© 2024 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

To rebalance the work-life scales, the case for a four-day workweek

Pexels

Has the 5-day, 40-hour work week got you down? You may be in luck.

Researchers conducted tests at 33 different companies to see if a 4-day, 32-hour work week worked. It did. Researchers and workers discovered it resulted in a reduction of worker burnout, improved work-life balance and even cut down on carbon emissions that could help curb climate change.

Employers found workers were more productive a nd experienced higher job satisfaction. There was a reduction in worker turnover — and revenues increased. It was a win-win at no reduction in pay.

Can this be the future ? Mike Collins talks with one of the lead researchers.

Guest

Juliet Schor, economist and sociologist at Boston College, lead researcher for a project that ran trials of companies that implemented four-day workweeks. Author of many books, including the New York Times bestseller “The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure.”

Copyright 2023 WFAE. To see more, visit WFAE.

Erin Keever is Senior Producer of WFAE's Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins. She joined WFAE as an intern in 2006 and has since worked as a researcher, production assistant, food blog editor, on-air announcer, and now senior producer. She's a graduate of UNC Charlotte, but before that attended UNC Greensboro where she proudly worked at her college radio station WUAG. Erin is a native Charlottean and still misses the Spaghetti Warehouse from back when SouthEnd was gritty.