A quiet experiment has been making its way through Canadian workplaces: the four-day week, an arrangement in which employees keep their full pay while giving up one of their days at the desk. Few employers have embraced the notion as wholeheartedly as Nadia Osei, who manages a twelve-person marketing agency in Kitchener and, two years ago, moved her entire staff onto a Monday-to-Thursday schedule. The transformation, by her account, has been nothing short of remarkable.

Rather than falling behind, her team now completes the same volume of work in noticeably less time, largely because the prospect of a three-day weekend has pushed people to guard their working hours, cut unnecessary meetings, and protect their focus. Staff who once drifted off to larger firms have stopped leaving, and applicants for advertised positions, she observes, now arrive in droves. For Osei the conclusion is plain: a well-rested employee is a more productive one, and the extra day off repays its cost many times over.