The four -day work week is better for health and productivity, according to a scientific study

A study of the “nature” scientific journal concludes that the week of four days of work is rather beneficial for the physical and mental health of employees.

Should we go to the four-day week worked? A vast international study, published Monday July 21, in the scientific group’s review Nature Relaunch in any case the debate. It is based on a six -month experiment in different countries of the world – but not in France – and concludes that this reorganization improves the health of employees in several levels: better sleep, better mental health, more pleasure at work and an increase in efficiency.

For this survey, 141 companies located in six Anglo-Saxon countries-Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand-, or 2,900 employees in total, went to the four-day week, without loss of salary for six months. The owners concerned therefore aimed to maintain their productivity.

They have received advice for reorganizing work, by reducing activities with low added value, such as unnecessary meetings. However, this study has some limits, and the authors themselves recognize it. First, it focused only on Anglo-Saxon, volunteer, small, and in fairly affluent economic circles.

Then, we are talking about going from an hourly departure volume of 40 hours on average to a volume of 35 hours or 32 hours weekly, which is not transposable everywhere. However, for the authors, the promising results of this study should encourage public authorities to experiment with other working time organizations, a solution of the future according to them to combat exhaustion or professional disengagement.