Here's why it could be time to embrace the four-day week

I’m a big fan of Downton Abbey. How could anyone not be? All sorts of things happen. Mostly, the Earl
of Grantham complains that things are changing and he’s not that into it. Others echo this sentiment. Sometimes, there is a big get-together, a ball or similar, and there is a bit of a problem among the staff. Once, Lady Mary went upstairs to CHANGE HER HAT. That’s livin’!  

I genuinely love it. I went to see one of the films for my birthday. There is another film coming later this year. I’ll be there. 

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During one episode of the show, the Dowager Countess, the late Maggie Smith, who was always given the best, withering, waspish lines, was told that something was going to happen during the weekend.  

“What is a weekend?” she asked witheringly and waspishly. And a bit confused. The Dowager was the 19th century holding on to older ways as the new age swept in. It’s not surprising she didn’t know what a weekend was, having never worked and also as the idea of a weekend had no common currency in post- Edwardian, pre-Great War England. The rights of the working man to have a bit of time to himself rather than giving over at least six days a week to the boss was not embedded. 

The move to a five-day week, from six, was one of the last major industrial working pattern shifts.  Different people are said to be responsible. Henry Ford gets a lot of glory for it. He wanted his staff to be more refreshed – presumably to push ahead more and be more productive to make him more money – so he introduced the five-day week to his production line in the 1920s. It took more time to become the norm in the UK. 

The 3pm Saturday kick-off for football – which some still bore on about as the only time for football – is just a hangover from when working men worked a half-day on a Saturday. Apparently, John Boot, the boss of Boots, was one of the first big industrialists in Britain to switch to the five-day working week. That was in the 1930s. And here we are, accepting that the five-day week is the standard that we all have to adhere to, because that’s how things are done. 

Read more:

• Bring in a four-day work week to beat Reform in next election, Labour told: ‘There’s no catch here’
• ‘We’re overdue an update:’ A four-day working week will be ‘the norm’ in five years, most Brits say
• Is a four-day working week inevitable? Latest UK pilot sees 100% success rate

Except, it might not be anymore. We could be on the cusp of the next major working evolution. There have been four-day week trials in various nations and with different sample sizes with increasing intensity in recent years. 

Now, they are ticking over into reality. The 4 Day Week Foundation brought 17 British businesses into a six-month trial of the four-day week this year. They announced at the start of July that all companies involved, amounting to nearly 1,000 workers, were sticking with the four-day week cycle. Last week, the respected science journal Nature published the findings of a much larger international trial. 

Looking at 2,896 employees across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US, the trial showed improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health. 

More significant is the move made by South Cambridgeshire District Council. Just days ago, the council voted to shift to a four-day week working pattern. They found in their trial that on pretty much every metric, performance either improved or remained stable in 22 of 24 service areas. 

Staff turnover dropped by 39% and applications for jobs increased by 53%. As part of the trial, staff had to do the work volume they had been doing in five days during four, without increasing the hours worked. Their salaries remain the same. That says a lot about productivity.  

There are grumblings about this switch. But these come from people who can’t switch. It’s understandable – why should the other fella have it better when you’re still stuck on the wheel. 

And there are also concerns that normalising this pattern could pave the way for layoffs and replacement with AI by the back door, erasing human staff as time ticks on. 

But if we accept there is a joy and dignity to be had in working, in doing something that turns a coin and brings self-respect, then it would be foolish to dismiss the four-day week out of hand. 

The government is wrestling hard with issues of productivity and of encouraging the workless to get back to work. This could be a useful boon and element of attraction. 

Also, it would provide an interesting narrative plot point in a TV drama 100 years from now. Which is a concern to many. 

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue. Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

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