In a four-day week trial conducted in Iceland, researchers found out that productivity did not take a hit and it instead improved or stayed the same. Also, the workers said that having to work for fewer hours left them less stressed and with a better work-life balance.

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The trial was run by Reykjavík City Council and the national government from 2015 to 2019, the BBC reported. It involved 2,500 subjects, which equals roughly 1% of Iceland’s total working population.

Many of the subjects moved from a 40 hour week to a 35 or 36 hour week, the researchers from the UK think tank Autonomy and the Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda) in Iceland said, reported BBC.

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The workers said that this work arrangement left them feeling less stressed and at lower risk of a burnout. Also, their health and work-life balance improved, they reported.

Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy described “the world’s largest-ever trial of a shorter working week in the public sector” as an “overwhelming success.”

He said that the trial shows that “the public sector is ripe for being a pioneer of shorter working weeks – and lessons can be learned for other governments,” reported the media outlet.

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A researcher at Alda said that Iceland’s four-day week trial shows that “not only is it possible to work less in modern times, but that progressive change is possible too.”

Meanwhile, the trial has prompted the country’s trade unions to renegotiate working patterns and 86% of Iceland’s working population has either moved or is set to shift to shorter hours for the same pay, the researchers said.

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Also, similar trials are being conducted in other countries, such as Spain and New Zealand. The former is piloting a four-day week owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. In New Zealand, Uniliver announced a similar trial of the four-day week for the same pay.