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Perhaps not a surprise. But working less, for the same pay, makes workers feel better and more relaxed.
we study how an organization-wide 4-day workweek intervention—with no reduction in pay—affects workers' well-being.
These are the findings from new peer-reviewed research published in Nature Human Behaviour, where researchers monitored the effects of a four-day work week for six months.
About 2,896 employees across 141 organisations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom took part.
They answered surveys before and after the trial. Their answers were then compared with 285 employees from 12 companies who worked a normal five-day week.
shows improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health—a pattern not observed in 12 control companies.
Three key factors mediate the relationship: improved self-reported work ability, reduced sleep problems and decreased fatigue. The results indicate that income-preserving 4-day workweeks are an effective organizational intervention for enhancing workers' well-being.
[...] "We know when people are really stressed and burnt out and not sleeping well, productivity doesn't just continue upwards," Dr Sander said.
Who wouldn't want to work one day less per week for the same pay ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-22/four-day-work-week-health-burnout/105555392
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02259-6
(Score: -1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Saturday July 26 2025, @02:52PM (19 children)
"Who wouldn't want to work one day less per week for the same pay ..."
And by extension, who wouldn't want to work at all for the same pay?
Yeah, socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mrpg on Saturday July 26 2025, @03:30PM (6 children)
It's early, I just woke up, so I might be wrong but this feels like a complaint towards treating people better.
A few days ago I saw something about a woman from Dumbfuckistan who went to Europe and was complaining because supermarket cashiers had a chair to sit, she was impressed they were so "lazy".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 26 2025, @03:58PM (2 children)
This is a very strong example of much of what's wrong in today's "society" and politics. You can't just take someone's words at face value, you must interpret the words, and it always makes the originator look bad.
I wish I could understand where all of this is coming from. Probably TV and movies.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:25PM
This hypocrisy is an exercise of normal human behavior and psychology. What we excuse in ourselves and in-groups we identify with, we don't when it occurs in out-groups. When you combine that with the variety of media and propaganda that gives us plenty of excuses to indulge in that behavior, then the above is common behavior. It's a typical us-vs-them psychology that might have had evolutionary advantage way back when at the small tribe level of human society.
TVs and movies are a symptom of a related problem - the human cognitive tendency to tie everything into neat, simple stories. Complex situations are hard and require lots of energy/effort to understand. What we can simplify into our stories allows us to understand more.
My view is that these psychological short cuts have their place. We need to be reminded that there are ulterior motives and a good story can simplify a complex situation in a high fidelity, understandable approach. But as you note, these short cuts are also exploitable for nefarious or just plain self-destructive ways.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 27 2025, @08:19AM
The OP labels this as socialism. It's not. There's a long thread in a journals arguing that Elon Musk shouldn't be called a Nazi. If only people were as staunchly opposed to misusing the socialism label. This isn't helpful to the discussion.
The OP uses a straw man argument about people not working at all. That's not even close to saying that people should work 32 hours per week instead of 40. Some businesses want to institute a six day work week [newsweek.com], and that used the be normal in the past. Does keeping the work week at 40 hours instead of 48 or more inevitably lead people not working at all? No! It's a straw man and is as unhelpful as if I refuted the six day work week with an argument about imposing a 168 hour work week.
The OP strongly implies that reducing the work week to 32 hours will diminish productivity, hence the part about running out of other people's money. It's a non-sequitur. Many studies support that a 32 hour work week doesn't reduce productivity from 40 hours, and might even improve it because people are more physically and mentally rested and have less stress.
The OP's argument is based on multiple logical fallacies and misuse of the word "socialism", which often has a negative connotation. It's detrimental to the discussion. I understand your concern, but in this context, I find your comment also unhelpful.
