In the blue-collar sector, the 4-day week is often implemented through compressed work schedules (CWS). There is a lack of research on how four longer working days shape fathers’ involvement in childcare and gender equality in the family. We used a grounded theory approach to analyze 32 semi-structured interviews with workers from nine Austrian blue-collar organizations. Drawing on practice theory, we identified three temporal strategies that workers employed to deal with the reduced time for non-work in CWS: skipping, squeezing in, and postponing activities. Through these strategies, fathers create quality time on weekends, but reduce their daily involvement in childcare. By spotlighting three cases of blue-collar fathers with distinct family arrangements, we integrate this temporal perspective into a relational care approach: The fixed temporality of CWS fosters more unequal or dichotomous gender relations in the family, as the father’s daily childcare activities must be delegated to another caregiver. Fathers who remain involved in daily childcare do so under time pressure and at the expense of self-care. The findings imply that the introduction of a 4-day workweek must be accompanied by a reduction in working hours and organizational responsibility for fathers’ involvement in childcare in order to achieve gender equality.
