This is NPR's life kit. I'm Ruth Tam.

When you think about the five-day work week, you might think of it as a given.

You wake up, you go to work, you wake up, you go to work, and come Friday, you sign off or

clock out until you start it all over again on Monday morning.

I mean, often we think the weekend as a kind of natural thing. We think of the 40-hour

week as a kind of, you know, almost an immovable, natural fact.

That's Will Strong, the director of research at the UK-based Think Tank autonomy, which focuses

on the future of work. He's also the co-author of Over Time, why we need a shorter working week.

How much we work may seem like some pre-ordained social ritual, but the five-day work week is

an invention. At one point in time, it was totally normal in the US to work six days a week.

What changed that? Will says, workers.

Coming out of World War I and coming out of World War II, labor movements basically wanted a better deal.

So many things about the world have changed since then, and workers are, once again, looking for a better deal.

In Over Time, Will and his co-author Kyle Lewis argue that a four-day or a 32-hour work week,

with importantly, no loss of pay, would not just be good for our mental health, but would lead to greater gender equality,

and even be better for the environment. Will says that the work week, as we know it, just isn't working.

The normal working week doesn't work in many ways, it's just hidden by the fact that we're forced to do it basically.

If shortening the five-day or 40-hour work week seems too good to be true, like some sort of modern post-pandemic fantasy,

you should know it's already happening. Companies like Microsoft and whole countries like Iceland have adopted shorter work weeks,

and they've seen some pretty impressive results, improved well-being among workers,

an increase in productivity, and lower electricity bills.

So in this episode of LifeKit, rethinking how and why we work.

...