A four-day week promises time, headspace and dignity. It also collides with rent due dates, side gigs and clauses buried in contracts. Researchers tracking live pilots say one trial just ended with an employee being dismissed for holding two jobs at once. The future of work has a messy middle.
Slack slowed to a trickle, calendars cleared, and a few people snuck off early to catch a train while the light still held. In the middle of that softness, an HR call landed like a stone in a pond.
The conversation was brief. A manager had noticed overlapping calendar blocks. IT logs showed keystrokes that didn’t match the project load. A second full-time job emerged from the tabs. A policy the employee barely remembered became a hammer. One line in a contract decided the rest.
It sounded like a pilot meant to protect people had suddenly turned into a test of loyalty. The dismissal, researchers say, was logged as an “adverse event” in a study published today. It raises a simple, uncomfortable question. Where does a shorter week end and a second paycheck begin?
The four-day promise meets a messy reality
Four-day trials often feel like a pact: work smarter, not longer, and reclaim your life. Many pilots do just that, trimming meetings, tightening goals, and preserving pay. Then money enters the room. Cost-of-living pressures haven’t paused for new schedules, and side income has become normal for a quiet, tired minority.
Researchers following companies in Europe and North America say one recent case lit the fuse. An employee working mostly remote had taken on another job, overlapping hours on the “off” day and blurring into the core week. They weren’t moonlighting for a hobby; it was substantial, second-payroll work. ONS data suggests roughly 5% of UK workers hold multiple jobs, and online “overemployment” forums have boomed since 2021. The trial met the economy head-on.
What happened next was procedural and cold. A standard exclusivity clause. An audit of conflict-of-interest forms. A termination letter that arrived faster than anyone expected. The researchers recorded higher anxiety scores in the team that week, not because of workload, but trust. Four-day weeks rely on focus metrics and goodwill. Dismissal pulls at both threads at once.
How to run a fair four-day trial — without breaking people
Start with rules you’re not embarrassed to read aloud. Define outcomes clearly, publish core hours, and say exactly how “off” days work with customer cover. Spell out a stance on second jobs: what counts, what must be disclosed, and how conflicts are handled. A disclosure isn’t a confession. It’s an adult conversation.
Price in reality. Some staff need extra income. Others have caring duties that mimic a job. Build a simple process to log outside paid work, and set bright lines: no competing clients, no overlapping core hours, no using company kit. We’ve all had that moment when the rent goes up and your stomach drops. Let’s be honest: nobody truly nails perfect boundaries every day.
Make the trust visible. Two pages of plain-English rules beat a 20-page policy nobody reads. Then back the words with tone.
“If the four-day week is a trust contract, don’t write it like a trap.”
- Say what’s allowed, not only what’s banned.
- Offer a safe, no-penalty disclosure window at launch.
- Fix workload first, not just calendars and slogans.
What this says about the new social contract
Shorter weeks are more than a calendar trick. They’re a wager that adult-to-adult management beats surveillance, that teams thrive on clarity and respect. Today’s case shows the edges. If pay, exclusivity and expectations aren’t surfaced early, the pilot becomes a pressure test for the poorest person on the team. If they are, something else happens. People stop hoarding tasks, meetings shrink, and Friday becomes a day for living rather than recovering. The researchers’ note reads dryly, as reports do, but the human lesson is vivid. Write humane rules, publish them, then keep your nerve when the first bump arrives.
| Point clé | Détail | Intérêt pour le lecteur |
|---|---|---|
| Second jobs need daylight | Publish a clear, short policy on outside work with examples | Know what’s acceptable before trouble starts |
| Outcomes over hours | Set measurable goals for 80% time, 100% pay | Protects performance without creeping back to five days |
| Trust must be operationalised | Disclosure windows, conflict checks, fair escalation paths | Reduces fear, keeps the pilot credible and humane |
FAQ :
- Is it legal to hold two jobs during a four-day week?In many places it can be, but contracts often include exclusivity and conflict clauses. Read yours, look for rules on secondary employment, and check local employment law before you act.
- What should a company say about side gigs in a pilot?Use plain language: what’s allowed, what must be disclosed, what’s barred. Give examples, name core hours, and offer a confidential route to ask questions without penalty.
- Does a four-day week cut pay or productivity?Most pilots target 100% pay for 80% time, with productivity measured by outputs. Teams tend to claw back time by killing waste: fewer meetings, tighter priorities, better handovers.
- How do I disclose a second job without risking my role?Pick a calm moment, not a crisis. Share the nature of the work, hours, tools used, and why it doesn’t clash. Propose safeguards like non-overlap commitments and regular check-ins.
- What’s the biggest mistake leaders make in these trials?Vague rules and quiet exceptions. People fill the gaps with fear or hustle. Publish the rules, repeat them, and fix workload before declaring the pilot a success.
In the researchers’ notes, the dismissal is one line in a table, a neat cell with a date. Outside the PDF, it’s a shockwave: a team that suddenly wonders whether the four-day week is conditional love. The lesson isn’t to retreat to five days. It’s to finally marry the promise with the policy. Four days will always be part spreadsheet, part soul. If leaders want the benefits that show up in the glossy case studies, they need to write rules that match the lives people are actually living — and hold them with a steady hand when the edge cases appear. No pilot is tidy. That doesn’t mean the future is a mirage.
