Amazon has recently announced plans to introduce 30-hour contracts for some of its employees as part of a four-day working week trial.

They are by no means the first big American company to do this; in fact, about 30% of companies in the US now offer shorter or compressed working weeks.

This concept hasn’t really taken off in Australia, but it turns out that may be for the best.

We’re one of the hardest working countries in the developed world, according to the most recent data from The Australia Institute which shows the average Australian employee puts in over 42 hours a week. About 15% of that is extra, unpaid work – that means working over six hours a week for free!

This culture of long hours means that a switch to a four-day week could put too much pressure on employees, according to Associate Professor John Spoehr from Flinders University’s Australian Industrial Transformation Institute.

“We don’t have a formal policy or strategy in Australia around the four-day week,” Professor Spoehr said.’

“One of the main opportunities that exists for people to work a shorter week is to opt for compressed hours, where you compress five days of work into four days, or nine days into a fortnight.

“The problem is that long hours erode our concentration and they have an impact on our health and our well-being, and that plays out in workplaces through lower productivity.”

The general consensus from science is that people hit a wall after several hours of doing a particular task, and if they continue doing it for any longer they will start to lose concentration and underperform.

But the main concern is not so much to do with our performance, but our health and stress levels. It turns out that working longer hours, even just for a few days a week, can have a big impact. And in Australia, it’s more often women than men who opt to have the extra day off work.

Dr Judy Rose from Griffith University’s School of Education and Professional Studies has studied the effect of different working arrangements among groups of women.

A surprising result of the study was that women following the compressed four-day week or “reduced full-time hours” working structure were getting a much worse deal than those doing full-time or part-time hours.

“I wanted to know if the women working a four-day week really were getting a better work-life balance, and I found out that no, they’re not,” Dr Rose said.

“They’re actually more stressed-out and more time-pressured than women working full-time, because though they’re working fewer days on paper they’re juggling the household, the housework, and still working a full-time load.”

These women reported feeling more stressed, anxious and depressed, said Dr Rose. Many were even suffering physically from the increased workload pressure. The women she studied were often taking work home to meet their contracted hours, and this was adding to the length of their working days.

What makes these findings even more of a concern is that a study released by Ohio State University in June found that women who work more than 12 hours a day are three times more likely to suffer heart disease, cancer, arthritis or diabetes than those who have a regular work week.

They are also twice as likely to have chronic lung disease or asthma.

It’s all about the money

Some workers may have the option of negotiating a shorter working week with their employers by reducing their number of contracted hours. But a reduction in hours equates to a reduction in pay, and that’s something that many workers can’t afford.

Tara Shelton, founder and creative director of the Dream & Do creative agency in Sydney, operates a four day week in her company which all five of her employees stick to.

They enjoy having the extra day to put towards other projects and creative exploits, she says.

It might sound like a perfect setup, but of course it comes with one crucial drawback that might be a deal-breaker for some employees.

“The thing to be aware of is it’s less money,” she says.

“I pay 20 per cent less than a five-day position. It saves me money as an employer, but you need to be aware that if you’re taking a four-day position you’re choosing less pay and that might not work for everyone.”

This seems to play out globally, as we see the nation with the shortest working week – The Netherlands – coming in with an average salary AU$2,000 below the OECD’s global average of AU$39,000.

Under Amazon’s new deal, employees who choose the four-day contract will take a 25% pay cut since they’ll be working 30 hours instead of 40. They will still receive the same benefits as full-time employees, though.

So is that it for our dream of a decent work-life balance? Should we just resign ourselves to a life of toil and stress?

There may still be hope, says Professor Spoehr, providing we can acknowledge the need to reduce our overall working hours.

“I know from experience, when I’ve worked shorter hours, it’s been very beneficial for my health and for my work-life balance and ultimately made me more productive,” he said.

“We need to recognise that in Australia and recognise there would be enormous benefits to be gained from pursuing a shorter working week — for individuals, for our health system, and for companies and organisations.

“That would be that people’s lives become more sustainable at work and at home.”