Example

"Though ​​economic stagnation and recession in the '70s and '80s likely undercut any momentum as did a corporate focus on efficiency, globalization and the diminishing power of labor," the Times said.

In January, a pilot program from 4 Day Week Global, a New Zealand–based not-for-profit advocacy organization, was announced and will be launched for a six-month period starting in June.

According to The New York Times, Unilever's New Zealand unit has also experimented with the abbreviated week

"Though ​​economic stagnation and recession in the '70s and '80s likely undercut any momentum as did a corporate focus on efficiency, globalization and the diminishing power of labor," the Times said.

"In many contemporary economies, there's a growing sense that people are overworked," Jack Kellam, a researcher at Autonomy, a U.K.-based think tank focused on labor's future, told CNBC in an interview.

The same study found that people who do work just four days reported benefits such as "significantly higher levels of well-being and less likely to feel chronically burned out" — though did report higher levels of "active disengagement."

However, just because the option will exist for employees does not mean employers will have to approve it, Bloomberg said.

In January, a pilot program from 4 Day Week Global, a New Zealand–based not-for-profit advocacy organization, was announced and will be launched for a six-month period starting in June.

"Though ​​economic stagnation and recession in the '70s and '80s likely undercut any momentum as did a corporate focus on efficiency, globalization and the diminishing power of labor," the Times said.

Bloomberg reported that the move was made as part of an agreement "that aims to make Belgium's notoriously rigid labor market more flexible."