The findings underscore a growing sentiment that the conventional workweek is becoming outdated as workers seek schedules that better reflect modern work-life dynamics.

Lucy Bisset, Director of Robert Walters North comments: “The conventional 40-hour workweek which has remained largely unchanged for over a century, is now facing an uncertain future. This highlights a growing discontentment that employers must urgently acknowledge and work to rectify.”

Global employee engagement has hit a plateau, with only 23% of workers feeling engaged in their roles worldwide. The situation is particularly dire in Europe, where engagement lags at 13%, and even more so in the UK, where it drops to just 10%. This lack of engagement is closely tied to diminished productivity, profitability, and sales. In 2023 alone, the UK economy suffered a £32 billion loss in productivity.

The Robert Walters poll further highlighted that 46% of UK companies have acknowledged a significant decline in productivity over the past year, directly impacting their performance and revenue.

As businesses grapple with these challenges, the question arises: Could adjusting the workweek be the solution? While 23 countries have experimented with or adopted the four-day workweek model, others, such as Greece, have taken the opposite approach. Since 1st July, Greece has allowed employers to extend the workweek to 48 hours or six days in a bid to combat low productivity.

In the UK, the notion of a longer workweek is met with mixed reactions. While over a quarter (28%) of employers expressed willingness to consider lengthening the workweek to enhance productivity, this contrasts sharply with the sentiment of 82% of professionals, who indicated they would leave their jobs if such a measure were implemented.

Lucy comments: “These past several years have seen numerous changes to the current workweek be tested. Whilst the success of the different approaches may vary, they do call into question the conventional workweek’s ability to keep pace with the demands of today’s workforce.”

A substantial 84% of professionals anticipate that the traditional 40-hour workweek will undergo significant transformations within the next 20 years. When asked how these changes might manifest, 40% of respondents pointed to a continued shift towards greater flexibility. Another quarter believed that the workweek would gradually evolve through small, incremental changes, while nearly 19% predicted a complete overhaul of the current structure.

Lucy concludes: "With economic tensions and the cost of living still high as global labour markets remain in recovery from the pandemic and various ongoing geopolitical conflicts, there is considerable upheaval which will continue having an impact on the way we see our working week.

“Whilst the conventional, 40-hour workweek is going nowhere, yet – flexibility is something that is not only valued greatly by the majority of professionals but something that is increasingly expected as a given. The key thing for employers to do now is to test out what works best for their employees in a way which means everyone can maximise their week, without missing out on valuable hours of work.”