How to Make a Four-Day Workweek Sustainable

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

A four-day workweek sounds great in theory. But what would it take to actually make the practice sustainable?

First, here are four new stories from The Atlantic:

• When small-town pride sounds like anger
• Is social media making America’s murder surge worse?
• The gender war is over in Britain.
• Trees? Not in my backyard.

Fewer Hours, Same Workload?

The idea of a four-day workweek sounds enticing: Work efficiently over a shorter period of time and then reap the benefits of three-day weekends. In the process, workers. Some employers are game for it too, as they seek to improve employee wellness and retention. But execution matters. Best-case scenario: Shorter workweeks and reduce burnout. Worst-case scenario: Workers who are already scrambling to get all their work done face unsustainable pressure to get it done even faster.