''4 Days, 40 Hours'' is a 1971 book by Riva Poor reporting on a "revolution in

work and leisure Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an anim ...

" from a rearranged

work week The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of th ...

with four days of 10 hours each. In some cases, the book claims, companies can increase production and profit while giving employees more time off. The book was inspired by an article in the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' about the successful introduction of the four-day week in a Kyanize Paints factory in

Everett, Massachusetts Everett is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, directly north of Boston, bordering the neighborhood of Charlestown. The population was 49,075 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. Everett was the last city in the Un ...

Reception

In 1971, the book received attention in a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' article that tied it to a growing trend in companies to allow a four-day workweek. Heartened by the response, Poor said, "I predict that within the next five years just about every business in the country will be giving it serious consideration." In another article about the four-day workweek in 1976, ''The New York Times'' called ''4 Days, 40 Hours'' "the definitive reference work in this field." A 1975 review of the book's second edition in ''

The Journal of Human Resources ''The Journal of Human Resources'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering empirical microeconomics. It was established in 1965 and is published by The University of Wisconsin Press. The editor-in-chief is Anna Aizer (Brown Universit ...

'' said that Poor "can only be described as radiantly positive about he 4-day workweek'spotential for good, and utterly unconvinced by the negative criticism from trade union and other sources... She is definitely not impressed by the argument that 10-hour days are fatiguing, or that they represent a regression to 19th century standards." While she does not give much attention to alternatives, "this focus does permit her to concentrate on presenting us with a spirited defense of a four-day, 40-hour schedule, and, as such, her book is to be recommended." The book's publication led to an increase in her management consulting work; according to a 1979

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

profile, "The book quickly became a hot item in American industry, and her star was launched." However, the concept did not actually catch on, and in 1989, an article in the ''

'' called it "a management fad that went the way of

zero-based budgeting Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a budgeting method that requires all expenses to be justified and approved in each new budget period. It was developed by Peter Pyhrr in the 1970s. This budgeting method analyzes an organization's needs and costs by ...

and the Boston Consulting Group's cow-and-doggy grid." David Hamilton wrote, "Her research indicates that the shorter week is most successful in small, nondiversified industries." A review by Leon E. Lunden in ''

Monthly Labor Review The ''Monthly Labor Review'' (''MLR'') is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Issues often focus on a particular topic. Most articles are by BLS staff. Annually since 1969, the Lawrence R. Klein Award has been awarded to autho ...

'' reads, ""repetitive and spotty as it is in part, the book nevertheless reflects the enthusiasm of the various authors for 4-40 and their conviction that it will spread rapidly".

References

1971 non-fiction books Business books English-language books Labor literature {{business-book-stub