Passage A — The four-day working week

In 2022, a large trial of the four-day working week took place in the United Kingdom. Sixty-one companies, employing around 2,900 people, reduced working hours by 20 per cent while keeping salaries unchanged. Employees were expected to maintain the same level of output. At the end of the six-month trial, 56 of the 61 companies chose to continue with the shortened week, and 18 made the change permanent.

The reported benefits went beyond employee satisfaction. Companies recorded a 65 per cent drop in sick days and a 57 per cent fall in the number of staff leaving. Revenue across the participating firms remained broadly stable, rising slightly compared with the same period the previous year.

Critics argue that the results should be treated with caution. Participation was voluntary, which means the companies involved may already have been unusually flexible. Most were small organisations in the service sector; whether the model would work in manufacturing or healthcare, where output is tied directly to hours worked, remains untested. Some researchers also note that employees may simply have worked more intensively, compressing the same workload into fewer hours — a change that could increase stress over a longer period.

Passage B — Teenagers and sleep

Adolescents need more sleep than adults, yet most get considerably less. Research suggests that teenagers require between eight and ten hours a night, while surveys in several countries indicate that the average is closer to six and a half. The reason is partly biological: during adolescence the body's internal clock shifts, and the release of melatonin, the hormone that triggers sleepiness, begins around two hours later than in childhood. A teenager who is told to go to bed at ten may simply not feel tired.

School start times compound the problem. In most systems, lessons begin between eight and half past eight, which requires many students to wake before their bodies are ready. A number of districts in the United States have experimented with delaying the start of the school day by an hour. Early findings are encouraging: attendance improved, reported levels of daytime sleepiness fell, and in some districts examination results rose modestly. However, the change is unpopular with some parents, whose own working hours no longer align with the school timetable.