New Economic Foundation points to example of Utah, where four-day working week increased productivity and saved energy

• Nick Mathiason
• guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 February 2010
• Article history

Commuters on their way to work in London. The New Economic Foundation suggests that the future working week should be 21 hours. Photograph: Simon James/Alamy

British workers may be toiling hard to ward off unemployment, but the future could bring an average of only 21 hours a week chained to their desk.

A report by the influential thinktank, the New Economic Foundation, says over-consumption, rising unemployment, increasing inequality and deteriorating work-life balance can be tackled by radically altering working life.

Reducing the working week could also defuse the pensions time bomb by ensuring employees are healthy enough to work later in life.

Citing the example of Utah, the study shows how the US state's decision in 2008 to place all public-sector workers on a four-day week saved energy, reduced absenteeism and increased productivity.

The report argues that 21 hours a week is already close to the average length of time spent in paid employment.

"A lot of this is already happening," said the report's joint author, Andrew Simms of the NEF. "Job sharing is common practice … It's going to be increasing. Maybe we'll have less income and more time.

"Other than the benefit of having more time, what will happen is a reduction in inequality and the potential to be better-quality friends, partners and parents engaging more with communities.

"There is this issue of people retiring and their lives collapse. So this is a good opportunity for people to fulfil themselves. We are not saying this should be imposed. We're suggesting this should be more of a norm."

A spokesman for the Institute of Directors suggested that Britain's bosses are already increasingly offering "flexible working arrangements".

"Work/life balance for employees is something our members take seriously because they see benefits to people's lives," an IoD spokesman said. But he added that many businesses need continuity, which an increase in part-time labour would destroy.

The advent of personal computers was meant to have ushered in a new age of leisure outside the office. NEF's report shows that many people work longer hours than 30 years ago. Since 1981 two-adult households have added six hours to their combined weekly workload.

A separate survey last week by jobs website Monster showed that of nearly 2,400 polled, 37% said their work gets in the way of their relationships while 23% said they feel they are expected to put their work ahead of their home life.

I would actually vote for a politician who promised this.

• 15 September 2009 by David Cohen

The four-day week could boost employment, save energy and make us happier.

FANCY a three-day weekend - not just once in a while but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree to it, but the evidence suggests that employers, employees and the environment all benefit.

The four-day week comes in two flavours. One option is to switch from five 8-hour days to four 10-hour days, meaning overall hours and salaries stay the same. In August 2008, the state of Utah moved all of its employees, apart from the emergency services, to working 4/10, as it has become known. The hope was that by shutting down buildings for an extra day each week, energy bills would be slashed by up to a fifth.

The full results of this experiment won't be published until October, but an ongoing survey of 100 buildings suggests energy consumption has fallen by around 13 per cent. The survey also found that 70 per cent of employees prefer the 4/10 arrangement, and that people took fewer days off sick.

The second form of the four-day week is to work the same number of hours per day for four days only, with a commensurate 20 per cent pay cut. With the recession hitting revenues, accountancy company KPMG announced in February that it was offering its 11,000 UK employees the option of a four-day week to avoid job losses. So far 85 per cent of employees have applied to join the scheme, and 800 now do a four-day week.

Not everyone will like the idea of working longer days or taking a pay cut in exchange for a 3-day weekend, but it appears most do. Rex Facer at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, questioned 151 human resources directors working for large cities across the US. Where city employees had been offered flexitime or 4/10 regimes, 64 per cent said the alternative work schedule improved morale, and 41 per cent said it improved productivity - though 9 per cent said the opposite.

According to Facer, it was the crash of 1929 that led to the five-day week. "Before that it was common to work six-day weeks with 12 to 14-hour days. When the Great Depression hit, the idea was to share work around to get more people into employment." During the next big financial crisis in the 1970s, there was much talk of moving to a four-day week, but for a variety of reasons that didn't pan out. "Things are different now," says Facer. "I wouldn't be surprised if we could get 50 per cent or more of the workforce working four-day weeks in the next few years." Next up: the three-day week.

Read more: Blueprint for a better world

An irresistible invitation to reject the work ethic and enjoy life's simple pleasures (such as laughing, drinking and lying in the open air), Robert Louis Stevenson's witty and seminal essay on the joys of idleness is accompanied here by his writings on, among other things, growing old, visiting unpleasant places and the overwhelming experience of falling in love.