Friday briefing: Does a four-day week work? These companies are about to find out

Friday briefing: Does a four-day week work? These companies are about to find out

How much of today are you going to spend thinking about what you’re going to do this weekend? Well, imagine a world where that Thursday feeling signified the last day of the working week – and Friday’s were the first day of a three-day weekend.

That’s the reality for over 3,000 workers at 60 companies across Britain whostarted a six-month trial of a four-day week on Monday. Think of it: they’re probably asleep right now.

It’s not the first scheme of its kind – but it is the biggest one to take place in the world. So how does it work? And how can businesses operate while losing 20% of their staff’s working hours? I’ve spoken to Joe Ryle, the campaign director of the 4 day week UK campaign, and Mark Howland, director of marketing and communications at Charity Bank – a business taking part in the trial – about how it’s going and what we’ll learn from the experiment. I’ll get to that, after the headlines.