{"id":216993,"date":"2026-05-20T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:05:11","slug":"15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Australian companies switched to a four-day work week. It went surprisingly well"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well-283361\">15 Australian companies switched to a four-day work week. It went surprisingly well<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well-283361\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well-283361<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-20 02:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"theconversation.com\">theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are six key points summarizing the article:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Historical and Present Context<\/strong>: John Maynard Keynes predicted a future where technological advances would reduce human labor, yet Australia is currently experiencing an increase in paid hours and an average of 3.6 extra hours of unpaid work weekly. Interest in a four-day work week has been renewed by various drivers, including the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for less travel due to international conflicts.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Research Focus on a Four-Day Work Week<\/strong>: Research was conducted on 15 Australian firms that trialled the &#8220;100:80:100&#8221; four-day work model over two years. This model guarantees full pay while reducing work hours by 20%.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Motivation and Burnout Prevention<\/strong>: Six out of 15 companies opted for the four-day work week primarily to combat burnout, aligning with national surveys indicating high burnout rates among workers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Adoption and Productivity<\/strong>: Thirteen firms continued with the four-day model, and none reported productivity losses. Six out of these firms suggested an increase in productivity, with an overall average success rating of 8.5 out of 10.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Industry and Firm Diversity<\/strong>: The firms ranged across various industries from logistics to healthcare, with both small (2-18 employees) and medium (up to 85 staff) businesses participating in the research.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Research Limitations and Future Outlook<\/strong>: The study has limited participant scope and potential responder bias due to their involvement in the decision-making process. The research plans to continue assessing sustainability and long-term effects of the four-day work week.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>15 Australian companies switched to a four-day work week. It went surprisingly well https:\/\/theconversation.com\/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well-283361 Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/736966\/original\/file-20260520-71-m665t8.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C581%2C3500%2C1750&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216993"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216995,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216993\/revisions\/216995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}