⏳ Are We Really Ready for a 4-Day Working Week?

When the 4-Day Working Week trial launched in the UK back in 2022, it sparked curiosity, excitement, and — let’s be honest — a fair bit of scepticism.

Working just 32 hours a week?
It sounds like a dream for most employees, especially in a culture where long hours are still worn like a badge of honour.

But is the UK really ready for a shift like this? Or are we setting ourselves up to fail by pushing an old system through a new container?

🚧 It’s Not About Compressing 5 Days Into 4

One of the biggest misunderstandings we see in fast-paced, high-pressure environments is the belief that a 4-Day Week simply means doing the same work in less time.

But if your team is already running on adrenaline, stress, and back-to-back meetings, all hands to the pump, reducing the working week without restructuring your internal ecosystem is a recipe for burnout, not balance.

To make it work, you need to step back and ask:

• What platforms and systems could streamline our workflows?

• Where are we duplicating effort or creating unnecessary admin?

• What cultural norms are we reinforcing around “availability” and productivity?

This isn’t just a shift in time. It’s a shift in mindset, infrastructure, and leadership.

⚠️ The Pitfalls of a Short-Sighted Rollout

If you don’t take the time to reimagine how work gets done — not just how much of it gets done — you risk:

• Piling more pressure on already overstretched teams

• Undermining trust if the workload becomes unsustainable

• Causing internal resistance when people feel set up to fail

A 4-Day Working Week done well can dramatically improve employee engagement, productivity, and overall wellbeing. But a 4-Day Working Week done poorly? That just becomes another stressor to manage.

🎧 Tune In

In this short episode, I break down the real questions leaders should be asking before jumping on the 4-Day Week bandwagon and why surface-level change won’t cut it.

👉 Listen now: Are We Ready for a 4-Day Working Week?

Because meaningful change starts with more than a new calendar.
It starts with a new conversation.