Today's Edition
A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Employees reported improved work-life balance and higher productivity after the introduction of the UAE’s 4.5-day workweek, a study by Zayed University scholars has found.
The study, authored by Mouawiya Alawad and Linda Smail, examined employees’ perceptions of the transition to the shorter working week and changes in productivity, motivation, stress and well-being. It was published in the International Social Science Journal.
Among those surveyed, 73.6% said their work-life balance had improved, including 39.4% who said it had improved significantly. An increase in productivity was reported by 63.2%, while 27.1% saw no change and 9.7% reported a decline.
Overall satisfaction with the arrangement was also high, with 68.4% saying they were satisfied or very satisfied with the 4.5-day week. The shorter working week was preferred to the traditional five-day schedule by 81.3%, while nearly 70% expressed strong support for retaining the arrangement.
Smail, co-author of the study, told Aletihad, some of the most personal responses concerned employees’ ability to spend more time with family living elsewhere in the country.
One respondent wrote, “I can travel to my hometown in a neighbouring emirate by Friday afternoon and have more time with my parents.”
“The extra half-day seems to change the shape of the weekend more than its length would suggest,” Smail said.
Respondents also used the additional time in ways the researchers had not specifically asked about, with some mentioning volunteering or taking courses on Friday afternoons, she said.
The longer weekend also appeared to have a positive effect on employees returning to work. More engagement after a longer weekend was reported by 76.2%, including 51% who said they were “much more engaged.” Good or high motivation at work was reported by 70.9%.
Almost three-quarters of respondents — 74.2% — said the longer weekend had a positive impact on their physical and mental well-being.
Adjusting to the shorter working week was also easier than expected, according to Smail, with nearly 73% of respondents saying the transition was easy or very easy. Some respondents said they had to reschedule family gatherings that had traditionally taken place on Fridays.
However, the findings also highlighted a downside to fitting work into a shorter week. While many employees reported lower overall stress, 36.9% said they experienced higher stress during working days because of workload compression.
Employees’ comments pointed to challenges around Friday deadlines, coordinating work and completing tasks within the reduced working hours, even as they valued the additional family time and more efficient work routines.
The researchers said the findings suggest that shortening working hours works best when organisations also rethink how work is organised rather than simply expecting employees to complete the same tasks in less time.
“If the same workload is compressed into fewer working hours without adequate adjustment, employees may experience pressure,” which reduces some of the benefits of the additional time away from work, the study said.
It highlighted the importance of redesigning workflows, coordinating tasks and adjusting performance expectations to the shorter schedule.
The study found that employees effectively experienced two opposing effects: the longer weekend provided more time to recover from work and for family and personal activities, while unchanged workloads could increase pressure during working days. The balance between the two depended partly on how organisations implemented the shorter week.
Employers offered a similarly mixed and practical assessment.
“Some reported real savings on electricity, water, fuel and parking. Others said the savings vanished because staff worked overtime to catch up,” Smail said.
One employer said the change had encouraged the organisation to focus more on results than on the amount of time employees spent in the office, according to Smail.
“The new work schedule seems to have sparked a broader conversation about how work is organised,” she said.
Among 60 respondents who answered employer-related questions, including 22 in senior management or executive roles, productivity was generally viewed as stable or improving. However, jobs requiring significant collaboration faced tighter scheduling and coordination challenges, while some organisations reported modest operational savings.
The survey also indicated differences between sectors. Public-sector employees were more likely to report improvements in work-life balance, while the small group of private-sector respondents was more likely to report productivity gains.
However, the researchers cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from the latter finding because only 22 private-sector employees participated and the overall statistical analysis did not establish a clear sector-wide productivity difference.
The researchers said international experience also suggests organisations can adapt to reduced hours by streamlining meetings, clarifying priorities and eliminating low-value tasks, helping prevent the shorter working week from simply concentrating the same workload into less time.
The UAE introduced the new working week for the federal government on January 1, 2022, moving from the previous working-week structure to Monday-Friday, with Friday as a half working day and Saturday and Sunday becoming the weekend.
The change represented both a reduction in weekly working hours and a significant realignment of the UAE working week with international markets. The study noted that employees’ perceptions could therefore reflect not only shorter hours but also the change in weekend timing and its effect on family life, religious observance and international business coordination.
For the study, researchers surveyed 155 employees, with data collected in late 2024, nearly three years after the change was introduced.
“The timing was deliberate. We did not want first reactions or novelty; we wanted to know what people thought once the new week had become ordinary,” Smail said.
Explaining how respondents were reached, she said: “We reached people through HR contacts and professional networks, and asked respondents to pass it on to colleagues. About 62% of those initially contacted replied, which is high for a workplace survey.”
The sample was heavily weighted towards the public sector and education: 71.6% worked in public-sector organisations and 78.7% in education, while 14.2% were private-sector employees. Women represented 61.3% of respondents, and 71% of the sample were non-Emirati.
The sample was also weighted towards more experienced employees.
“Two-thirds had more than 10 years of work experience behind them; most were over 41 years of age; and 61% were women. Around 71% were expatriates,” Smail said.
The authors cautioned that the sample was not representative of the wider UAE labour market.
