4-day week in Singapore – some workers want it, but are businesses ready?

Workers in Singapore seem keen to transit to a shorter work week.

In a survey of 1,000 workers here, 81 per cent said that they want a four-day work week, and 37 per cent said they want it “very much”.

The majority (78 per cent) of those who want the four-day week see having greater work-life balance as a key benefit.

A significant proportion (47 per cent) felt that the policy was “less likely to cause burnout". More than a third of the respondents (35 per cent) said that they had experienced burnout at work in the last 12 months, in the survey conducted by Milieu Insight from Sep 20 to 22.

Respondents also thought it would result in “lower operational costs for work offices” (43 per cent) and would increase productivity (42 per cent).

But they also had concerns, the topmost being that they’d still have to reply to urgent work emails or requests on their days off (65 per cent).

Many (59 per cent) were also worried about possible salary cuts and longer work days (56 per cent), should the work week be shorter. Among those surveyed, 80 per cent did not think that a four-day work week warrants a wage cut.

But despite the popularity among workers, more than half of the respondents (55 per cent) thought that their companies were not ready to make the switch.

Read the full feature on Channel NewsAsia.