The Four-Day Workweek and the Elderly: a Cross-Sectional Study

A nation-wide study of the effect of the 4-day workweek on the elderly employee's satisfaction with his job was conducted. Through a stratified random sampling procedure designed to include a wide variety of employees and organizations, 217 employees of 12 organizations which had adopted the 4-day week (57 of whom were 45 years of age or older) were surveyed by questionnaire with regard to the extent, if any, that their satisfaction with their jobs had changed as a result of the conversion to the reduced workweek. Statistical tests of the two hypotheses of the study resulted in the conclusion that the elderly employee is more satisfied with his job as a result of the transition to the 4-day workweek and that the extent of this increase in job satisfaction is, at a minimum, no less than that for the younger employee. Also, the content and frequency of comments made by elderly employees regarding likes and dislikes of the 4-day week were substantially the same as for those made by younger workers.