The UAE has announced of cutting its official working week and adopting a four-and-a-half days work week. The weekend would now move to Saturday and Sunday, marking a major shift to improve global competitiveness.

The new timetable will be implemented from January 1, 2022. Under this the public-sector weekend will start at noon on Fridays and ending on Sunday. Friday prayers at mosques will be held after 1:15 pm through the year.

With this UAE has become the only Gulf country not to have a Friday-Saturday weekend. Also, now the resource-rich UAE has become the first country in the world to roll out 4.5-day workweek.

The idea has been steadily gearing up to be adopted globally, hailed as a way to increase productivity, improved work-life balance and mental health of employees.

Japan

The Japanese government has been advocating and pushing employers to shorten the working week to four days. These guidelines were finalised in June 2021 with focus on work-life balance, and encouraging companies to offer more flexible hours and remote working facility.

The idea is to improve productivity and support employees to take care of their families or learn new skills, as reported by Independent.

Spain

In March 2021, Spain announced its plans of trying a four-day workweek after the federal agreement to launch a pilot project for companies who were interested in the revolutionary idea, according to The Guardian.

The government of Spain agreed to adopt 32-hour workweek over three years, without reducing workers’ compensation.

Spain will invest about $60 million in the pilot program for the companies that want to participate. The program is aimed to reduce risk faced by employers by government making up the difference in salary when workers switch to a four-day workweek.

It's projected that around 200 companies and approximately 3,000 to 6,000 workers will participate in the project.

New Zealand

The four-day workweek model has received a major boost from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The model has been hailed as a way to improve work-life balance. PM Ardern also believes it could possibly boost the country's economy in the wake of pandemic.

In a Facebook Live Video posted on May 2020, Ardern had shared the suggestion during discussions of reviving domestic tourism in country. Long weekends can be used by people to visit local spots, increasing domestic travel that could compensate for the lack of foreign travels.

Iceland

Iceland has in the past conducted many large-scale trials of the four-day workweek model. The results were overwhelmingly successful and led to many workers adopting the new model. The trials where workers were paid the same amount for lesser hours, were conducted between 2015 and 2019. It was found that productivity remained the same or improved in the majority of workplaces, researchers said.

Scotland

Scotland is planning to launch a four-day 32-hour workweek trial. Workers will have their working hours reduced by 20%, but will not face any loss in compensation, according to Forbes.

The program will be funded by the SNP with a $13.8 million and fund will be used to experiment with the shortened workweek. The government underlines a recent poll in Scotland that showed 80% of the people supported the idea with high positivity.