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Four Days a Week: The Life-Changing Solution for Reducing Employee Stress, Improving Well-Being, and Working Smarter – A Blueprint by Sociologist Juliet Schor
Bestselling author, leading sociologist and economist Juliet Schor makes the case for a four-day work week, persuasively showing how this model can address major challenges such as burnout, AI and the climate crisis, and how employees, companies, and governments can work together to make it a reality.
Around the world, long hours and intense pressure are taking their toll. When the pandemic hit in 2020, work-induced stress and burnout skyrocketed. Many reached a breaking point. Now, three-quarters of the world’s employees are disengaged and struggling, including in the US and Canada, where half are experiencing high levels of daily stress.
Our current work culture ,the five-day, forty-hours-a-week model—which has gone unchanged for nearly a century—is failing. But a remedial countertrend has emerged: the four-day work week. Kickstarter, Bolt, Basecamp, ThredUp, and hundreds of other employers have eliminated the fifth day of work, successfully figuring out how to maintain productivity while seeing remarkable improvements in employee well-being. Hiring is easier and fewer people are quitting. These results are global. Working a four-day week, people feel energized, capable, and more optimistic about their lives—and their jobs.
Four Days a Week is the first large-scale study of this trend. Juliet Schor—an expert who has researched and written about work for more than four decades, beginning with her New York Times bestseller The Overworked American in 1992—shares her pioneering analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company’s employees and its bottom line. The book is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach.
Around the world, long hours and intense pressure are taking their toll. When the pandemic hit in 2020, work-induced stress and burnout skyrocketed. Many reached a breaking point. Now, three-quarters of the world’s employees are disengaged and struggling, including in the US and Canada, where half are experiencing high levels of daily stress.
Our current work culture ,the five-day, forty-hours-a-week model—which has gone unchanged for nearly a century—is failing. But a remedial countertrend has emerged: the four-day work week. Kickstarter, Bolt, Basecamp, ThredUp, and hundreds of other employers have eliminated the fifth day of work, successfully figuring out how to maintain productivity while seeing remarkable improvements in employee well-being. Hiring is easier and fewer people are quitting. These results are global. Working a four-day week, people feel energized, capable, and more optimistic about their lives—and their jobs.
Four Days a Week is the first large-scale study of this trend. Juliet Schor—an expert who has researched and written about work for more than four decades, beginning with her New York Times bestseller The Overworked American in 1992—shares her pioneering analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company’s employees and its bottom line. The book is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published June 3, 2025
21 people are currently reading
2602 people want to read
About the author
Juliet B. Schor
34 books168 followersJuliet Schor’s research over the last ten years has focussed on issues pertaining to trends in work and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic justice. Schor's latest book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner 2004). She is also author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure and The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer. She has co-edited, The Golden Age of Capitalism: Reinterpreting the Postwar Experience, The Consumer Society Reader, and Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. Earlier in her career, her research focussed on issues of wages, productivity, and profitability. She also did work on the political economy of central banking. Schor is currently is at work on a project on the commercialization of childhood, and is beginning research on environmental sustainability and its relation to Americans’ lifestyles.
Schor is a board member and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make them more ecologically and socially sustainable. She also teaches periodically at Schumacher College, an International Center for Ecological Studies based in south-west England.
from http://www2.bc.edu/~schorj/default.html
Schor is a board member and co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, an organization devoted to transforming North American lifestyles to make them more ecologically and socially sustainable. She also teaches periodically at Schumacher College, an International Center for Ecological Studies based in south-west England.
from http://www2.bc.edu/~schorj/default.html
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 10, 2025
I will always be advocating for the 4 day work week. Same effort and less looking for something to keep busy with when done with your duties. I personally work 4 days and am happier and richer than when I was working more, yes I have a better paying job than the 5 days a week with consistent pay and benefits.
August 9, 2025
Thoroughly well-researched and also readable book that makes very convincing arguments that everyone would benefit from a national switch to a four-day work week (with no reduction in pay). Also eye opening in that I did not know how much more Americans work than people in any other country. Why??? Ok, I’m sold on the idea, now to convince the people upstairs.
June 27, 2025
Americans work too much--more than workers in other wealthy countries, more than we want, more than is healthy, and as economist Juliet Schor argues in her insightful new book, more than is needed for American businesses and their employees to flourish.
Schor’s 1991 bestseller The Overworked American documented America’s post-World-War-II decline of leisure. Today, an escape from Americans’ work overload has become a topic of serious public discussion. Advocates of a four-day work week argue it would ease America’s stress level and raise Americans’ quality of life. In Four Days A Week, Schor describes recent research that supports this claim and shows businesses can achieve those benefits without reducing employee pay and without sacrificing profits.
In Schor’s research, 245 companies operated for a six-month trial period on a four-day work week, without reducing employee pay from its five-day level. Most participating companies achieved increased worker wellbeing without losing revenue. Employees reported two kinds of improvements in wellbeing: They gained time to spend with friends and family and for sleep and exercise. Then, as a bonus, they felt less fatigued and became more efficient at work. Company successes included reduced employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, and in some cases, increased revenue.
