Is India Ready for the 4-Day Workweek?

The idea of a 4-day workweek is no longer just a fringe theory or some Scandinavian social experiment. It’s being talked about seriously,in boardrooms, HR departments, Twitter threads, and coffee breaks. Around the world, it’s already being tested. Companies are trimming the workweek, not the paycheck, and many of them are seeing surprising results i.e happier employees, fewer sick leaves, and perhaps most unexpected of all equal or even improved productivity.

But here’s the real question-Is India ready for something like this?

India’s work culture has always been intense. Long hours are standard, and overtime is more of an expectation than a bonus. We’ve internalized the idea that the more time you spend at your desk (or on your laptop at home), the more valuable you are to your team. “Work-life balance” often becomes just another line in job descriptions which is rarely something that feels tangible.

So, suggesting a 4-day week can sound, frankly, unrealistic. But is it really?

A few Indian companies have already started experimenting. Some startups offer occasional 4-day weeks to help employees reset. Larger firms, like Swiggy, introduced policies like monthly “wellness days” or flexible work-from-anywhere setups. These may not be permanent shifts to a 32-hour week, but they’re testing the waters. Quietly, cautiously but meaningfully.

The global context matters here. In 2022, a UK trial involving dozens of companies tried out a 4-day workweek for six months. The results? Most of them kept it. Employees were less stressed. Productivity remained steady or even went up. And companies didn’t lose money. In fact, some saved on overhead costs and attrition.

That kind of success is hard to ignore. But transplanting those results directly into an Indian setting isn’t so simple.

A huge chunk of India’s workforce isn’t sitting in air-conditioned offices. They’re in factories, fields, retail shops, construction sites, delivery routes. For them, fewer workdays could mean fewer wages. In the informal sector, which makes up over 80% of the country’s employment, a day off is often a luxury they can’t afford and not something an HR department can grant.

Even in the formal sector, challenges remain. Many Indian companies operate on tight timelines, often dictated by clients in different time zones. The pressure to be “always on” isn’t just internal, it comes from global competition. Shaving a day off the week might mean rethinking how work is planned, tracked, and valued. That requires more than just optimism. It demands systems, discipline, and a big shift in mindset.

And that mindset shift might be the hardest part.

We still reward presence more than performance. An employee who stays late is often praised, even if they weren’t particularly effective during the day. There’s a deep-rooted belief that long hours equal hard work. Until that changes, shorter weeks may be seen as slacking off, not smart planning.

But culture doesn’t change all at once. It changes through cracks,through people questioning old assumptions and trying new things. And right now, those cracks are forming. The pandemic forced organizations to trust employees to work remotely. Many found that output didn’t drop. Some even admitted it got better. That trust, once rare, is now growing. And with it, so is the space to ask new questions.

What if more hours doesn’t always mean better results?

What if giving people more time off actually makes them more focused when they’re working?

What if being “productive” isn’t about staying online until midnight, but about solving problems efficiently,and then logging off?

India may not be ready for a sweeping, nationwide shift to a 4-day workweek tomorrow. But it is ready for the conversation. Some sectors will move faster than others. Tech, media, and startups might lead the way. Manufacturing and frontline services may follow more slowly, with different models. That’s okay. Progress doesn’t have to be uniform.

The bigger point is this: we’re starting to question whether the old ways of working still make sense. And that’s where change begins,not with bold declarations, but with curiosity, with experiments, and with a willingness to rethink the things we’ve taken for granted.

A 4-day workweek in India isn’t impossible. It just needs the right people to take it seriously. And increasingly, they are.

 By Aditi Sawarkar