‘Cruel hoax’ or ‘work-life balance nirvana’: whatever happened to the four-day work week?

It has been years since the four-day work week was floated as a solution to everything from traffic congestion to burnout. So why aren’t we all doing it now? Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email During the global soul-searching that followed the rupture of Covid-19 lockdowns, one idea for how we might live better suddenly seemed plausible: the four-day work week. The model is simple but somewhat counterintuitive. Employees work fewer hours for the same salary while getting the same amount of (or even more) work done. Advocates say this is made possible by reducing meeting times, streamlining workflows and prioritising work more efficiently. But despite the hype and the reports of successful trials, the four-day week remains niche. Last year Bupa and Unilever walked away from trials of reduced work hours, citing the four-day model as “rigid”. Last month Launceston city council scrapped plans to become the first Australian government body to introduce a four-day work week after backlash from the business sector. Yet, after failing to have the four-day work week seriously considered in last year’s productivity round