Should the standard full-time workweek be cut to four days with no pay cut?

The five-day week is not a law of nature. It is a 1938 compromise, set when the Fair Labor Standards Act drew the line at 40 hours. DOL Meanwhile the people doing the hardest jobs in the country, nurses, firefighters, cops, have worked compressed schedules for decades: three twelves, four tens, then real days off. Nobody tells an ER nurse the unit will collapse if she is not there Friday. Hospitals run fine. The office workers clinging to five days are defending a Depression-era habit, not a productivity finding. If shift workers can cover lives around the clock on compressed weeks, your marketing team can survive a Friday off.