Latest / Future of Work Tech with Fexingo: Remote Tools, AI Productivity, and Workplace Software / How the Four-Day Workweek Survived the Hype Cycle
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, it's been about four years since the four-day workweek became a mainstream talking point — you know, the idea that we work four days, get paid for five, and somehow produce the same output. Luna: Right — the '100-80-100' model, as it's been called. 100 percent pay, 80 percent time, 100 percent productivity. Lucas: Exactly. And when the UK ran the big pilot in 2022 — 61 companies, around 2,900 employees — the headlines were glowing. Revenue held steady, sick days dropped by 65 percent, employees reported lower stress. The media basically declared it the future of work. Luna: But you're about to tell me that not everything aged well. Lucas: That's the thing — the pilot ended in late 2022, but follow-up data from mid-2024 tells a more interesting story. Of those 61 companies, 61 percent kept the four-day week permanently. That's actually pretty high. But 12 percent reverted to a five-day schedule within a year. Luna: And the rest? Lucas: About 27 percent adopted some kind of hybrid — maybe a four-day week for certain teams, or a compressed schedule where you cram five days into four long ones. Which, to be clear, is not the same thing. The original model was about reducing hours, not compressing them. Luna: Compressed schedules — where you work four ten-hour days — those don't really deliver the wellbeing benefits, do they? You're still exhausted, just in a different pattern. Lucas: The data backs that up. In the companies that truly reduced hours — going from 40 to 32, for example — employee burnout scores dropped about 40 percent. But in the compressed schedules, the improvement was negligible. Some employees actually reported worse work-life balance because they lost that flex in their day. Luna: So the distinction between 'fewer hours' and 'same hours in fewer days' matters a lot. And I remember that in the UK pilot, a few companies dropped out mid-pilot — not just afterward. Lucas: Yes, five companies left during the six-month trial. One was a marketing agency that found client demands just didn't align — they had a 24/7 service expectation. Another was a software firm that couldn't figure out how to cover customer support on the fifth day without hiring more people. Luna: Which is the core tension, really. If you have a role that's reactive — customer support, IT help desk, emergency services — it's harder to just shut down for a day. Lucas: Unless you stagger teams. Some companies did that successfully. They split into two groups: one off Monday, one off Friday. That way you always have coverage, but each person only works four days. Luna: But then you lose the 'everyone is off on the same day' culture benefit. You don't get that sync where the whole company has a three-day weekend. Lucas: Right — trade-offs everywhere. And that's what I think got lost in the hype. The pilot results were real, but they were averages. The companies that succeeded had a few things in common. First, they involved employees in redesigning the schedule. Second, they automated or eliminated a bunch of low-value meetings and emails before the switch. Luna: So they didn't just declare 'Friday off' and hope for the best. They actually rethought how work got done. Lucas: Exactly. Buffer, the social media scheduling company, is a good example. They've been transparent about their four-day experiment since 2020. They publish their salary data, their productivity metrics, everything. And after two years, they found that while happiness went up, productivity gains plateaued around the six-month mark. Luna: So the initial burst of efficiency — people cutting unnecessary tasks, working with more focus — that fades once the low-hanging fruit is gone. Lucas: Right. Buffer's own analysis showed that after six months, the productivity level stabilized at about 95 percent of the five-day baseline. So not a drop, but not the 100 percent that the model promises. They decided to keep the four-day week anyway, because the wellbeing benefits were worth that small productivity trade-off. Luna: And that's a different conversation, isn't it? It's not about 'doing the same in less time' — it's about accepting a slight efficiency loss in exchange for better employee retention and health. Lucas: Which is a perfectly valid business decision. But the original marketing of the four-day week was very much 'you can have it all.' And the data shows that for most companies, you can't — not sustainably, anyway. You either compromise slightly on output, or you compromise on the flexibility by going to a compressed schedule. Luna: So where does that leave a company that's considering this in 2026? We're in June now — if a CEO is listening, what's the actionable takeaway? Lucas: I'd say start with a pilot, but be specific about your metrics. Don't just measure revenue. Measure employee turnover, sick days, and a subjective wellbeing score. And plan for the six-month plateau — because that's when the real test comes. Also, think about which roles are included. At Buffer, they excluded some customer-facing roles from the four-day week and offered them a different kind of flexibility instead. Luna: That's important — one-size-fits-all is dangerous. I've seen companies try to force the four-day week on their entire workforce, and the support teams burn out because they're covering five days of work in four. Lucas: Exactly. And I think the most honest conclusion from the data is that the four-day week is a great tool, but it's not a silver bullet. It works best in knowledge-work environments with asynchronous collaboration and a culture that already values outcomes over hours. If you're still measuring performance by butt-in-seat time, it's going to fail. Luna: And if the topic resonates, and you find these deep dives useful — you know, the kind that goes beyond the headline — we should mention that listener support is what lets us keep the show ad-free and independent. Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. We don't run sponsors, we don't have a network telling us what to cover. It's just us, a topic we find interesting, and people like you who listen. If you want to help keep that going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: No pressure, ever. But if this episode — or any episode — gave you something you could use at work or mention to a colleague, that's really what we're here for. Lucas: So to bring it back to where we were — the four-day week is not dead, and it's not a fad. It's just maturing from a hype cycle into a real operational decision. And the smartest companies are the ones figuring out which roles, which schedules, and which trade-offs work for their specific context. Luna: I think that's the right takeaway. It's not about the model — it's about the fit. Lucas: Exactly. And on that note, next episode we're going to look at something a bit different — desk booking software and whether the data it collects is actually being used for more than just finding a seat.