'IKEA, you're crazy': 4-day workweek brings successes, challenges

Back in 2024, when IKEA Belgium decided to roll out a four-day workweek option to employees, the idea was met with incredulity by other companies.

“They were all saying, ‘IKEA, you're crazy,” says Michel Masui, co-worker experience manager.

While many employers were unhappy with the Belgium government’s recent legislation that allowed full-time employees to request a compressed workweek, IKEA was keen to test it out, he says.

“We embrace it, we take it, we go for it… now we have it as an advantage,” he says. “The coworkers are very happy.”

That’s not to say there aren’t changes needed, according to Maja Caen, market area people and culture manager at IKEA Belgium.

“We are happy to be IKEA, this is part of our DNA: We try, we test, we learn from our mistakes.”

Those learnings include a University of Ghent study that looked closely at IKEA’s rollout in Belgium.

The researchers found that psychological detachment from work increased among employees in compressed schedules, meaning they were better able to mentally disengage from work during their time off.

However, that was not accompanied by long-term decreases in work-related exhaustion or burnout risk.

Testing out 4-day workweek at IKEA

Now in its second year, the condensed week at IKEA is used by about 12% of the employee population in Belgium — or close to 500, says Masui.

The endeavour began even before Belgium brought in legislation in 2023 that allows full-time employees to request a compressed without any reduction in pay.

“It was mainly triggered by [an IKEA] store manager who was looking at ‘What is it we can do to increase retention? What is it we can do to make people happier?’” he says.

The option was “purely on a voluntary basis,” he says, with no obligations on employees to participate. Initially offered to full-timers, the four-day week is now offered to all contract types — though requests can be denied.

There’s been a range of reasons why people want to try this approach, says Masui, but even workers who aren’t participating in the program are happy with it.

Psychological detachment with shorter weeks

The longitudinal study by the University of Ghent looked at the impact of the compressed work schedules on workplace well-being at IKEA Belgium.

Study participants were asked about their motivation to enter compressed schedules, and four-fifths expected that the arrangement would provide them with more opportunities to detach from work.

In addition to interviewing employees, the researchers developed a self-assessment that people could complete before trying out the compressed work week.

The study tracked three areas — psychological detachment from work, work-related exhaustion, and burnout risk — across four data collection points before and after IKEA implemented compressed schedules in March 2024.

The findings revealed that psychological detachment from work increased, says one of the researchers.

“People actually can refrain from work-related thoughts in their free time so they think about work less — it's actually something positive, because you can also confuse it with having mental distance, for example, or being cynical towards your employer — that's not the case,” says Kristen du Bois, doctoral researcher at the University of Ghent.

No decrease to burnout risk scores

However, this increased detachment did not translate into decreased burnout risk scores or work-related exhaustion, found the study, which highlights that “while taking extended periods off might directly relieve exhaustion, associations are small and fade out relatively quickly upon returning to work.”

However, this was an expectation that policymakers had in Belgium, says du Bois.

“Of course, if you compress your schedule into fewer days, the work gets more intense as well. There might be some time pressure, etc.” she says. “For example, if you take a Friday off, you have three days to detach, which is a longer period to recover from work, so that's logical. But in essence, burnout is still primarily related to work-related stressors and to the work itself.”

If you don't change anything about the conditions of the job or the stressors of the job, it's logical that this will not decrease your burnout risk, says du Bois.

“Is it [then] a bad thing to do, offering this compressed work schedule? No, because we didn't see any increases in burnout risk either, which could have also been the case. So, it doesn't seem harmful, but we can't expect that it will do something fundamentally about the stressors that are causing burnout symptoms.”

Payroll challenges with condensed workweek

Another challenge in shifting some employees to four-day weeks? Payroll.

“There were hiccups and questions going along the road when it came to payroll. And so it's not that it was a smooth ride from the start — but it worked,” says Masui.

That’s an area where IKEA needs to improve, agrees Caen.

“I think we underestimated that side of the project… when we kicked it off, it started with a test in one store where we obviously already saw a few hindrances or processes we had to put in place. But then having it on this large scale, having to communicate to all our coworkers, that was another ball game,” she says.

“So, I think a few things were super well-prepared, and we have some very clear legislation on how to work with working regimes in Belgium; on the other hand, we also took a few painful hits in discovering along the way, things like public holidays, things like going back to normal working regimes, when it's the best time. So yeah, step by step, we learn along the way.”

Improving compressed workweeks at IKEA

The findings of the university study when it comes to burnout are not entirely surprising, according to Masui, as they knew those four days can be “super long.”

As a result, IKEA is starting to focus more on what people do during those days, and varying responsibilities, he says, “instead of doing a full day exactly the same, which is always quite demanding.”

That follows a breakthrough that came during COVID when the company didn’t want to lay people off and instead asked them to take on different tasks, says Masui.

“That's really key. We would like to multi-skill our coworkers more and more and more. And, actually, it's going to be beneficial for them [because] we will probably have to pay them a little bit more because they are multi-skilled, their days are going to be more varied, they're going to do a lot more different stuff physically. It's going to be more interesting.”

And the company continues to evolve the program, says Caen.

“We want to make it even more solid, because, up until now, we sometimes ask the coworkers to come back to normal working regimes when it was busy in our stores and stuff like that, but then they cannot take their second job or skip one day in daycare.”

Implications for HR

The study warns that “policymakers and employers should be cautious in assuming that the arrangements significantly reduce burnout” because they do not address core workplace stressors. While compressed schedules may help employees switch off from work temporarily, “as workers return to their work environments, the stressors that initially contributed to their burnout risk persist.”

The researchers conclude that “proper prevention requires addressing stressors in the workplace, not just offering temporary relief.” Future research should explore these schedules over longer periods and across multiple organizations.

Deciding whether a condensed workweek is good for your organization depends on your objectives, says du Bois.

“If, as an organization, your primary focus is combating burnout and decreasing burnout rates, no, then you should go for another intervention. Maybe take a critical look at the work stressors that are causing the burnout, take a look at the toxic culture that is at the company.

“However, if it's a nice benefit of a broader wellbeing strategy, yes, of course, [try it]. And if it's feasible for your organization and doesn't have a lot of negative effects aside from that, why not?”

The shortened week has definitely helped with IKEA Belgium’s retention, says Masui, as people are not keen to leave that flexibility.

“It’s also combined with how new or younger generations want to work. We see it quite often — they want to work three days at IKEA and two days doing something completely different. So, they are really trying to find those companies where it is possible.”