Four-Day Working Week: Psychological Effects and Practical Considerations

How does a four-day working week affect mental health, fatigue and workplace safety? What employers should know before putting it into practice.

One of the most talked-about ideas in the business world in recent years is cutting the working week from five days to four. Pilot schemes have been run in some countries and companies, and news stories and social media posts have often presented the model as a magic solution to burnout. In Turkey, too, the four-day working week has become a topic of curiosity, particularly among white-collar teams and some technology companies. So how does this model really affect employees' mental health? Does it deliver the same result for everyone, or can it create new risks when poorly designed? In this article, I look at the psychological side of the issue for employers, HR managers and occupational health and safety (OHS) professionals: the possible benefits, the risks that are easy to overlook, and what to think through before putting it into practice.

What Is a Four-Day Working Week? The Different Models

"Working four days" is not a single arrangement. The models organisations introduce under this heading can differ considerably from one another:

• Reduced-hours model: Weekly working time is cut and pay is maintained. The employee is expected to produce a similar output in less time.
• Compressed-week model: Total weekly hours stay the same but are spread over four days. Daily working hours therefore get longer.
• Rotating model: Team members take different days off, and the service continues for five days.
• Partial implementation: It is applied during certain periods of the year or in certain departments.

The most important distinction for psychological effects is whether hours are genuinely reduced. A reduced-hours model and a compressed-week model can have almost opposite effects on employees. In one, rest time increases; in the other, the daily burden of fatigue grows.

Possible Psychological Benefits of a Four-Day Working Week

When designed well, a shorter working week can offer meaningful gains from a psychological point of view:

Recovery time. A concept frequently emphasised in stress research is psychological detachment from work and recovery. An extra day can allow employees not only to rest but to genuinely disconnect from work-related thoughts.

A sense of control. Having a say over one's own time is one of the key factors that reduce work stress. An extra day can make it possible to plan responsibilities such as health appointments, children's school matters or the care of an elderly relative with less guilt and less rush.

Family and social life. In large cities, where long hours and heavy traffic take up much of the day, an extra day can make room for relationships and social support. Social support is one of the core sources of psychological resilience.

Focus and prioritisation. In models where hours are genuinely reduced, teams are often forced to review unnecessary meetings, repeated reports and inefficient processes. This necessity can lead the organisation to question, in a healthy way, how it gets work done.

Engagement and employer appeal. The perception that employees' time is respected can support commitment to the organisation. This matters, because according to Gallup's 2026 report, only 8% of employees in Turkey are genuinely engaged with their work, compared with a global average of 20% (Gallup, 2026; 2025 data).

Reducing the working week is not a change to the calendar; it is an opportunity to rethink how work is done. If the calendar changes but the way of working stays the same, the workload is simply squeezed into fewer days.

Overlooked Risks: Not Every Reduction Brings Relief

There are some psychological and safety risks that are often ignored when the four-day model is promoted.

Intensification and time pressure. When five days of work are squeezed into four, the pace of work increases. In a large European survey, 46% of workers say they experience serious time pressure or an excessive workload (EU-OSHA, 2022). If a shorter week increases this pressure instead of reducing it, the risk of burnout can rise.

Fatigue and safety on long days. In the compressed model, days can stretch to 10 hours or more. According to a review of shift work and accident risk, safety deteriorates as working hours lengthen; the data reported indicate that accident risk in the 12th hour of a shift is more than double the average for the first 8 hours (Folkard and Tucker, 2003). This finding shows that the compressed model needs careful evaluation, particularly in jobs such as manufacturing, maintenance, logistics and driving.

Perceived inequality. If the four-day week applies to office staff while production-line or field workers keep working five or six days, it can create a perception of "first-class" and "second-class" employees. Perceived fairness is one of the strongest determinants of commitment.

Pressure to stay reachable. Even if the day off is formally defined, if the expectation to answer emails and messages continues, the extra day does not become genuine rest. The article on out-of-hours messages offers detailed information on this subject.

The risk of a second job. Some employees who are anxious about income may fill the free day with a second job. This removes the recovery time and increases accumulated fatigue.

The burden on managers. In rotating models, where team members are off on different days, managers may work more to ensure continuity. According to Gallup, manager engagement worldwide stands at 22%, down 9 points since 2022 (Gallup, 2026). A new model should not add to this group's load.

Disappointment when the scheme is reversed. If a pilot raises expectations and is then quietly ended, employees may experience it as a loss. It should be made clear from the start that the scheme is a trial, by what criteria it will be evaluated, and what will happen if the outcome is negative. Uncertainty often causes more anxiety than the decision itself.

Who Is It Suited To, and Who Might Find It Difficult?

The four-day working week does not produce the same result for every organisation and every role.

Situations where it may be more suitable:

• Knowledge work where output can be measured by results rather than hours
• Teams whose processes can be simplified and whose meeting load is high
• Units where work-life balance problems are pronounced and turnover is high

Situations that need more careful design:

• Continuous-production facilities and shift-based working patterns
• Roles that involve face-to-face, uninterrupted service to customers
• Jobs that demand high levels of attention, where long days increase safety risk
• Employees with caring responsibilities who would not be able to sustain long days

Long-Hours Culture and Visibility Pressure in Turkey

In many workplaces in Turkey, diligence is still measured by the time spent at the desk or on site. Unwritten rules such as "you don't leave before the manager" or "dropping in on Saturday too makes a good impression" are common. In such a culture, reducing the working week can trigger unexpected anxieties in employees. Thoughts such as "If I look like I'm working less, I won't get promoted" or "If I'm called on my day off, being unreachable would be embarrassing" can make the officially granted extra day psychologically unusable.

