job in publishing, compressed into four days, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

She says the extra day off – Friday in her case – saves her around £350 a month in childcare costs, and she says makes her more productive in her job.

“The longer days allow me to get my teeth stuck into things a bit more,” she says, adding that if she were to work anywhere else then a compressed week would be a “must”.

“Cost wasn’t the deciding factor to condense into four days, but it did contribute to the decision. The overall benefit was spending more time with my children whilst maintaining my full-time job.”

The BBC has heard from several people, like Laura, who work compressed hours, after Labour said it wants to strengthen workers’ rights for more flexible hours.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds held a meeting with business leaders to discuss their plan, which is part of the upcoming Employment Bill.

Since April, employees have had the right to request flexible working from day one, including compressed hours, but legal experts think Labour’s plan will likely aim to make it harder for employers to reject requests for greater flexibility.

Currently, workers need to convince their employers to allow flexible hours. Under Labour’s plan, employment solicitor Alison Loveday says companies may need to explain “on what grounds can they justify refusing a four-day week”.

The proposals do not match the definition as set out by the official four-day week campaign, which calls for the same pay for fewer hours.

Rather, Labour has said that employees would “still be doing the same amount of work” across different working patterns – such as, for example, four 10-hour shifts.

Laura’s employer, Emerald Publishing, offers a range of flexible working options, which it says makes staff more productive and improves work-life balance.

However, the company’s chief legal and people officer Emma Tregenza admits: “While the benefits are clear, it’s worth noting that it can be a long day for people doing compressed hours.

“That can also have a knock-on effect on others in the team who work a ‘normal pattern’… what it does to their schedules. It can be challenging to work around multiple variations of working hours.”

Jason Magee had a rather different experience to Laura when Cortex, the Guernsey-based software firm he works for, trialled compressing staff’s hours last August, with everyone working 35 hours across four days, rather than five.

Although he was eager to give it a go and recalls making full use of his Fridays off, he says the longer working days were a challenge and thinks he was less productive.

“After about seven or eight hours, you start to feel run down and you’re not working as best as you can,” he says.

Matt Thornton, one of Cortex’s founders, says it shifted the firm’s focus.

“We’re not a company that clock watches. But during the trial period, we became far more conscious of working hours, rather than whether they were getting the work done.

“We’re a software business and have longer-term business goals rather than weekly, but when you compress working hours, you put the spotlight on those four days rather than the outcome.”

Cortex is now experimenting with a four-day week with reduced hours, meaning four eight-hour days, in line with the official campaign, and Matt says the feedback to this has been much more positive.

There is limited research around the benefits of working compressed hours.

A 2023 report for the International Labour Organization states: “Studies of the effects of existing compressed workweeks generally conclude that they positively affect work–life balance.”

But it adds: “However, there is a lack of consensus concerning the physiological and psychological health effects of compressed workweeks.”

For Kelly Burton, a mental health nurse from Crewe, condensing her hours into a four-day week since July has given her “perfect work-life balance”.

“I’m happier at work, can spend the extra day looking after elderly parents and still have my weekend,” she told the BBC.

Peter Meacham, a dispensing optician at a pharmacy in Basildon, Essex, made the same move in September 2020.

Both Kelly and Peter say they had to convince their bosses that they could get the same amount of work done over four days.

Peter works Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, which gives him Tuesday and Wednesday off for his hobby – performing magic shows for charity.

If he were to get a new job, he says the ability to work a compressed week would be “an absolute key factor” in his decision.

Despite the success stories from people like Laura, Kelly and Peter, Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain, has mixed views on compressed hours.

She describes it as “a limited solution that will not work for all, particularly the small businesses that need to stay open throughout the week, often with peak periods of activity”.

She says that introducing a four-day week could lead to higher staffing costs and that there are other ways of improving flexibility and accommodating staff “rather than simply implementing compressed hours and a strict four-day week system”.

She advises businesses not to be alarmed by the government’s proposals, though.

“Labour has been clear that it is not mandating the four-day working week,” she says.

“It is important that small businesses are reassured that there is no cause for concern, especially for sectors where this policy would not be feasible.”

For those who are still unsure about whether a compressed week will work for them, those words will come as some relief.

Additional reporting by Oliver Smith and Bernadette McCague