Sri Lanka has just introduced a four‑day workweek—not to boost work‑life balance, but because the war in Iran is threatening to drain its petrol tanks dry.
The government has declared every Wednesday a holiday for most public institutions in a desperate bid to slash petrol use, as war in the Middle East threatens vital oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
All state institutions, along with schools and universities, will shift to a four-day work week, starting this Wednesday. Essential services like hospitals will stay open, but everyone else is being told to stay home, log on where possible, and use as little gas as they can.
Even the private sector is being asked to follow the mandate, too.
Sri Lanka government has declared Wednesdays a holiday from 18 March 2026 for Government employees, schools, universities and courts, the Commissioner General of Essential Services says.
— Sri Lanka Tweet 🇱🇰 (@SriLankaTweet) March 16, 2026
Private institutions have also been requested to follow, while all Government events are… pic.twitter.com/mmAp5EKjSO
Officials say Sri Lanka has roughly just six weeks of fuel reserves left. That’s why they’ve rolled out the four‑day week almost overnight, suspended public ceremonies, and launched a National Fuel Pass to ration how much petrol people can buy. And they’re not the only country introducing these emergency measures to avoid running out of fuel.
There’s a pattern worth naming here. The three major crises since 2020—the pandemic, the 2022 European energy shock, now the Iran war—have each pushed governments to reach for the same lever: send people home, cut the commute, compress the week. And every time, some portion of that change proves permanent. Workers adjust. Productivity holds. And the five-day, in-office standard quietly loses a little more of its claim to inevitability. Look around Asia to see how Sri Lanka is far from alone.
Pakistan, the Philippines, and other Asian nations are welcoming a 4-day week and remote work
Across Asia, governments are quietly cutting working days, commutes, and non‑essential travel in a bid to stretch fuel supplies as far as possible.
Pakistan has already implemented a four-day week for some government offices and shut schools, as well as imposing a ban on in-person meetings. Meanwhile, all public and private firms are being mandated to ask 50% of their workforce to work from home.
The Philippines is also adopting a four-day work week for government staff, and urged workers more generally to work from home where possible. Vietnam is also telling citizens to stay home, as well as to ride bikes, carpool, and use public transport, and restrict personal vehicle usage.
Other Asian nations are taking quirkier energy-saving steps. In Thailand, the government is urging office workers to ditch suits for short‑sleeved shirts so buildings can dial down the air‑conditioning. It’s also called on people to take the stairs instead of elevators.
Myanmar is limiting private cars on alternate days. Bangladesh has introduced early Ramadan holidays and India has asked consumers not to panic, because hoarding—or turning to the black market—will only make the situation worse.
Where the four‑day work week is here to stay
While these emergency measures are temporary, elsewhere, the four‑day work week has been introduced under far less dramatic circumstances—and often with surprisingly positive results.
The U.K. ran the world’s largest four‑day week pilot in 2022, involving dozens of companies that paid staff 100% of their salary for 80% of the time in exchange for a commitment to maintain performance. A year later, 89% of participating firms were still operating a four‑day week and just over half had made the switch permanent—citing higher revenues, better retention, and employees who were less burned out and more loyal. And many other countries have been trialling shorter weeks across dozens of companies with strong early feedback on productivity and quality of life.
Across Europe and beyond, the idea is slowly moving from a rare perk to a mainstream policy experiment. Belgium passed legislation allowing workers to compress a full‑time job into four longer days, the UAE shifted its public sector to a four‑and‑a‑half‑day week, and even companies that don’t want to make permanent changes have launched “recharge days” and Summer Fridays.
Sri Lanka’s emergency measures may be lifted the moment oil flows freely again. But the precedent—that a shorter week is a policy tool, not just a perk—is becoming established across three continents and counting.
