A 4-Day Week benefits

The creative agency Mox creates a campaign ‘Change the Week.’ The voice-over of the video is the broadcaster, Stephen Fry. The short features animation from artists including Alex Jenkins, Amanda Bonaiuto, Pia Graff, Dal Park, Cheng, Matteo Dang, and Juan Cartoons.

The message is that “It’s time to re-think the week. The standard 9-5, the 5-day working week is outdated and no longer fit for purpose.​ Together we can build a society where we work to live, rather than live to work.”

A 4-Day Week benefits:

WORKERS
​​Better work-life balance – a four-day week gives us the time to live happier and more fulfilled lives, allowing for those non-work parts of life that are often neglected such as:
Rest – sleep and the various forms of rest we need while awake (physical, mental, social, emotional and sensory rest).
Leisure – from spending time with family and friends, to pursuing hobbies and passion projects.
‘Life Admin’ – tasks like shopping, cleaning, managing the finances, and the many parenting duties.

EMPLOYERS
Higher performance and profits – trials and real-world examples show that employers who move to a four-day week increase productivity and reduce costs (a Henley Business School study in 2021 estimated that UK businesses would save a combined £104 billion a year if a four-day week was implemented across the entire workforce).​
Greater talent – reducing the working week enables organizations to attract and retain high-quality employees who are happier and less stressed and take fewer sick days.

THE ECONOMY
Lower unemployment – incredibly, the UK suffers simultaneously from overwork, unemployment, and underemployment, so a four-day week is an intuitively simple way to rebalance the economy and address many problems.
Increased productivity – numerous studies show that working fewer hours would boost the UK’s productivity.
Boost to tourism – with more free leisure time, the tourism sector would benefit from people taking more short breaks in the UK.

SOCIETY
Better mental and physical health – more time to focus on our health and wellbeing, and prevent and address any issues or illnesses.
Gender equality – a more equal share of paid and unpaid work, including caring roles traditionally ascribed to women.
Strengthened communities – more time to build relationships and care for children, the elderly, and the disabled.

THE ENVIRONMENT
A more sustainable lifestyle – more free time allows us to make environmentally-positive choices, such as cycling and walking instead of driving, and cooking with fresh ingredients rather than buying energy-intensive ready meals.

A reduced carbon footprint – research has shown that a four-day week could reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year, which is the equivalent of taking 27 million cars off the road (effectively the entire UK private car fleet).