Shawdesh Desk:

The offices of the environmental consultancy Tyler Grange are full every Monday morning. Attendance isn’t compulsory: they haven’t issued any return-to-office mandates, or requirements for hybrid-working employees to begin their weeks in the workplace.

Yet, since beginning a four-day week in June 2022, Tyler Grange’s 100 workers with offices across six UK offices choose to work in person more often. “Before, we probably struggled to get people into the office more than once or twice a week,” says Simon Ursell, managing director at Tyler Grange, based in Gloucestershire. “Now, we’re generally up to three days a week. And Mondays are now very popular – that didn’t happen before.”

While Tyler Grange employees have always had flexible schedules, Ursell says the intensity of the abbreviated workweek makes in-person collaboration essential. “Once you get into the rhythm of the four-day week, you realise going into the office makes your life easier. Collaboration is often harder working from home – producing the amount of work required in a four-day week would be really difficult.”

Crucially, says Ursell, the company’s employees are happy to sacrifice the flexibility that comes with working from home five days a week in return for more in-person days and a three-day weekend. “Mondays are also busy in the office, because everyone feels refreshed and ready to socialise again. If I announced we were going to scrap the four-day week to return to an extra day working hybrid, it would be very unpopular.”

Interest in and desire for the four-day workweek has grown. At the same time, remote- and flexible working have arguably been the success stories of the new world of work. So, which is the more valued perk? If employers were to call back workers in office, but the trade-off was they could get a four-day workweek, would workers go for it?

Growing data shows that even amid widescale employee resistance to return, some workers may value the four-day workweek over set-ups with a remote component.

Some of this may be due in part to the spiking interest in the shortened workweek, following the overwhelmingly positive results of the large-scale UK four-day workweek pilot, in which Tyler Grange participated.

Brendan Burchell, professor in the social sciences at the University of Cambridge, was part of the six-month trial’s qualitative research team. “The most common thing people reported was simply being able to enjoy a day to themselves without any time pressure,” he says. “Employees were able to have more time for life maintenance, childcare and simply to decompress.”

Some research suggests large swaths of the workforce now value a four-day workweek more than flexible working. Data from job-listings site Indeed, seen by BBC Worklife, shows that searches for jobs offering a four-day week were at an all-time high in the UK and US in February 2023, while searches for remote roles dipped. And in a February 2023 survey of 11,000 UK workers by recruitment firm Hays, 62% said they’d prefer working a shorter workweek every day in the office over a five-day week in a typical hybrid pattern.

However, while the desire for a four-day week grows, the prospect remains elusive for many. “In reality, only 5% of our respondents worked for an organisation where a four-day week is actually happening,” says Gaelle Blake, director of permanent appointments at Hays. “So, while some employers have started to trial the idea, we’re yet to see it take off more widely.”

Yet while the four-day workweek is still a rarity, it continues to gather momentum. And it may be a tactic for bosses to get workers back into the workplace as return-to-office plans stall.

Although Hays’ survey showed that 58% of employers said they weren’t considering implementing a four-day week, 34% said they’d be more likely to if staff spent all four days in the workplace. “It shows people are becoming increasingly open to the possibility of a four-day week,” says Blake. “So, it could be a case of professionals exchanging more time in the office for a shorter workweek.”

As opposed to forcing people back to the office, Ursell says a shorter workweek encourages employees to return organically. “It gives everyone a common sense of purpose and drive to be more productive: they want to change to make it work, learn new processes and collaborate more in person.”

Ursell believes workers more broadly are willing to go back to the office in exchange for a four-day week because of its invaluable reward: time.

“You’re giving them something money can’t buy – an extra day off,” says Ursell. “Compared to working from home, where you have to remain productive for five days a week, this is arguably a bigger change for more people’s lives.”