Jesantmark

Norway had already optimized its working time with working days of between 33.6 and 37.5 hours per week
Now, this generation is betting on a four-day workweek to maintain salary and productivity while working less time.
In Norway, leaving the office at three or four in the afternoon is neither a privilege nor an exception: it's the standard schedule for millions of workers. According to the Norwegian Labour Force Survey , the standard workweek in Norway is around 37.5 hours, distributed in 7.5-hour shifts, and the actual average is around 33.6 hours, placing the country among the developed economies with the fewest working hours .
However, even with that enviable starting point, Norway is questioning whether the five-day-a-week model still makes sense. The emerging answer points toward the four-day week, not as a utopian ideal, but as an ongoing experiment backed by scientific data.
A country that works little and produces a lot . In the Norwegian labor market, the prevailing idea is to work efficiently within a limited schedule. As Carla, a Spanish woman living in Norway, describes in one of her TikTok videos: "Most Norwegians have my perfect work schedule, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., because it gives them plenty of time for afternoon activities and spending time with their families."
Far from hindering the economy, this commitment to work-life balance coexists with some of the highest levels of productivity per hour worked in Europe. According to OECD data , Norwegian employees accumulate 1,412 working hours per year, compared to the OECD average of 1,740. Meanwhile, unemployment in 2025 was projected to be around 4.7%, according to Eurostat data.
Generation Z wants to go further.
It is precisely the youngest workers who are most forcefully questioning the inherited model. According to YouGov's ' Empowering Minds' survey, the invisible mental load derived from planning, anticipating, and coordinating both at work and at home weighs particularly heavily on younger generations in the Nordic countries. Raised in hyper-connected environments , Generation Z doesn't see the four-day week as a luxury but as the logical evolution of smart working. And they have arguments to support this view.
A Deloitte survey of more than 23,000 young people reveals that work-life balance is Generation Z's top career priority , above career advancement , and that only 6% aspire to a leadership position as their primary goal. For this generation, working well is not synonymous with working more .
The Nordic model has cracks
The problem is that this model, despite its strengths, has failed to shield Norwegian workers from stress. After-hours notifications and instant messaging have eroded the boundaries that Norwegian work culture had so carefully constructed, and sick leave due to mental health issues has steadily increased, according to official sick leave records .
It is in this context that the four-day workweek ceases to be a union demand and becomes a viable alternative worth considering. If having a shorter-than-average workday already improves the well-being of Norwegians, reducing it by a whole day could be the lever Norway needs to halt the decline in its workers' mental health.
Productivity and well-being in four days
In 2024, the first Norwegian pilot program for a four-day workweek was launched . Eleven companies from sectors as diverse as hospitals, municipal services, and consulting firms participated for six months under the 100:80:100 model (100% of salary, working 80% of the time, with the goal of maintaining 100% productivity). This same model has been followed by other four-day workweek projects around the world, including the one in Valencia in 2023 .
The Norwegian experiment was monitored by the consulting firm The Rework in collaboration with Karlstad University and Boston College. The results, compiled in the official report just released, show that this work-life balance model combines the best of both worlds. Stress was reduced by 19%, participants went from sleeping 6.6 hours per night to 7 hours, and satisfaction with time for personal activities increased by 44%.
All of this occurred while perceived productivity increased by 13%. Of the ten participating companies that shared their business results, five reported improvements, and the other five maintained the same levels of productivity and profits as before the experiment. In other words, none of them experienced a decline in performance after reducing working hours . In fact, the results were so satisfactory that ten of the eleven companies decided to continue with the reduced workweek after the trial ended.
Source: Rubén Andrés (April 1st, 2026). Norway works little but produces a lot, and that stresses them out. Generation Z has found the solution: the four-day week. Available in: https://www.xataka.com/empresas-y-economia/noruega-trabaja-poco-produce-mucho-eso-les-estresa-generacion-z-ha-encontrado-solucion-semana-cuatro-dias/amp.