What was widely promoted as a way to improve wellbeing and productivity is now being reassessed, with many employers returning to the traditional five-day schedule.
Interest in shorter working weeks surged during and after the pandemic, when lockdowns forced businesses to rethink how and where work was done. Flexible arrangements became mainstream, and the four-day working week was widely discussed as a way to boost work-life balance, reduce burnout and even support local tourism. Several companies across New Zealand and Australia adopted versions of the model, often maintaining full pay while reducing hours.
Five years on, the national conversation has cooled. As economic growth slows and companies face higher operating costs, boards and executives are becoming more cautious. In many cases, the four-day working week has been one of the first benefits to be scaled back. Employers under pressure to meet revenue targets are increasingly prioritising certainty and output, even where there is little evidence that shorter weeks are harming performance.
Advocates argue this retreat is driven more by fear than facts. Studies and large-scale trials continue to show that well-designed four-day working week models can maintain or even lift productivity, while improving staff retention and job satisfaction. Employees report lower burnout and better mental health, outcomes that are difficult to measure on balance sheets but valuable over time. Despite this, the policy often becomes an easy scapegoat when financial results fall short.
Not all companies are abandoning the idea. Some smaller firms have successfully embedded shorter weeks by redesigning workflows, cutting unnecessary meetings and sharpening productivity expectations. Others have shifted to performance-based models, where a shorter week is treated as a reward rather than a default entitlement. Teams that meet or exceed targets earn extra time off, while still being available for urgent matters. This approach reflects a broader trend of linking flexibility to outcomes rather than hours worked.
Recruitment specialists say flexibility itself matters more to many workers than a formal four-day working week. Parents and carers, in particular, value the ability to adjust start and finish times, work remotely, or structure hours around family commitments. For these employees, predictable flexibility can be more practical than compressing a full workload into fewer days.
Still, economic pressures are reshaping expectations. Employers facing shrinking margins are pushing for higher output, and some workers report that four-day weeks exist in name only, with workloads spilling into a fifth day. In this environment, shorter weeks can become symbolic rather than real.
While the four-day work week is not disappearing entirely, it is clearly under strain. Its future may depend less on ideology and more on whether businesses can balance flexibility with profitability in a challenging economic climate.
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