Millionaire and Shark Tank judge Kevin O’Leary is not a fan of the move to a four-day work week and mocked the idea during an appearance on Fox News. Instead, he stated that in today’s work environment, everything is project-based and that tasks need to be completed on time: “The work week doesn’t even exist anymore.”
If you dream of never working on Fridays again, you might want to lower your expectations—at least if you work for Mr. Wonderful.
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Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, known for his direct communication style, was asked about a growing trend among workers in favor of the four-day week. This is something that France, in particular, has been studying, in addition to limiting the working day to 35 hours.
“That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard,” O’Leary told Fox News.
“I think we should let the French adopt a two-day work week and then beat them in international competition.”
At the same time, the 71-year-old businessman recognized that the traditional working model from 9am to 5pm, five days a week, is not what it once was. In practice, with 40% of his team working remotely around the world, he admitted that he doesn’t care what time employees work — as long as they deliver on time.
“Working weeks no longer exist in a digital economy, in the post-pandemic period”, he added.
The change of scenery around the 4-day week
For workers, a four-day work week goes beyond having a longer weekend; it’s about offering more flexibility and work-life balance, as well as reducing burnout. In fact, 77% of workers say that a four-day week, even maintaining a 40-hour week, would have a positive impact on their well-being, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.
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At Exos, a performance training company with more than 3,500 employees, a four-day week was implemented, and the results were largely positive. Teams were able to choose a day as “do it your way day”, and productivity increased by around 24%. Burnout fell by half.
Other business leaders have also started to pay attention. About 30% of CEOs are considering broad changes to the organization of work schedules, such as four-day or four-and-a-half-day weeks, according to a 2024 KPMG survey of 100 CEOs of U.S. companies with revenues exceeding $500 million.
The Tokyo metropolitan government has started allowing its employees to work just four days a week in a bid to alleviate its growing population crisis and allow parents to better balance childcare and work.
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Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told Fortune during the 2025 Most Powerful Women International summit in Riyadh that the four-day week is critical to building a modern workplace.
“We need to build a society in which everyone can balance work and family life, and a step in that direction is the four-day work week,” he said. “Flexible systems like this allow women and men to choose a working model that reflects their circumstances.”
Shark Advice for Surviving the Modern Workplace
O’Leary is not the only “shark” willing to share opinions on controversial topics that affect the professional environment. Daymond John posted on TikTok to comment on a growing trend called “loud quitting.”
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“If you’re seeing a bunch of people quitting loudly, you better pay attention to what’s going on with your team, because you’ve stirred up so much emotion that these people have collectively started saying, ‘I don’t care what happens to me, and I’m going to say it publicly: This place sucks,’” John said, adding that he finds it “absolutely stunning.”
For workers simply looking for a pay raise, self-made millionaire Barbara Corcoran shared her advice in an Instagram post:
“You need to prepare for the meeting by making a list of everything you were hired to do and then everything you are actually doing now, and show this to your boss.”
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“Don’t go in there saying you want a raise,” he added. “Say you want a 10% raise and you’ll be in a much better negotiating position to maybe get 8%. Name the number.”
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