After Testing Four-Day Week, Companies Say They Don’t Want to Stop

Want to try a four-day workweek? Put this on the boss’s desk.

A large majority of U.K. companies participating in a test of a four-day workweek said they would stick with it after logging sharp drops in worker turnover and absenteeism while largely maintaining productivity during the six-month study.

In one of the largest trials of a four-day week to date, 61 British businesses ranging from banks to fast-food restaurants to marketing agencies gave their 2,900 workers a paid day off a week to see whether they could get just as much done while working less, but more effectively. More than 90% said they would continue testing the shorter week, while 18 planned to make it permanent, according to a new report from the study’s organisers.

The idea of working less than the conventional 40 hours over five days a week has been discussed for decades. The concept has gained new momentum recently as employers and employees seek new and better ways to work. The Covid-19 era ushered in broader acceptance of remote and hybrid work arrangements. Now, some employers, as well as policy makers, are exploring whether a shorter workweek can improve employee well-being and loyalty.

“At the beginning, this was about pandemic burnout for a lot of employers. Now it’s more of a retention and recruitment issue for many of them,” said Juliet Schor, an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Her team helped conduct the study with the nonprofit advocacy group 4 Day Week Global; U.K.-based think tank Autonomy, which focuses on issues including the future of work and climate change; and researchers at Cambridge University.

Global tests

Companies in the U.S. and Canada recently concluded a smaller pilot of a four-day week led by the U.K. study organisers, and similar trials are in the works in Australia, Brazil and elsewhere. Consumer-goods company Unilever PLC recently tested the concept in its New Zealand offices, while Spain’s government plans to pay companies to experiment with a four-day week. In a study in Iceland involving more than 2,500 employees across industries, researchers found most workers maintained or improved their productivity and reported reduced stress.

Widespread adoption faces a number of obstacles. Most companies that have experimented with a four-day week are small employers. Many larger companies haven’t embraced the concept. And at some companies trying four-day weeks, some workers have reported struggling to get everything done in that time.

In the U.K. study, which ran from June through November, most employees didn’t work more intensively, researchers say. Rather, they and their bosses sought to make work days more efficient with hacks such as cutting back on meetings and ensuring employees had more time to focus on completing tasks.

On a scale of 0 (very negative) to 10 (very positive), employers on average scored their productivity and performance over the six months at 7.5. A survey conducted halfway through the trial found 46% of companies said their business productivity had remained about the same, while 34% reported a slight improvement and 15% a significant improvement.

Meanwhile, 39% of employees said they were less stressed than before the pilot program started; about half reported no change. Nearly half observed improvement in mental health, and 37% also noted an improvement in physical health.

Zapping meetings

Claire Daniels, chief executive of Trio Media, a 13-employee digital-marketing agency based in Leeds, England, said she joined the trial to see whether a more effectively structured week could improve her business’s productivity. Before starting, she and her staff tracked and analyzed their workweek and concluded 20% of it was wasted in unessential meetings, business travel and other inefficiencies.

“So immediately, we knew we weren’t having to cram extra work in the four days,” she said.

Staggering everyone on Monday-Thursday and Tuesday-Friday schedules—with each employee having a partner to cover the day they were off—Ms. Daniels said she and her staff stopped holding marathon daily team meetings. And in longer meetings involving clients and multiple presentations, employees would drop in for portions and leave again, depending on how necessary their attendance was.

The hardest part, she said, was for staff to make sure they didn’t slip back into old work mind-sets or habits. On the whole, productivity was the same, or slightly improved, and revenue rose 47% compared with the year-earlier period, she said.

Ms. Daniels said she wants to continue the trial another six months before making a permanent change, “but I don’t see us going back to a typical five-days-a-week model.”

From Scotch whisky and luxury retreats to fashion collaborations and world-class hospitality, Ross Blainey has spent years shaping high-end experiences around one idea: modern luxury is no longer just about what you own.

It is about access, connection and moments money alone cannot buy.

As Citizen Kanebridge continues to grow as one of Australia’s most sought-after private members’ clubs, Blainey, the club’s new Head of Membership, says the future lies in creating experiences members cannot find anywhere else.

“The ultimate memorable experiences are the money can’t buy moments,” Blainey said.

