The World’s Biggest Four-Day Work Week Experiment is Happening Now

Workers in the U.K. are about to have slightly more time on their hands.

From June until December, 3,300 workers at more than 70 U.K. organizations will receive 100% of their regular paychecks in exchange for just 80% of their usual time spent working. In exchange, they’ll maintain 100% of their productivity. This is the latest iteration of the advocacy group 4 Day Week Global’s experiment in giving workers a four-day work week with a three-day weekend.

4 Day Week Global partnered with the think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College to produce the trial, which the researchers are using to measure the sociological impact of giving workers a longer weekend. Among the factors the researchers will observe: how a four-day work week schedule impacts employee stress levels, energy use, travel and sleep patterns.

The charities and businesses involved in the experiment include a number of different sectors, ranging from the London-based brewing company Pressure Drop, to the Royal Society of Biology, to a Norfolk-based fish-and-chip shop.

“As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognizing that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a competitive edge,” Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, said in a statement.