Employees’ comments in surveys show how positive the four-day week was for them: “… improved my life in every possible way”; “…the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my family.” As for the companies, more than ninety percent of those in the trial remained on the four-day week afterward. Plainly, for most companies, as for most employees, the four-day week was a success.
Strategies that companies used during the trial to get 40 hours of productivity into 32 hours of work included reducing the number of meetings; making meetings more time-efficient; expanding workers’ focus time by making specific hours do-not-interrupt hours; and “process engineering”—analyzing the sub-processes within manufacturing sequences to see where some overlapped, where some could fit into gaps in others and where dead time could be squeezed out from between the sub-processes.
Looking forward, Schor views the four-day week as the answer to threats of mass unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and robotics. Beyond that, Schor envisions the shortened work week helping ease global warming by reducing commutes. Dreaming really big, Schor envisions people using their newfound free time to get active in politics and work on solving the many looming crises of our time.
Not everything Schor hopes for the future is likely to happen. Still, her research convincingly shows that a shortened work week is achievable, and worth achieving, in America now. Her results show how companies and employees in her trials succeeded in fitting five days of productivity and profit into four days of work. And she offers engagingly written guidance on how others can do the same, making Four Days A Week well worth reading for anyone who dreams of a less stressful and more sustainable work life for all.
Schor’s 1991 bestseller The Overworked American documented America’s post-World-War-II decline of leisure. Today, an escape from Americans’ work overload has become a topic of serious public discussion. Advocates of a four-day work week argue it would ease America’s stress level and raise Americans’ quality of life. In Four Days A Week, Schor describes recent research that supports this claim and shows businesses can achieve those benefits without reducing employee pay and without sacrificing profits.
In Schor’s research, 245 companies operated for a six-month trial period on a four-day work week, without reducing employee pay from its five-day level. Most participating companies achieved increased worker wellbeing without losing revenue. Employees reported two kinds of improvements in wellbeing: They gained time to spend with friends and family and for sleep and exercise. Then, as a bonus, they felt less fatigued and became more efficient at work. Company successes included reduced employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, and in some cases, increased revenue.
Employees’ comments in surveys show how positive the four-day week was for them: “… improved my life in every possible way”; “…the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my family.” As for the companies, more than ninety percent of those in the trial remained on the four-day week afterward. Plainly, for most companies, as for most employees, the four-day week was a success.
Strategies that companies used during the trial to get 40 hours of productivity into 32 hours of work included reducing the number of meetings; making meetings more time-efficient; expanding workers’ focus time by making specific hours do-not-interrupt hours; and “process engineering”—analyzing the sub-processes within manufacturing sequences to see where some overlapped, where some could fit into gaps in others and where dead time could be squeezed out from between the sub-processes.
Looking forward, Schor views the four-day week as the answer to threats of mass unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and robotics. Beyond that, Schor envisions the shortened work week helping ease global warming by reducing commutes. Dreaming really big, Schor envisions people using their newfound free time to get active in politics and work on solving the many looming crises of our time.
Not everything Schor hopes for the future is likely to happen. Still, her research convincingly shows that a shortened work week is achievable, and worth achieving, in America now. Her results show how companies and employees in her trials succeeded in fitting five days of productivity and profit into four days of work. And she offers engagingly written guidance on how others can do the same, making Four Days A Week well worth reading for anyone who dreams of a less stressful and more sustainable work life for all.
June 27, 2025
Americans work too much--more than workers in other wealthy countries, more than we want, more than is healthy, and as economist Juliet Schor argues in her insightful new book, more than is needed for American businesses and their employees to flourish.
Schor’s 1991 bestseller The Overworked American documented America’s post-World-War-II decline of leisure. Today, an escape from Americans’ work overload has become a topic of serious public discussion. Advocates of a four-day work week argue it would ease America’s stress level and raise Americans’ quality of life. In Four Days A Week, Schor describes recent research that supports this claim and shows businesses can achieve those benefits without reducing employee pay and without sacrificing profits.
In Schor’s research, 245 companies operated for a six-month trial period on a four-day work week, without reducing employee pay from its five-day level. Most participating companies achieved increased worker wellbeing without losing revenue. Employees reported two kinds of improvements in wellbeing: They gained time to spend with friends and family and for sleep and exercise. Then, as a bonus, they felt less fatigued and became more efficient at work. Company successes included reduced employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, and in some cases, increased revenue.
Employees’ comments in surveys show how positive the four-day week was for them: “… improved my life in every possible way”; “…the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my family.” As for the companies, more than ninety percent of those in the trial remained on the four-day week afterward. Plainly, for most companies, as for most employees, the four-day week was a success.
Strategies that companies used during the trial to get 40 hours of productivity into 32 hours of work included reducing the number of meetings; making meetings more time-efficient; expanding workers’ focus time by making specific hours do-not-interrupt hours; and “process engineering”—analyzing the sub-processes within manufacturing sequences to see where some overlapped, where some could fit into gaps in others and where dead time could be squeezed out from between the sub-processes.
