Sixty companies tried it. Fifty-one kept it. The nine that went back explain what broke.
Two years ago sixty companies in the region agreed to try a four-day week for the same pay. This spring the trial ended. Fifty-one have kept it. Nine have gone back to five days.
The nine were willing to explain.
What worked
Among the firms that stayed, the pattern is consistent. Sick days fell, fewer people resigned, and output held.
- Staff turnover dropped by about a third
- Sick days fell by roughly a quarter
- Revenue per employee was level or slightly up
Most closed on Fridays. A few staggered the day off so the phones were always answered.
What broke
The nine that returned were not the ones that expected trouble. Four were client businesses whose customers kept working Fridays.
"We saved the day and lost the weekend," the founder of a design studio said. "People answered messages on Friday from the sofa, and then resented it."
Three were manufacturers where a shorter week meant a longer shift, and the last hour of a ten-hour day turned out to be the one with the mistakes. Two simply found that meetings expanded to fill four days as easily as five.
The detail that mattered
The firms that kept the short week all did one thing first: they cut work before they cut hours. Reports nobody read were dropped. Standing meetings were halved.
The firms that went back mostly tried to fit five days of the old work into four.
Thursday at half past five
At one insurer that kept the change, the last shift of the week ends on Thursday at 17:30. The office is empty by 17:40. The managing director says the only complaint in two years has been about the car park on Monday.
