One of the objections I sometimes hear about the 4-day week is along the lines of, “Sure it sounds good at first, but aren’t the happiness and productivity gains just the Hawthorne Effect?” The short answer is, no. But it’s always good to see more evidence backing up this claim.

So it was good to see that Buffer has published a piece about how their 4-day week is going. In April 2020 Buffer announced that it would trial a 4-day. It made the shift permanent that June, so it’s now in year 2 of its 4-day week. Some of the highlights:

  • “91% of our team are happier and more productive working four days a week”
  • ”Most of our team is only working four days a week”
  • “84% of our team are able to get all of their work done in four days a week”
On the other hand, they say, they’re continuing to work on “how connected we feel as a team when you have fewer hours in the workweek.” This a challenge that many companies that shift to a 4-day week are conscious of, and of course one that all companies have to face these days!