How the four-day week can address a crisis of mental health in the workplace

During a six-month trial one Brighton-based recruiter increased productivity by 40%, reports Hazel Sheffield

Kelly Robertson is the group operations director for MRL, a Brighton-based recruiter that has implemented the four-day week

As the group operations director of an international tech recruiter based in Brighton, Kelly Robertson’s job has always been full-time. Until earlier this year, when her company MRL decided to trial a four-day week.

“I’m able to pick my youngest daughter up from school and she can have her friends round for tea,” Robertson says. “I’ve seen the difference in her. And my husband is a firefighter – he’s quite often off on a Friday so we can drop my daughter off at school and go paddle-boarding – something we love but the kids aren’t into.”

In December, MRL completed a six-month trial of the four-day week across the business. The trial was so successful – liberating salespeople and managers alike on Fridays to pursue leisure activities, further education or simply just to do their chores – that the company has adopted the four-day week as a permanent policy.

During the six-month trial, short-term absence declined by 40 per cent, productivity increased 20 per cent and 87 per cent of staff said their mental health has improved. “Our overriding objective was to find a way to improve the team’s quality of life and give them a proper work-life balance,” says David Stone, chief executive, “and that is what this new way of working is enabling us to do.”

There is widespread support for a four-day week in the UK. A YouGov survey in March 2019 showed that 63 per cent of Britons support the idea, a higher proportion than in Germany, France or Denmark. The idea for a 32-hour week was included in the Labour Party manifesto, but became mired in confusion as critics debated how it could work in healthcare. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, went on the record dismissing the idea that it would apply to NHS workers as “nonsense”.

Nonetheless, support for measures that can address a crisis of mental health in the workplace is likely to continue into the next decade. Incidences of stress, depression and anxiety at work have increased steadily since 2014-15, reaching a rate of 1,800 per 100,000 workers in the most recent figures in the Labour Force Survey released by the Health and Safety Executive.

Mental health was one of the most common types of work-related ill-health, accounting for 44 per cent of all work-related illness. Women were also more likely to suffer from mental ill-health in the workplace, with 2,020 cases per 100,000 female workers between 2016/17 and 2018/19, compared to 1,490 cases per 100,000 men.

Robertson says that having Friday off is “a bonus” at a time in her life when she is balancing the demands of two children, a husband, a dog and a director’s role at an international company. And it’s not just her. “Employees are coming to work calmer and feeling less stressed, just because they have that time to do general life admin,” she says. “There are people who don’t have family and they are using it to do exercise or spend time with friends.”

Some of the staff at MRL have taken up part time PhDs. One has started golf lessons. Many more use it as a third day of the weekend, giving them time to get all their chores done on a Friday so they can spend Saturday and Sunday with family, rather than worrying about ironing or food shopping.

Even Stone, as chief executive, has found his quality of life has improved. “This is the first time in 20 years I have had any ‘me time’,” he says. “Now for the first time I have a day on a Friday where my wife is out, my kids are at school, and I can get some proper head space.”

Stone first thought he would need staff to work longer hours on the four other days, so they would effectively work 40 hours anyway. But all the research he read suggested that the four-day week is more effective when hours are properly reduced. So MRL has invested in productivity training, supporting staff to plan their week and prioritise their workload. An external trainer comes in two days every month to hold training sessions where needed. But the main adjustments have been common sense, Robertson says.

Stone agrees: “People are approaching their jobs in a more workmanlike fashion. There is far less chit chat or mucking around than you would get in a sales office and people are getting on with their jobs.”

Stone says this is a change from the old ways of managing sales, where the boss would walk round telling people to get on the phone: “Now if one person is leaning back and talking about football or Love Island, it’s not the manager, but colleagues who are saying, ‘I’m a bit busy, let’s pick it up at lunchtime.’ Management has become multidirectional.”

In January, an organisation set up to promote the four-day week will introduce a certification system for companies that have made the shift. “We all recognise that we are working too hard,” says Charlotte Lockhart, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global. “The consequences are becoming obvious. As a society we recognise that we are not working productively and getting the best out of ourselves and our people, and a large part of that is coming out of the way we work.”

Her organisation aims to take the pressure off businesses that have successfully implemented the four-day week to become spokespeople. “The minute you do it’s quite disruptive because everyone wants to pick your brains,” Lockhart says. “So we’re building a network of consultants around the world to support businesses.”

She believes that business – not politicians – must drive the agenda for the four-day week. “The key thing is shortening the amount of time that we are engaged with work. How businesses do that depends on their business imperative and the needs of their staff,” she says. “We believe that business needs to take this initiative and drive it forwards.”