Long working hours are also not a problem unique to Turkey. According to the International Labour Organization's 2026 report, 35% of the world's workers work more than 48 hours a week (ILO, 2026). This picture shows that working time is a global agenda item for mental health. However, changing the calendar without changing the organisation's culture merely turns visibility pressure into another form.

For this reason, it is important that a new working model is openly owned by senior management, that managers genuinely take their own days off, and that performance appraisal is based on work output rather than hours. Employees watch what is done far more than what is said.

For teams working in shift patterns, I have discussed the fatigue effects of long days in detail in the article on shift work, fatigue and occupational safety.

Legislation and Standards Framework

Reorganising working time requires assessment from an employment law perspective on matters such as weekly working hours, overtime, averaging of hours and pay. This article is not a substitute for legal advice; it is important to consult an employment law specialist before designing the model.

From an occupational health and safety perspective, Article 5 of Law No. 6331 (Occupational Health and Safety Law) requires employers to prevent the negative effects of monotonous work and production pace on health and safety, and to develop a prevention policy covering factors related to work organisation and working conditions. A major change in working arrangements directly affects work organisation. Article 8 of the Risk Assessment Regulation also requires psychosocial hazards to be identified. A change of model is therefore a suitable opportunity to review the risk assessment.

ISO 45003:2021 addresses psychosocial hazards in three categories: how work is organised, social factors at work, and the work environment. Working time and work pace sit at the heart of the first category. It should be remembered that ISO 45003 is a guideline, not a certification standard.

Practical Considerations: Concrete Steps

An organisation considering a four-day working week might bear the following steps in mind from a psychological perspective:

1. Talk about workload first, then the calendar. Identify which tasks can be reduced, which meetings can be dropped and which processes can be simplified.
2. Define the model clearly. It must be clear whether hours will be reduced or compressed. Employees need to know exactly what is expected.
3. Assess safety-critical roles separately. In jobs where long days carry a fatigue risk, decide together with the OHS specialist and the workplace physician.
4. Put availability rules in writing. It should be clear who may be contacted on a day off, in which circumstances and how.
5. Manage perceptions of fairness. Explain the reasoning openly to groups that cannot benefit from the model, and consider suitable alternative forms of flexibility for them.
6. Start with a pilot period. Try it in a specific unit for a specific period; do not roll it out across the organisation before measuring results.
7. Prepare managers. Support managers with work planning, prioritisation and team communication under the new arrangement.
8. Listen to employees' voices. Involve employee representatives in designing the model, and collect regular feedback throughout implementation.

Suppose a software company decides to try the four-day model with a team in which burnout complaints have been rising. In the first month, everyone is happy. In the second month, it emerges that some team members are answering messages on their days off, the number of meetings has not changed and the days have grown longer. After the team redistributed the workload, introduced a shared "no-meeting day" rule and limited communication on days off to emergencies only, the arrangement settled on a healthier footing. This fictional example shows that the calendar alone is not enough.

How to Get Started in Your Organisation

For organisations considering a four-day working week or another flexible working model, the following path can be followed:

1. Needs analysis. First understand what the real problem is. Are employees struggling with long hours, workload, unclear priorities or management style? Use an anonymous survey to measure stress, fatigue, work-life balance and burnout symptoms, and look at overtime, absenteeism and resignation data alongside it. Sometimes the solution to the problem is not a four-day week but a reorganisation of workload or a change in manager behaviour. For more information on burnout, you can look at the article on preventing employee burnout.

2. Programme. Based on the analysis results, plan the working model, availability rules, manager training and any psychological support options together. You can find examples of organisational needs analysis and programmes on the corporate services page.

3. Measurement. Measure the same indicators at the start, middle and end of the pilot period: perceived stress, fatigue, workload, engagement, absenteeism, error and near-miss reports, and customer satisfaction. Evaluate the results not only in terms of employee satisfaction, but also in terms of safety and business continuity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a four-day working week prevent burnout?

It would not be right to say it does so on its own. In models where hours are genuinely reduced, workload is reorganised and the day off is protected, more room for recovery can open up. However, if the work is squeezed into four days and time pressure increases, the risk of burnout may rise rather than fall.

Why does the difference between a compressed week and reduced hours matter?

In the reduced-hours model, total working time falls; in the compressed model, the same amount of time is spread over fewer days and the days get longer. Long days can increase the risk of fatigue and accidents, particularly in jobs that demand high attention. The two models should therefore be assessed separately from both a psychological and a safety perspective.

Can a four-day model be applied in a factory?

In continuous-production facilities, this model requires multi-faceted planning in terms of shift patterns, occupational safety and employment law. It should be borne in mind that long shifts can increase the risk of fatigue. The decision should be made together with the OHS specialist, the workplace physician, employee representatives and an employment law specialist.

How do we know whether the scheme has been successful?

The same indicators need to be measured before and after implementation: perceived stress, fatigue, engagement, absenteeism, turnover, error and near-miss reports, and work output. Looking only at satisfaction in the first few weeks can be misleading; a monitoring period of at least a few months allows a sounder evaluation.

• #four-day working week
• #flexible working
• #work-life balance
• #burnout
• #occupational safety

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Eda Erkan Alapala

Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.

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