Back in 1930, the famous British economist John Maynard Keynes made a bold prediction: within 100 years, technology would reduce the need for human labour so dramatically that people would only need to work around 15 hours a week. Nearly a century later, that vision feels pretty far away. In Australia, workers are actually clocking more hours than ever — putting in an average of 3.6 extra unpaid hours every single week!

So what happened to the dream of working less? Well, excitement about the four-day work week is growing fast, and for some very compelling reasons. Unions are pushing hard for shorter working hours. And just recently, AI giant OpenAI called on employers to experiment with a four-day week as a way to fairly share the productivity benefits that artificial intelligence is expected to bring to companies everywhere.

Researchers in Australia decided to find out whether the four-day week actually works in practice. Their new study, published in a leading academic journal, followed 15 Australian firms that had tried switching to a model called 100:80:100. Under this model, workers keep 100% of their pay, work only 80% of their usual hours, but are expected to maintain 100% of their original productivity. Fourteen out of 15 companies chose to continue with the model — and not a single one reported a drop in productivity. That is seriously impressive!

The firms came from a wide range of industries, including logistics, healthcare, property management, and publishing. Some were tiny businesses with just two employees, while others had up to 85 staff members.

Interestingly, improving productivity was not always the main reason companies made the switch. Six of the 15 firms said their biggest motivation was actually to fight burnout. A 2025 survey found that one in two Australian workers experience burnout, with young people and parents especially at risk. One CEO described monitoring "absenteeism" and "mental health days" to measure whether the four-day week was making a real difference for her team.

The results were overwhelmingly positive. Six firms reported that productivity had actually increased, while the rest said it had stayed the same. On average, companies rated the four-day work week an impressive 8.5 out of 10 for overall success.

Of course, the research has limits — the sample size is small, and some participants were personally involved in championing the idea. Still, as workplaces wrestle with burnout and the rise of AI, the four-day work week looks like a genuinely exciting option worth exploring further.

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