Looking forward, Schor views the four-day week as the answer to threats of mass unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and robotics. Beyond that, Schor envisions the shortened work week helping ease global warming by reducing commutes. Dreaming really big, Schor envisions people using their newfound free time to get active in politics and work on solving the many looming crises of our time.
Not everything Schor hopes for the future is likely to happen. Still, her research convincingly shows that a shortened work week is achievable, and worth achieving, in America now. Her results show how companies and employees in her trials succeeded in fitting five days of productivity and profit into four days of work. And she offers engagingly written guidance on how others can do the same, making Four Days A Week well worth reading for anyone who dreams of a less stressful and more sustainable work life for all.
Schor’s 1991 bestseller The Overworked American documented America’s post-World-War-II decline of leisure. Today, an escape from Americans’ work overload has become a topic of serious public discussion. Advocates of a four-day work week argue it would ease America’s stress level and raise Americans’ quality of life. In Four Days A Week, Schor describes recent research that supports this claim and shows businesses can achieve those benefits without reducing employee pay and without sacrificing profits.
In Schor’s research, 245 companies operated for a six-month trial period on a four-day work week, without reducing employee pay from its five-day level. Most participating companies achieved increased worker wellbeing without losing revenue. Employees reported two kinds of improvements in wellbeing: They gained time to spend with friends and family and for sleep and exercise. Then, as a bonus, they felt less fatigued and became more efficient at work. Company successes included reduced employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, and in some cases, increased revenue.
Employees’ comments in surveys show how positive the four-day week was for them: “… improved my life in every possible way”; “…the best thing that’s ever happened to me and my family.” As for the companies, more than ninety percent of those in the trial remained on the four-day week afterward. Plainly, for most companies, as for most employees, the four-day week was a success.
Strategies that companies used during the trial to get 40 hours of productivity into 32 hours of work included reducing the number of meetings; making meetings more time-efficient; expanding workers’ focus time by making specific hours do-not-interrupt hours; and “process engineering”—analyzing the sub-processes within manufacturing sequences to see where some overlapped, where some could fit into gaps in others and where dead time could be squeezed out from between the sub-processes.
Looking forward, Schor views the four-day week as the answer to threats of mass unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and robotics. Beyond that, Schor envisions the shortened work week helping ease global warming by reducing commutes. Dreaming really big, Schor envisions people using their newfound free time to get active in politics and work on solving the many looming crises of our time.
Not everything Schor hopes for the future is likely to happen. Still, her research convincingly shows that a shortened work week is achievable, and worth achieving, in America now. Her results show how companies and employees in her trials succeeded in fitting five days of productivity and profit into four days of work. And she offers engagingly written guidance on how others can do the same, making Four Days A Week well worth reading for anyone who dreams of a less stressful and more sustainable work life for all.
July 18, 2025
Juliet Schor has been an excellent voice in the economics world regarding the need to shift our economy away from corporate domination and consumerism and toward new systems that would benefit workers and the environment. Her latest research has been on the four-day work week, and her new book summarizes the research she has done on the issue, with a team analyzing the impact of the adoption of a four-day work week on companies across multiple continents and sectors.
The results? A four-day work week (100% of the work, 80% of the hours, 100% of the pay) was able to increase both employee well-being and productivity, without creating negative side-effects or rebound effects. She explains how a four-day work week was able to create efficiency gains without increasing workplace stress, and how both managers and workers benefit from the new schedule. She also highlights the most environmental benefits her research team was able to identify as well as the potential greater benefits that a four-day work week could bring through a rethink of work itself.
The results? A four-day work week (100% of the work, 80% of the hours, 100% of the pay) was able to increase both employee well-being and productivity, without creating negative side-effects or rebound effects. She explains how a four-day work week was able to create efficiency gains without increasing workplace stress, and how both managers and workers benefit from the new schedule. She also highlights the most environmental benefits her research team was able to identify as well as the potential greater benefits that a four-day work week could bring through a rethink of work itself.
June 17, 2025
The most helpful parts of this book aren’t related to 4 days — they’re about increased efficiency and intentionality in the workforce leading to greater outcomes.
The weakest part was the repeated appeal to surveys that show most workers want to work less without losing benefits or pay. Did we need extensive research to learn this?
The weakest part was the repeated appeal to surveys that show most workers want to work less without losing benefits or pay. Did we need extensive research to learn this?
December 4, 2025
This covers all of the four day work week trials going on throughout the world, metrics they track, economic theory around it, etc. It gets a bit repetitive in the middle because, but an interesting read. I’d recommend if you want to learn more about it / have conversations with people about why it’s great
May 20, 2025
Four Days a Week has some good ideas but also contains some misinformation from the left.
September 3, 2025
The book is set in the United States, so in my opinion only readers from the United States will benefit from it.
October 8, 2025
The research was done, now how do we do it?
November 5, 2025
3.5 rounded down to 3. Interesting concept, the book could have been 100 pages shorter with the same effect.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews