A Chinese company has drawn attention by introducing a 3.5-day workweek without reducing pay. The company cut weekly working hours to 26 and lowered workloads and performance targets to match.
A culture and content company in Changsha, Hunan Province, recently announced a 3.5-day workweek for all employees, according to Chinese media and foreign news outlets on the 20th.
Employees work from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday, they work only from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. They do not come in from Friday through Sunday, giving them three consecutive days off.
Combined, that adds up to 26 actual working hours a week.
Pay will not be cut despite the sharp reduction in hours. Existing benefits, including social insurance and housing provident fund contributions, remain unchanged. The company also said it would adjust the workloads and performance evaluation standards applied to employees in line with the shorter hours.
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays Off at Full Pay, With Overtime Paid When Needed
The company also drew a line against a culture of late-night work. It said it would avoid unnecessary overtime as a matter of principle and pay separate overtime compensation when extra hours are unavoidable for business reasons.
Female employees also receive one day of paid menstrual leave each month.
The company's chief executive told local media that the experience of feeling burdened by unnecessary late-night work in a previous job influenced the decision to adopt the system. The aim was to shorten working hours so employees can spend time with family and have ample personal leisure time.
The company said its policy is to focus on results and work efficiency rather than hours worked. It is also cutting back as much as possible on perfunctory meetings and unnecessary reporting procedures.
From Four Days to 3.5: Shorter-Hours Experiments Spread Across China
The 3.5-day schedule was not the starting point. Another company run by the same chief executive has operated a four-day workweek for about three years. The two companies now under the executive's management were later shifted to a 3.5-day schedule, according to reports.
Similar experiments to reduce office days are continuing in China. Materials on China's "4 Day Week" pilot programs show that companies in Suzhou, Wuhan, Fuzhou and Changsha have tested four-day or 4.5-day workweeks.
There have also been regional efforts. Mianyang, a city in Sichuan Province, piloted a 2.5-day break — Friday afternoon plus the weekend — in 2025 to stimulate consumption.
That differs in nature from a 3.5-day workweek, in which a company reduces total working hours. Still, it is seen as part of a similar trend, in that it seeks to expand time off and channel it into consumption and tourism.
