The 4-day work week is no longer just a future-of-work idea; it’s already being tested by organisations in Australia and around the world.
What if you could work four days a week, get paid for five, and still deliver 100% of the results?
It sounds like a fantasy, right? But it’s already happening – here in Australia and around the world – and the results are pretty remarkable.
The model behind it is called 100-80-100: 100% pay, 80% of the hours, 100% of the productivity.
At its heart, the 4-day work week is about working smarter, not longer, and rethinking how we measure value and contribution.
Why are we still working like it’s 1949?
Australia’s standard 38-hour week was introduced in the early 1980s, and is based on the move to a 40-hour week in the late 1940s. Think about that for a second: our work structure was designed nearly 80 years ago, in a world with no computers or mobile phones, no email, no Zoom, no AI, and far fewer dual-income households.
Everything about how we live and work has changed since then…except how we structure the work week.
So maybe it’s time to ask: is the five-day week still serving us? Or are we serving it?
4-day work week: What the research says
Here in Australia, Swinburne University of Technology studied ten organisations that introduced a 4-day work week using the 100-80-100 model. The findings speak volumes:
• 70% of employers said productivity had increased
• 30% said it had stayed the same
• None said productivity had dropped
• Employers rated success at an average of 9.25 out of 10
• Improved recruitment and retention
• Fewer sick days
• Happier employees with a healthier life/work balance
That’s worth a pause, isn’t it? Less time at work…yet more output.
And it’s not just Australian companies.
Case study: Microsoft Japan
Back in 2019, Microsoft Japan gave all 2,300 staff Fridays off for a month, while keeping full pay. The results?
• Productivity (measured by sales per employee) jumped 40%. Yes, you read that right…40%!
• Electricity use dropped 23%
• Printing went down 58%
• Meetings were capped at 30 minutes with fewer participants
Employees reported being more focused, more rested and more creative. Imagine if that kind of shift in energy flowed through your own business or team.
Case study: Global trials
A global study by nonprofit 4 Day Week Global and researchers from Boston College, University College Dublin, and Cambridge University showed that most of the 33 companies and 903 employees involved in trials were unlikely to return to a five-day workweek.
Global pilots across the UK, Iceland, New Zealand, the US and Australia show similar outcomes.
In the UK, 61 companies trialled the model. After six months, 92% kept it going. Reported benefits included:
• Decreased absenteeism (65%)
• Reduced employee turnover (57%)
• Reduced stress (39%)
• Reduced burnout (71%)
• Productivity maintained or increased (1.4%)
In Iceland, 2,500 workers trialled a shorter working week, with wellbeing rising and productivity holding steady. As of 2022, close to 90% of Iceland’s workforce has the right to request shorter hours.
Why leaders are interested
When you look beyond the headline of “three-day weekend”, you start to see deeper cultural benefits – things every leader and employer wants.
The upsides
• Higher engagement and productivity
• Better talent attraction and retention
• Fewer meetings, more focus
• Happier, healthier people
• More time for family, hobbies, exercise, and rest
• Greater trust and autonomy in teams
The challenges
Of course, the 4-day work week is not perfect.
• Not all roles or industries can adapt easily
• Productivity metrics need to be clear
• Compressing five days into four can create pressure if workflows aren’t redesigned
• Large organisations need careful planning to scale it
But these are leadership challenges, not reasons to avoid the idea.
So, what would it take?
For some businesses, it’s about redesigning workflows, trimming low-value meetings, and focusing on outcomes rather than hours. For others, it might mean rotating rosters or redefining client coverage.
And that’s the interesting part; every business will answer the “how” differently.
What unites them is the mindset shift:
work is what you do, not where (or how long) you do it.
Maybe it’s time to ask the question
If you lead a team, run a business, or influence workplace culture, it might be worth asking:
• Could we make a 4-day week work here?
• What would we need to change to make it successful?
• How could we measure impact – not just productivity, but energy, creativity, wellbeing and retention?
We’ve redesigned how we communicate, how we shop, how we travel, and even how we meet.
Maybe it’s time to redesign how we work.
If you or your team would like to discuss anything around the 4-day week, or the way you work, or any of the other leadership, communication and soft skills required to develop outstanding leaders and high performing teams, I’d love to help. Please book in for a free, no obligation Discovery Session, or alternatively, you can email me at info@full-potential.com.au, or call on +61 412 403 373. I’d love to chat with you!
