4-Day Work Weeks Could Be The Key To Making Everyone Healthier

Jul 09, 2018

If you’ve ever felt relaxed and at ease after a refreshing long three-day weekend away from work, it makes sense to you that adapting our schedules to four-day work weeks would actually be more healthy for workers than our standard five-day weeks.

A doctor working in the UK, Professor John Ashton, announced that the work week in Britain should be lessened from five days to four days. He states that a regular five day work week is too much stress, causes too many absences due to sickness, and allows no room for proper mental health practices.

In other parts of the world, like Japan, it’s beginning to become apparent that their culture full of workaholic individuals can actually cause harm. Overworking of one individual actually led to an employee suicide, which is now making headlines.

Ashton reveals that in the UK, it’s common to avoid taking a lunch break and to remain working instead. This is also a common practice in the United States, where it’s been noted that less than 20% of employees will exit the office for their lunch breaks.

Ashton keeps his stance on reducing the work week by stating that many positive outcomes would arise from the process. He believes people should have more time with their families, more time for exercise, and more time de-stressing from the work week.

Noticeable and significant increases in both work productivity and health have been noted by companies and industries that have shorter work weeks. For example, when Sweden’s workers received lessened hours they noticeably became more diligent workers and had fewer illnesses.

It’s also worth noting that if one spends less time at work in an office, they’ll have more time for activity, which decreases the risk of a sedentary lifestyle, which holds many detrimental health consequences.

However, it’s important to realize that the positive impacts of a four-day work week could benefit more than just our physical and mental health. Alex Williams, an expert in sociology at City University in London, explains that three-day weekends could cause positive improvements to the environment. Energy consumption would be reduced, and the pollution from a day’s commute to work and back is eradicated. It’s been proven that lessening a person’s carbon footprint by 15% can happen if we only decrease their work hours by a mere 10%.

Closing office hours for an extra day on the weekend also results in less electricity usage, because there’s no need for air conditioning, heating, or lighting to be used on that day. When Utah tried a three-day weekend system in 2007, it’s been reported that the entire state saved themselves 2 million dollars in the process.

Making the switch to three-day weekends not only brings positive health benefits for workers but can make them more productive and help save the environment. It might be time to make the change to four-day work weeks.

Would this process be something you could get behind? Show this to a friend who needs a four day work week as bad as you do!

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!