[Research Report] Rethinking the Workweek: The Push for Fewer Work Hours, More Life

As the traditional 40-hour workweek faces increasing scrutiny, employees are calling for new approaches to improving productivity and quality of life. Work Time Reduction, in collaboration with FlexOS, conducted this research to explore employee perspectives on reduced-hour workweeks.

With insights from hundreds of participants across various industries, the findings uncover employees’ preferences, challenges, and trade-offs they are willing to make for fewer but more meaningful work hours. 

This report sheds light on what employees value most, the persistence of overwork, and the barriers to adopting shorter work schedules.

Key Findings from "Rethinking the Workweek: The Push for Fewer Work Hours, More Life" Report:

• A sizable majority (58.5%) state that their organization has already adopted a shorter workweek (10%), or it is 'highly likely' (20%) or 'certain and inevitable' (10%) that they will do so in the next 5 years, with 18.5% believing it will be in the next 1-2 years.

• 3 in 5 knowledge workers (59%) would choose a 4-day week fully in the office over a 5-day week fully remote.

• 58% of people are willing to forego at least 1 year of pay increases in exchange for a shorter workweek, with 36.5% willing to trade off 2+ years of pay rises, and 15.5% willing to go as far as 3+ years.

• 38% of knowledge workers overwork (working 10-hour workdays) most weeks, with 16% even doing so every week. The most common reasons for overwork were last-minute requests and deadlines (48.5%) and unsustainable workloads and under-resourcing (37%).

• The largest group of respondents (38%) believe that AI-powered efficiency gains should be shared equally between the productivity of organizations and the quality of life of the workforce (everyone else chose ‘mostly’ or ‘fully’ to either productivity or quality of life).

• 78.5% of respondents would be highly motivated to find efficiencies and boost productivity if it meant the opportunity to reduce work hours. The top priorities of respondents if they had a reduced work schedule were more time to relax and slow down (75%), working on health, fitness, or wellness (55%), and spending quality time with children/family (54%).

• The biggest challenges respondents believed employers would face with a reduced work schedule were managing the workload with fewer working hours (43.5%), meeting client/customer demands and maintaining service standards (43%), maintaining a strong, consistent work culture (41%), and balancing fairness across different teams or roles (39%).

To learn more, download the full report:

About the Study

The survey was conducted through a Pollfish panel of 200 participants in the US across all age ranges, seniorities, and industries. The survey ran in November 2024.