Should the Working Week Be Shorter with Longer Weekends?

The working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend. Do you agree or disagree?

Annotated response

12 correction notes

Showing 12 correction notes.

The idea of a shorter working week with a longer weekend for employees has been a in recent countries even experimenting with it. While it may seem appealing, I disagree with this proposal. A reduced working week could negatively impact productivity, increase operational costs, and hinder overall economic growth

Firstly, reducing working hours could lead to decreased productivity, particularly in industries where constant output is essential. Many businesses rely on a full five-day week to meet deadlines, , and maintain efficiency. For instance, manufacturing and service industries often require , and cutting working days might result in delays, lower output, and . This could eventually harm a company’s competitiveness and profitability.

Secondly, . Employers might need to hire additional staff to cover the reduced hours of existing employees, especially in sectors that demand round-the-clock operations, such as healthcare, customer service, and logistics. This would not only but could also lead to reduced salaries or job losses, . could limit career growth and development opportunities. With fewer working days, employees may have less time for training, skill enhancement, and professional networking. This could result in slower career progression and

In conclusion, while a shorter working week may offer temporary benefits such as increased leisure time, the potential drawbacks, including reduced productivity, higher costs, and limited career advancement, outweigh these advantages. Maintaining the traditional five-day workweek ensures stability, efficiency, and sustained economic growth.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The strongest aspect is the clear, consistent position supported by relevant, well-chained reasoning across three developed arguments. The main limitation is that the development stays general and relies on plausible claims rather than concrete evidence, which keeps it from fully extended achievement.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

The response presents a clear position throughout, addresses all parts of the task, and develops main ideas with relevant, though somewhat generalised, support.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are logically organised with clear progression and a range of cohesive devices used naturally, though paragraph development remains routine rather than fully sophisticated.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is sufficiently flexible and precise, with good topic-specific collocations such as operational costs and round-the-clock operations, with only rare minor imprecision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex sentence structures is used with good flexibility and control, and errors are rare and non-impeding.