Andrew Barnes

Pioneer of the 4 Day Week revolution.

RADAR THINKER

Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2024.

FAST FACT

The 4 Day Week was shortlisted for the 2021 Business Book Awards.

FAST FACT

Listed as Forbes’ inaugural Future of Work 50, 2022.

Ideas

Considered the architect of the global 4 Day Week movement, Andrew champions the benefits for companies and employees in reducing the traditional five-day working week to four. He first conducted an experiment in his own business, New Zealand trust firm Perpetual Guardian, by asking his employees to design a working week that would allow them to meet their current productivity requirements and retain the same salary – but with a 20 per cent cut in hours. The results were dramatic: people were happier, healthier, more focused and productive at work, and more engaged in their personal lives. Andrew argues that the four-day work week can solve many of the problems in today’s world of work, including work-life balance, optimal productivity, carbon emissions, worker benefits, and inequalities such as the gender pay gap and lack of diversity in business and governance. 

Bio

Founder of Perpetual Guardian, New Zealand’s largest corporate trustee company, Andrew made international headlines in 2018 with his four-day working week experiment. Co-founder (with his partner, Charlotte Lockhart) of 4 Day Week Global, he went on to spearhead the largest ever global trials, which took place in over 250 companies across the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, in combination with a global research programme involving academics from Boston College, Oxford, and Cambridge. Andrew has served as an advisor to governments that are effecting change to their way their populations will work now and in the future. He sits on the advisory boards of both the US and Ireland 4 Day Week campaigns and on the board of the newly created Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University. Andrew is also a founding member of the World Wellbeing Movement.

Content

The 4-Day Week: How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability and Well-Being, and Create a Sustainable Future (with Stephanie Jones, Hachette, 2020). The Four-Day Week (TEDx Talks Auckland, January 2019); Is a 4-day week the future? (live-streamed at Selwyn College, Cambridge, February 2023); The 4 day week South Africa 2023 trial results; The 4 day week Australia/New Zealand 2023 trial results; The 4 day week 2023 UK trial results; The 4 day week USA/Ireland trial results; The 4 day week long-term results.

NATIONALITY: New Zealander

Media picks

Verdict

Andrew’s ground-breaking trials of the 4 day week have had a global impact on the future of work.”

Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove, Thinkers50

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