“The things that you can’t just put together anytime or any place. They make up something that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

On June 4, Blainey will bring that philosophy to life when he hosts an exclusive whisky evening for Citizen Kanebridge members at Sydney’s Royal Automobile Club of Australia.

Titled A Journey Through Whisky, the intimate event will see Blainey guide members through a curated selection of rare and unreleased whiskies drawn from his personal archive, alongside stories gathered across years working at the highest levels of the Scotch whisky world.

The evening will also include reflections on Blainey’s induction as a Keeper of the Quaich at Blair Castle in Scotland last year, one of the whisky industry’s rarest global honours.

A career built around experience

Before joining Citizen Kanebridge, Blainey built a career spanning luxury hospitality, Scotch whisky, premium lifestyle brands and experiential events.

But he says one industry above all others shaped the way he thinks about people and community: Scotch whisky.

“At its core, at its heart and throughout its whole history, Scotch has been about sharing, enjoyment, telling stories, meeting people and generally having a good time,” he said.

“Whisky can be that shared moment of laughter, and it can also be a shared moment of just slowing down, taking stock and contemplating. These are so key to building community.”

Blainey’s deep involvement in the whisky world culminated in 2025 when he was inducted as a Keeper of the Quaich at Blair Castle, a recognition is reserved for a select group of individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to Scotch whisky internationally.

“I was inducted last year, 2025, an incredible honour,” he said.

“There were a couple of teary-eyed moments as I stood in Blair Castle, on historic ground, realising that this was a moment I would remember forever.”

The next chapter for Citizen Kanebridge

Looking ahead, Blainey says Citizen Kanebridge will continue to focus on highly curated experiences, exclusive access, and bringing together like-minded members from Australia’s property, finance, and investment sectors.

“Our baseline of Car of the Year is already one of the most impressive events on the social calendar of Australia,” he said.

“My job is to find a way of raising the bar, taking things to the absolute top level for access, experiences and events.”

Blainey said the long-term goal was not simply to create another networking group or luxury club, but to build a community centred around meaningful relationships and unforgettable experiences.

“We provide the access, the money can’t buy memories, and we will be making those happen regularly,” he said.

“If we start with how amazing Car of the Year is and the only way is up, we are going to have some mind-blowing moments for our members.”

Hospitality at its absolute best

Another major influence on Blainey’s thinking came through his connection with world-famous New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park, once named the best restaurant in the world.

He says two concepts from the restaurant’s owners still shape the way he approaches luxury experiences today: “enlightened hospitality” and “unreasonable hospitality”.

“Enlightened hospitality is a way of doing business that looks at not just the product of what you serve, but how it makes people feel,” Blainey said.

“Unreasonable hospitality is more about striving for the absolute best all the time. If you’re going to do something, do it to an unreasonable level that blows everything else out of the water.”

It is a philosophy, he says, which aligns closely with where Citizen Kanebridge is heading next.

“That’s what we’re doing here with CK, taking members’ experiences to another level,” he said.

Fashion, whisky and creative collaborations

Blainey’s career has also included working with Glenfiddich as a Creative Collaborations Lead, where his role centred on bringing luxury experiences and partnerships to life through designers, chefs, artists and bartenders.

Among the projects were runway collaborations with leading Australian fashion designers, with pieces from the partnerships now housed inside Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.

“My job was to find a creative way of bringing the brand to life,” he said.

“How do we make something that none of us could make on our own? Searching for the things that will resonate with people.”

What luxury consumers want now

Beyond whisky and events, Blainey also played a key role in building Blackbird Byron, the boutique Byron Bay hinterland retreat later recognised in Tatler’s Top 101 Hotels list.

The property, known for its dramatic views, minimalist architecture, and secluded atmosphere, helped shape his understanding of how luxury consumers are changing.

“I think I learned that people looking for luxury in hotels want memorable moments, considered design and the ability to get away from the hustle and bustle of modern life,” he said.

“To feel at home without being at home is important.”

More broadly, he believes today’s luxury consumers are increasingly driven by authenticity and emotional connection.

“For luxury consumers overall, I think it comes down to craft, story and connection,” he said.

“The product itself has to be impeccable, the story behind it builds your reason for looking at it, and then you need to make a genuine connection with people.”

Interested in becoming a member of Citizen Kanebridge? You can contact Ross here.