Every few months a new trial reports that workers who moved to a four-day week got as much done as before and were happier doing it. The findings are real. They are also far less general than they are made to sound.
The companies that volunteer for these trials are not random. They are firms whose work can be compressed, whose managers already trust their staff, and whose leaders wanted the result badly enough to sign up. The trials last six months, long enough for enthusiasm and not long enough for drift.
None of this means the four-day week is a bad idea. It means we do not yet know for whom it is a good one, and the honest answer to that question is the one the headlines keep skipping.
Margarethe Lindqvist is a contributing writer for The Continental Times Opinion section.