‘Nobody schedules meetings on Friday’: Is the four-day workweek already here?

“Nobody schedules meetings on a Friday any more”. This was a comment that was recently expressed to me by a colleague who was organising a meeting (not on a Friday, thankfully).

While no one likes being stuck in a meeting as the weekend fast approaches, for some businesses it’s become more than just a case of the end-of-week blues, with Fridays becoming almost redundant as more people consolidate work between Monday and Thursday.

Belinda Dyer, director at Kabuku PR, says she started to notice this trend at her business, with employees tending to shift their workload to the start of the week.

“We’ve always seen Friday as a day with fewer meetings and deadlines, and responses to emails, so we previously used the day as an opportunity to work differently to connect on outstanding items or to report to clients,” says Dyer.

As time passed, Fridays turned into a catch-up opportunity rather than a core workday.

“Now, that catch-up is built into Monday through Thursday, and the result has been business as usual. For most people, waiting until Monday for a response to a non-urgent email has never really been an issue.”

The transition to a four-day working week began in December 2025. Dyer said it went smoother than anticipated. Working in the arts industry, there is an expectation to be switched on and connected most of the time, and to attend a lot of evening and weekend events.

“Thinking about team wellbeing and work-life balance, it felt like an important step for us in terms of making sure that our team are well rested and have an opportunity to switch off properly.”

Before making the change, the team consulted clients and colleagues, explained their reasoning, and made clear that service levels would remain the same. Staff would be available on Friday if a genuinely urgent matter arose.

The response from clients and colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive. “Productivity has increased, and if anything, the biggest change others have noticed is that the team seems more energised.”

Unions backing four-day week

In February 2026, the Australian Education Union urged the Victorian government to consider trialling a four-day workweek for teachers to avoid the teaching industry’s future recruitment issues.

The union believes a four-day week will provide flexibility for staff in public schools and to have access for work from home and that this will go a long way to helping with chronic staff shortages.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil has also spoken in favour of a four-day week and has argued that businesses can achieve greater levels of productivity if they cut working days by a fifth.

O’Neil cited a 2023 Swinburne University study that found 70 per cent of firms trialling the four-day week reported higher productivity. The ACTU’s proposal calls for Australia to move towards a four-day workweek “where appropriate” and use sector-specific alternatives where it is not.

Trials underway

Fiona Macdonald, interim director of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute said some Australian workplaces were trialling a formal four-day week with employees earning the same pay and having the same workload.

“These arrangements have been shown to be successful in evaluations of the practices in Australia and internationally,” she adds.

MacDonald said the case for a shorter working week was strong as there has been no reduction in working time in Australia in 50 years, despite predictions with every advance in technology that the benefits would flow to the workers and the community in the form of fewer working hours.

“Compared to 50 years ago households are spending a lot more time in paid work with two adults in the labour force, and this is putting enormous time demands and pressure as they manage work, family and other responsibilities.”

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