UNO business professor Mark Rosa says workers probably have no trouble seeing the upside of a four-day work week:
"I think we all realize what the benefit of a 50 percent increase of a weekend would be," said Rosa. "That third day feels like more than just one more day."
A large New Zealand financial firm went to a four-day week in November, and the University of Auckland along with Auckland University of Technology have been studying the results. They found a 20 percent increase in productivity, and decreasing worker stress.
Staff stress levels dropped from 45 percent to 38 percent, and work-life balance scores increased from 54 percent to 78 percent.
Rosa says the problems of the four-day week arise when some business go it alone, but still have to do business with other companies on days when a lot of its employees are off.
"Communication breaks down, it's harder to get people together for meetings," he said, It can also be a problem if a company does a lot of business with the public.
"If you've got a business that interfaces with the public, you're really worried about how is it going to impact your customer flow."
