Last October, the small staff at Massachusetts-based Machineosaurus Manufacturing Company made the switch to a four-day workweek. The transition came after CEO Matthew Boucher read a presentation about the idea of the shortened workweek from HR consulting firm Randstad.
As a contract manufacturing business focused on machine shop services, such as machine parts and small assemblies meant to be integrated into other machines, the company couldn’t cut down on total production, explained Boucher. But Machineosaurus’ nine employees could switch to longer hours, spread over four, rather than five, days.
“We were having to come in on Saturdays a lot. My observation was that it was just wearing people out,” Boucher said. “The team likes getting overtime, but at the same time only getting a day and a half to the weekend, it just gets tiresome.”
After discussing the concept internally for about a month and then spending a few weeks notifying customers, the company made the transition, according to Boucher. Ultimately, staff found that by working shifts from 6 am. to 4 p.m. from Monday to Thursday — rather than 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday — they were able to boost weekly sales per payroll dollar by 50%.
Machineosaurus is one of a number of firms experimenting with a shorter workweek. In 2022, the Society for Human Resource Management found that 32% of organizations already offer some form of a compressed workweek. Nine percent of companies have implemented a four-day workweek specifically, according to SHRM’s 2023 Employee Benefits Survey.
For Machineosaurus, the transition has been successful — and there no plans to go back to the previous schedule.
"It's really just been a real blessing for me as the business owner,” Boucher said. “It gives me time to work on the business instead of in the business."
Benefits vs. drawbacks of a four-day workweek
One of the biggest benefits for Machineosaurus came from adjusting the logistics of overtime work, Boucher said.
Mondays at Machineosaurus tend to be busy, thanks to work leftover from the week before, while Tuesdays tend to be slower. Under the new schedule, however, the team pushes to catch up on their work by Wednesday end-of-day — when management decides whether overtime will be necessary — in order to protect their Fridays. Now, the business is closed between Friday and Sunday.
Boucher has discovered that a shorter workweek — and cutting down on commuting hours — can improve worker happiness. The company also found that the switch can came with other more surprising benefits for the manufacturing process, such as saving on equipment startup and shutdown time.
The four-day workweek can be used as a recruitment tool, said Patrick Penfield, a supply chain practices professor at Syracuse University.
“This could be a great recruitment tool for manufacturers especially in our ‘tight’ labor market,” Penfield said. Recent employee surveys exemplify this desire — a 2024 Bank of America survey found that 65% of employees wanted a four-day workweek, making it the top desired benefit in addition to their current slate of offerings.
But the switch comes with operational hurdles as well, including with customer adoption. In the case of Machineosaurus, customers had to get used to deliveries not happening on Fridays. Boucher said he spent several weeks reaching out to customers to prepare them for the switch.
Another challenge is the limits of the materials manufacturers are working with, argues Penfield, pointing specifically to manufacturing processes that have extensive start and shut-down costs. A four-day workweek could make operating these plants more expensive.
“[I]f you are making glass or steel [for example], it might be difficult to shut down and restart your factory without losing product,” Penfield explained. “Lastly, the pressure to still produce a product in four days versus what you produced over five days. If you have equipment/machine failure, supplier issues, lack of materials it could significantly impact your ability to ‘catch up’ and meet the schedule.”
Plants that operate on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week schedule would need to find part-time employees that can work a separate shift, Penfield said, if full-time staff are on a 4-day schedule. Automation could also help ease these issues, he added.
Companies considering the switch may need to consider how the schedule change will impact salaries. Employers might reduce salaries to align with the reduced working hours, Emily Dickens, chief of staff, head of government affairs and corporate secretary for SHRM, said in an email. She also warned that the four-day workweek isn’t fully a trend yet — and is still in the early stages — even if some firms are finding success in the scheduling model.
While deploying a four day workweek might boost employee retention and mood, other strategies could also be effective at improving worker happiness and staff retention. She pointed to other flexible work arrangements, including job sharing, part-time schedules and flexible time systems, as other options.
“While there is supporting evidence for the benefits of a four-day schedule, organizations must carefully weigh the pros and cons, considering the diverse needs of their staff members, to determine if this is the best approach for their workforce,” Dickens said.