(Score: 1, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:27PM (2 children)
When I visited Germany from Dumbfuckistan (aka Miami) in 1990 I was impressed that the grocery stores were ALL closed on Sunday. Floriduh gave that up in the early 1970s.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:45PM (1 child)
And went all in on the 10 Commandments in schools. Nobody asked it to make sense.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ox0000 on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:54PM
Where's The Satanic Temple [wikipedia.org] when you need them. Now that Florida allows blatant displays of religious nature in schools, and because this is about equality, and certainly not about having a state-sanctioned religion which would be unconstitutional, certainly other religions should get to do the same as well, right?
I am eagerly awaiting a Baphomet statue to be displayed right next to the "10 commandments" in every room where those are displayed.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:37PM (3 children)
>Yeah, socialism is great until you run out of other people's money.
The money is actually irrelevant. What's needed is resources: food, shelter (incl: clothing), transport (incl: communication), entertainment, and tools for implementation of all the rest...
For decades, we have been capable of provisioning food and shelter for all the world's people, but there are two problems with implementation. First: people are greedy bastards by nature and would rather hoard resources to "incentivize" those without to do their bidding, and Second: Malthus wasn't wrong... if we keep breeding at anything resembling the past 60 years' growth rates we will run out of resources sooner than later.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 26 2025, @04:47PM (2 children)
Financial insecurity is the way you get other people to do your chores. The fact some are born with lots of tokens and some are born with none means the ones with more tokens get their chores done for them. Because that's how life works, don't you see?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 26 2025, @11:12PM
>The fact some are born with lots of tokens and some are born with none means the ones with more tokens get their chores done for them. Because that's how life works, don't you see?
When I was in kindergarten (at the most expensive private school in two counties), they were teaching my classmates and I "the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Thing was, I was there because my parents were teachers in the public schools, and horrified at how that was working in the early 1970s, so they sunk an outrageous portion of their income on my school tuition.
My 14 or so kindergarten classmates, meanwhile, were learning the real golden rule at home: "he who has the gold, makes the rules." - from their parents who had most of the gold.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday July 28 2025, @07:48PM
And then, those with few or no tokens get fed up (definitely not literally) and chop your head off and take yours. That too is how life works.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mrpg on Saturday July 26 2025, @05:12PM
And by extension, who wouldn't want to work at all for the same pay?
Oversimplification reduces complex causes to just one, making it harder to understand the real issues.
Exaggeration adds unnecessary causes, confusing the real reasons behind events or problems.
Both fallacies often appear in politics, science, and on important topics like trauma and education.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 26 2025, @06:05PM
:-) Yeah, we have a president right now that can't even cut his own toenails.
Not true. Trillions for quantitative easing will always save the day! Ctrl-P, babe, print more dollars than atoms in the universe
(Score: 0, Troll) by https on Saturday July 26 2025, @09:28PM
This has to be the stupidest meme I encounter on a regular basis. Or maybe the most pernicious? I don't know. It's wrong and harmful.
The reality of currency is that sovereign governments issue and define it, and "deficits" are only called that due to a quirk of accounting definitions - much like the integer 1 is not prime though starting mathematicians all think it should be.
Commerce can't happen beyond the level of barter and duels without governments printing money.
Here's a simple explainer [youtube.com] - warning, it's like an hour because it fucking well takes time to debunk a lifetime's worth of neocon lies.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Saturday July 26 2025, @11:48PM (1 child)
Only people at the bottom are expected to actually be working for 40 hours a week. Everybody else either doesn't bother to show up that much or spends a bunch of time screwing around or in meetings
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday July 30 2025, @07:28PM
Or browsing sites like SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by corey on Sunday July 27 2025, @12:39AM (1 child)
My thought was, well, this is obvious research, to the point of “duh!”
The reality is, while it might get a mention in a HR magazine somewhere, the business world will completely ignore it. Happiness isn’t directly related to money making (in the minds of C-suites). I mean, they’re still trying to force people to go to the office 5 days a week. That feels like an ongoing battle.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday July 27 2025, @06:27AM
FTFY.
Some businesses are already doing it.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday July 28 2025, @07:40PM
A little alcohol rub on the skin before an injection is a good way to reduce the chance of infection. You reject that practice because funneling down 2 gallons of moonshine is generally fatal.