In the UK, there is a plan to introduce the 4-day work week in 200 companies. It is expected to result in higher productivity.
Which country is it about? In the UK, 200 companies have committed to introducing a 4-day work week. So far, in most European countries, a 5-day work week is the standard in daily life. After testing the 4-day work week in several trials, they now want to implement it permanently. In total, about 5,000 employees are expected to be affected at the start.
It is expected that it will increase productivity and the well-being of employees. Overall, they aim to reduce the weekly maximum working hours from 48 to 32 hours per week by 2030.
200 companies from various sectors have committed
Which companies are participating? The companies that have committed come from a wide range of fields. The English-language magazine Techradar.com lists 65 companies from different industries as examples:
- 18 companies from the arts and design sector
- 12 from the technology and manufacturing sector
- 12 from the recruitment and management sector
- 9 from the entertainment industry
- 8 from the accounting, banking, and finance sector
- 6 from the real estate development, retail, and construction sector
What are the expectations? Basically, they hope that productivity for employers will increase and that employees will be happier and more rested.
Moreover, supporters explain that environmental impact could also decrease due to shorter working hours (via 4dayweek.co.uk):
A four-day work week also benefits society in general. Transitioning the economy to a 32-hour work week without loss of pay could reduce the UK’s CO2 footprint by up to 127 million tons per year.
On the other hand, some believe that nothing should change in the long term. Because many employees are already secretly working a four-day week, as productivity at workplaces declines sharply towards the end of the week.
However, the transition to a four-day work week doesn’t always go smoothly: The boss of a company wanted to introduce the four-day work week for his employees. Therefore, he wanted to find out where his employees spend their time to optimize it. In the process, an employee was discovered who was using his work hours for other companies: A company wants to introduce the four-day work week – In doing so, an employee was caught who was working two jobs the whole time
