The four-day week: what the experiments show (and what they didn't measure)

Few workplace ideas have moved so fast from utopia to real pilot. In recent years, hundreds of companies across several countries tried cutting the week to four days without cutting pay, and the reports were enthusiastic: less exhaustion, better wellbeing, productivity holding or improving, almost nobody wanting to go back.

As with everything that sounds too good, it is worth looking at the data calmly. Not to deflate the idea —there are reasons to take it seriously— but to understand what exactly was tested and what might be producing the effect, which is the question that matters to whoever has to decide.