The feasibility of the 4-day week is the subject of controversial political, economic and social debate. While some representatives fear negative effects on the tight labor market, others see a shorter work week as a guarantor for more labor productivity and an increased attractiveness of shortage occupations (e.g. nursing). But what happens when employees no longer see the 4-day week as a "reward" and privilege, but as a "normal" work week? Which working time model is the most effective? And what influence do family circumstances (e.g. care obligations) and the respective manager have on the effectiveness of the 4-day week?

We are investigating these and similar questions in the research project "Four is more?!", which is funded by the Work 4.0 Project Fund of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Labor. While recent studies from the UK (Schor et al. 2022) or Germany indicate that a 4-day week has no negative effects on productivity despite reduced working hours, long-term effects on work quality, motivation and teamwork are still unexplored. There are also different models of the 4-day week (e.g. compressed work week vs. "real" 4-day week with fewer hours per week).

The project “Four is more?!” has been completed. As part of the project, we collected data from 11 companies in Lower Austria and are currently in the process of publishing the results. The first article can be found here (paywall): Blue-collar fathers’ temporal strategies for childcare in a compressed 4-day workweek and implications for gender equality: Community, Work & Family, opens an external URL in a new window

In a follow-up project, we now want to investigate the effect of a substantially shorter working week. Thus, we are looking for companies that are willing to reduce their standard weekly working hours by at least four hours: participating companies will receive input via workshops and results based on employee surveys during the minimum 6-month trial phase of a 4-day week. We are collaborating with the organizational developer Veit Hailperin, who has already supported many companies in Switzerland for effectively implementing the 4-day week. Details here: https://www.4-tagewoche.at/, opens an external URL in a new window