A four-day work week was introduced in Germany as part of an experiment. More than 70% of the participants said they were prepared to continue working in this modality. Bloomberg Businessweek writes about this with reference to a report by the New Zealand organization 4 Day Week Global, which conducted the experiment.
Author:
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The study lasted six months and 45 companies participated. During the experiment, employees worked fewer hours but received the same pay as if they had worked five days. According to the results of the study, 73% of companies said they were willing to implement a four-day work week permanently or expand the experiment.
According to the report, 20% of the participants in the experiment decided to return to the previous schedule, 7% of businessmen were undecided. A survey of employees found that the vast majority (83%) want to work four days a week.
Previously, 4 Day Week Global conducted similar studies in Portugal, South Africa and the United Kingdom, among others. The pilot project in Germany became the organization’s second largest experiment in terms of number of participants.
The researchers concluded that shorter work weeks improved employees’ physical and mental health, most companies found it easier to hire staff, and 12 organizations reported stable financial performance during the study.
However, not all companies were able to complete the experiment to the end. Two organizations declined to participate, citing financial constraints (not necessarily related to shorter work weeks) or low employee support for the initiative.
Author:
Bogdan Muzychenko
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
