The overwhelming majority of firms taking part in a four-day working week trial say their productivity has stayed the same or improved. More than 70 firms are taking part in a six-month trial in which employees get 100% pay for 80% of their normal hours worked.
At the halfway stage, 95% said productivity had improved or stayed the same, with 86% saying the experiment had gone so well they intended to keep it going in the future, the BBC reports. The trial is being run by 4 Day Week, a group campaigning for a shorter working week, along with Autonomy, a think tank, and researchers at Cambridge and Oxford universities.
The UK trial is part of pilots in the US, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. More than 3,300 employees are getting one paid day off per week, and 4 Day Week says that employees had benefitted from lower commuting and childcare costs.
