Germany's Four-Day Week Trial: 73% of Firms Refuse to Go Back

Germany just ran one of the largest real-world tests of the four-day week ever conducted — and the companies that tried it don't want to give it up. In a year-long national trial, 73 percent of participating firms decided they would not return to the traditional five-day schedule, according to results reported by Talk Android. Output held steady or ticked slightly higher, meetings shrank, and workers reported sleeping more, stressing less and sticking around longer.

The experiment followed the "100-80-100" formula: full pay for 80 percent of standard working hours while teams hit 100 percent of their output targets. The German pilot unfolded in two stages — six months spent diagnosing and fixing wasteful work processes, then six months actually running the shorter schedule with hours cut by a fifth. Crucially, it wasn't one rigid model: some firms rotated which weekday people took off, others landed on a 4.5-day week, and participants ranged from micro-businesses to major corporations across manufacturing, insurance, technology, media, retail and education.

The headline numbers are striking. Nearly three-quarters of the companies said they would keep the shorter schedule going forward, while about one in five planned to return to five days and a small slice remained undecided. Among employees, half reported a marked improvement in well-being and 44 percent noted at least a slight benefit. On average, workers banked about 38 extra minutes of sleep per week, exercised more regularly, and said they felt more effective as their perceived workload dropped. Employee retention improved by eight percentage points over the course of the trial.

How the four-day week trial actually worked

The productivity gains didn't come from people simply working faster — they came from working differently. Sixty percent of participating companies cut back on meeting frequency and duration, and a quarter adopted new digital tools to replace manual busywork, Talk Android reported. Employees said their work rhythm improved and they wasted less time, which suggests the extra day off was funded by killing low-value tasks rather than by cramming five days of stress into four.

That sequence matters, and it echoes what happened in Scandinavia. A separate six-month pilot across eleven businesses in Norway and Sweden, run with researchers from Karlstad University and the nonprofit behind the pay-for-less-hours movement, found that companies maintained full productivity after shortening the workweek by 20 percent without reducing pay, as reported by the Daily Galaxy. Like the German firms, those teams spent a planning phase redesigning workflows before the shorter hours kicked in.

What the four-day week data shows across countries

Germany is the latest chapter in a story that's been building for years. The most ambitious evidence comes from an 18-month study of workers in the US, Canada, Britain and Ireland, which found employees kept trimming their average workweek — about four hours in the first six months alone — without losing output, while employers reported a 15 percent rise in revenue, according to the New York Post. Those who stuck with the schedule for a full year shaved off another hour and reported even bigger gains in mental and physical health.

A peer-reviewed study of Australia's early adopters, published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, landed in the same place: none of the participating firms reported a drop in productivity, and the dominant theme from interviews was blunt — companies would not go back. The Australian research did flag real friction, though: managers wrestled with how to treat part-time staff, some clients pushed back on reduced availability, and general skepticism about fitting five days of work into four never fully disappeared. Similar doubts surfaced in Germany, where the powerful employer association BDA stopped short of backing a nationwide cut in hours, arguing instead for flexible, negotiated arrangements between bosses and staff.

What it means for Gen Z workers

This is landing at exactly the moment the generation entering the workforce cares most about it. A survey of 200 young workers by the consultancy Development Beyond Learning, conducted with the Gen Z media outlet Thred Media, found that 93 percent see a four-day week as a way to make jobs significantly more appealing, and 90 percent believe it would improve their mental health, NDA News reported. "With Gen Z poised to make up 30 per cent of the global workforce by 2025, their perspectives matter," said Pete Humphreys, the consultancy's CEO. "Our research is a starting point for employers looking to innovate and attract early talent by reimagining the traditional workweek."

Jenk Oz, its founder and CEO, put the demand in generational terms: "Gen Z isn't more complex than previous generations, but our priorities are shaped by today's fast-paced, tech-driven world. Employers must adapt to these shifts if they want to attract and retain the best talent."

The honest caveat is that none of these trials proves the model works everywhere. The German and Scandinavian samples leaned toward knowledge-work companies that volunteered for the experiment, and the research teams themselves note the limits of self-reported data. Hospitals, schools and factories can't all rotate Fridays off. But the consistent pattern — output holding, burnout falling, retention climbing — is now backed by trials in Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, Spain and Portugal. That's no longer an anecdote; it's a dataset.

For job seekers chasing a four-day week, the practical takeaway is leverage. Employers in the German trial reported stronger recruitment and retention — a signal that shorter hours are becoming a competitive edge, not a perk. Asking about flexible scheduling, meeting culture and output-based performance in an interview is no longer a fringe request; the evidence says it can make both sides better off. For more on how young workers are reshaping the job market, read Digital Freelancers: More Work, Less Pay in the AI Cleanup Era, and follow the Productivity topic page for ongoing coverage.