Illustrative photograph.
Research into shorter working weeks is asking a useful question: how might changing the way we organise work improve wellbeing? A UK study protocol published on 17 August 2026 takes that question beyond questionnaires, setting out plans to examine sleep, physical health and brain function alongside people’s experiences of working less.
It is an encouraging direction for research. Work can provide purpose, enjoyment and connection, while still leaving too little time for recovery. Looking carefully at working conditions gives us more to consider when someone is struggling.
What have studies found so far?
In a study first published on 21 July 2025 in Nature Human Behaviour, Wen Fan and colleagues analysed before-and-after data from 2,896 employees across 141 organisations in six countries, including the UK. Organisations prepared by reviewing how work was done, then trialled a shorter working week for six months without reducing pay.
Employees reported improvements in burnout, job satisfaction, mental health and physical health. The same pattern was not seen in 12 comparison companies. Larger reductions in individual working hours were associated with greater improvements in wellbeing.
The findings are promising, although the companies volunteered and were not randomly allocated. The results therefore cannot tell us that every workplace would experience the same benefits.
What is the UK research adding?
The Sussex-led study protocol describes a 14-week study period, including two baseline weeks, comparing people reducing their hours without losing salary with people whose working patterns stay the same. Planned measurements include sleep watches, blood samples and brain scans, alongside questionnaires.
This publication describes the research methods; it does not report the study’s results. The researchers expect data collection to continue into 2027. It should help them explore how changes in working time relate to changes in health, rather than relying entirely on people’s own reports.
These approaches involve reducing total hours. Squeezing an unchanged workload into four longer days is a different arrangement.
A compassionate way to think about work
In my introduction to Lorna Hunter’s work, I wrote about the value of recognising unhelpful patterns without blame, and having difficult conversations with care. That principle has a place at work too. We can take a problem seriously without treating the person experiencing it as the problem.
If work feels unmanageable, it may help to look at the week in concrete terms. Which tasks genuinely need doing now? What happens when a new priority is added? Is there a clear agreement about what can wait? These questions can make a conversation with a manager or colleague more useful than simply promising to try harder.
For people leading teams, compassion can mean listening properly, making realistic decisions about workload and following through on them. It can include acknowledging that something needs to change, even when that conversation feels uncomfortable.
A shorter week will not be available to everyone. There is still room to examine expectations, protect time away from work and respond to exhaustion with curiosity and care. I am pleased to see researchers giving those working conditions serious attention.
Dr Richard Jenkinson, Clinical Psychologist, Verdure Psychology