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Less work is making people more unhappy
A four-day week is the ultimate worker fantasy, yet we are already working less than previous generations and feeling more burnt out.
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Even before the pandemic, Americans were putting in fewer hours.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Allison Schrager
Workers are feeling burnt out. So no wonder people got excited about a recent study from Britain claiming that companies that reduced weekly hours by 20 per cent (a four-day work week) had much happier employees without losing revenue. Absent a four-day week, more Americans appear to be choosing to downshift by deciding to work part-time, even if full-time work is available. This comes on top of the quiet-quitting and lying-flat trends.
It seems like the age of working less is upon us. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans were putting in fewer hours. In fact, we have never spent so little time at work. So if we are burnt out, maybe work is not the problem.
