The world of work is changing. Will 2025 be the tipping point for the four-day working week?

Two years ago in 2022, as the highly-publicised 4 Day Week Pilot Programme (featuring 61 companies and nearly 3,000 employees who adopted the four-day working week) was ending, there was good reason for its advocates to be positive.

However, no one could have foreseen quite how quickly this proposal would become mainstream.

Every week we hear of governments across the world discussing a four-day working week. Reasons vary from increased productivity, cost saving, improved health, boosting fertility and encouraging the family unit. From Malaysia to Jamaica, Iceland to Japan, Britain to Namibia, South Korea to Germany, France to Indonesia, and so forth, it is firmly in the public consciousness.

• Every single company embracing four-day working week says move has been ‘positive’, study finds
• ‘Thank God it’s Thursday!’: Will we have a four-day working week by 2030? Yes, probably

As more and more companies adopt a four-day week, three day weekends will become normalised much like the two day weekend was one hundred years ago. Since this time, intercontinental commercial air travel and internet computing, among other developments, mean increasing numbers of people are capable of doing their work in adequate schedules of four days.

Adoption increases every year for a variety of reasons. It’s enabled through technology, it’s an acceptable alternative to a salary increase and businesses are exploring means of improvement or seek a competitive edge.

I would say all organisations are now compelled, at the very least, to take note of the organic changes that accompany the future of work. For not doing so is at least as risky as accepting the status quo. Those willing to take a long-term perspective stand to place themselves ahead of the curve. Technology is determining that more work can be done with fewer human beings involved – anyone who has been to a supermarket, an airport or a factory can see this.

Furthermore, in recruitment and retention, the situation will arise whereby leading employees and job-seekers facilitate adjustment by seeking a four-day week from employers that prioritise a conducive environment for the best minds to flourish. Employers that recognise these new realities, as opposed to those that don’t.

In 2025 and through 2026, 2027, and beyond, this will occur quietly. Clearly, some employment is more of a lifestyle, and no one will ever be prevented from working around the clock if desired, but for many it’s appropriate.

The four-day week isn’t final or binding, moreover, it serves as a benchmark to replace the outdated but persevering Monday-Friday conception of work. It is a means of rejuvenation. It prioritises quality over quantity. It is a change in mindset that steps over pedantry and wasted time. It aims, with less sedentary hours bound to computers, for technology to serve an agenda of revivalism instead of subordination – becoming once again a tool and not a master.

A curious barrier to overcome is whether people are ready to accept that we’re not built biologically to deal with a modernity based almost exclusively on materialism, technical necessity and inhuman scale. This is all most people know, yet, it will only ever serve to limit ingenuity and contentment. In today’s world, working more hours doesn’t mean more gets done.

In the coming years, however, I don’t see either a shift away from the cult-like attachment to false dogmas that pervade political messaging and societal endeavour such as ‘economic growth’ and ‘boosting GDP’. Obviously this is not why people exist and, as a justification, leads to undesirable outcomes related to freedom, relationships and the dignity of our country.

Our attitude to work will not change suddenly, and thus the four-day week will continue to be misunderstood. Productivity will continue to be equated with an attempt to squeeze the residual value out of stagnation, rather than producing things ourselves and focusing generally on what will improve British people’s quality of life.

The four-day week has momentum, but there’s no need to force businesses to adopt measures they’re not ready to implement. The winds are undoubtedly changing, but the need for formalisation as soon as next year remains to be seen. Employers will adopt it gradually as a critical mass of feasibility becomes self-evident.

Sam Hunt works at the Four Day Week Campaign.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. This Christmas, you can make a lasting change on a vendor’s life. Buy a magazine from your local vendor in the street every week. If you can’t reach them, buy a Vendor Support Kit.