Recently, news that "Mianyang is piloting a flexible 4.5-day workweek" became a trending topic. People cheered, "I'm jealous!", while also asking, "Is it true?" This article clarifies the background and offers my understanding of it.

1　The earliest report appeared on Sohu's local channel, posted by Sichuan Commerce at 12:29 on May 22, 2025. Other platforms, including The Paper, Tencent News, Sina, and Guancha, republished or analyzed it on May 24. No PDF is currently available on the official Mianyang municipal government website, however.

2　The Mianyang Municipal Bureau of Commerce issued the "2025 Work Checklist for Mianyang's Special Action to Boost Consumption," centered on seven major actions and twenty-nine measures. Measure 22 under Action Six, "Improving the Consumption Environment," states:

Implement leave policies. Ensure that all due annual leave is taken and implement paid-leave policies; encourage enterprises to arrange flexible time off and promote shared leave for spouses. Pilot a flexible 4.5-day workweek, and encourage areas with suitable conditions to introduce a 2.5-day leave model combining Friday afternoons with weekends. (Responsible agency: Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau)

This is the original source of the claim.

3　Thus, the document is a "work checklist" addressed to government departments to specify their tasks. Publishing it is government transparency and most likely not publicity. Many internet users mistakenly believe Mianyang has already begun operating a flexible 4.5-day workweek. That is incorrect. The government has not guaranteed this, nor would it dare do so. It can only be called a direction to work toward.

4　In reality, however, many companies do not even follow basic labor law or provide two days off a week, so many internet users are deeply dissatisfied. Some also see the news and assume Mianyang has already implemented a flexible 4.5-day workweek, creating an enormous contrast with their own reality. It is foreseeable that this trending news will give the relevant Mianyang departments a headache too.

5　In fact, Mianyang was not the first to propose a flexible 4.5-day workweek. As early as 2015, the State Council called in a relevant document for "creating favorable conditions for employees to combine Friday afternoons with weekends for leisure trips and holidays." Various places have already piloted 2.5-day weekends in recent years, with cases widely reported online.

6　In practice, a flexible 4.5-day workweek will inevitably begin in the public sector—government departments, state-owned enterprises, public schools, and so on—and will be introduced only where conditions allow. If we expect too much, disappointment and pain are inevitable.

7　Nevertheless, I believe the flexible 4.5-day workweek is a trend for future development. Other countries already have experience with this policy and have seen good results; reportedly, productivity has risen rather than fallen. Boosting domestic demand is currently a national policy, and this measure helps stimulate consumption, so the state strongly supports it; cworking people also support shorter working hours, which can improve their quality of life and happiness.

8　In China, government plans may not always be fully realized, but they certainly indicate where the government will provide funding and policy support in the future. Although many obstacles remain, remember that many ideas and phenomena seem fanciful when first heard, yet a few years later we look back and discover they have long since become commonplace. I therefore believe that in the near future, more and more places in China will achieve a flexible 4.5-day workweek, and more people will be freed from exhausting work to develop other abilities and enjoy happy lives.

What do you think of the "flexible 4.5-day workweek"?

  • I support it! I hope it is expanded and implemented soon.
  • Dream on—my company does not even give us a two-day weekend!
  • Read carefully: it says "pilot," not "implement."
  • It means little; execution is what matters.
  • I would like to learn more about other countries' experience.