Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Photo: Pixabay when the "four-day work" experiment was first carried out in Iceland, Icelandic workers were probably in the same mood as when the word "weekend" was born more than a century ago-"how cool this is".

Write an article | 2 / 7

Revision | clefable

As the first group of workers to pilot the "four-day work system", the Icelandic people have been "happy" for many years. After the end of large-scale trials in 2015-2019, according to statistics, 86% of Icelanders had a good life of "working only four days a week" in 2021.

At the same time, more and more countries are trying this new mode of work one after another. In June last year, about 2900 employees of 61 UK companies took part in a four-day trial. In theory, the trial ended in December, but most of these companies-- and most of the workers-- are still working four days.

Recently, a final analysis report has been released in what can be called the largest four-day trial to date. The most intuitive result can be reflected in one sentence: "15% of the participants are not willing to work five days for more money."

15% of the respondents (the bar chart on the far right) said that "it's not about money" (photo source: original paper) "absolutely willing to continue" first of all, the "four-day work system" is not literally "only four days a week". There are only two practical requirements for a four-day system: wages remain unchanged and working hours are effectively reduced. But it is up to the company to decide exactly how to reduce this time.

For example, in this experiment, many companies chose the most conceivable option-not going to work on Fridays. But some companies choose other ways, such as dividing the whole company into two groups, which are closed on Mondays and Fridays, and the rest time of the two groups is changed every month. There are also companies that still work five days a week, but shorten their daily working hours. Other companies have made requirements for four-day work: if the department's performance does not meet a certain standard, the department's four-day trial will be suspended.

Of course, the workers have a good opinion of the four-day work system. At the end of the experiment, employees gave a high score of 9.04 (from a very bad score of 0 to a very good score of 10) with a four-day experience. 90% of people are "absolutely willing to continue" the four-day work day, only 5 (0.43%) said they "don't want to continue", but no one said "absolutely don't want to continue".

Source: the original paper even for some people, the attraction of the four-day work system has exceeded the power of money. When asked how much salary increase is needed to accept a five-day job, 40% of people ask for a 10% raise, 25% of people ask for a raise, 8% of people ask for a salary increase of more than 50%, and 15% of people are unwilling to accept five-day work "no matter how much money they pay".

The extra day Owen is a surveyor, at the same time, he is the father of two children. Taking care of the children and taking them out to play took up most of his weekends, and he didn't even have time to do housework. Since neither housework nor children could give up, Owen had to compress his leisure time.

But after the experiment begins, Owen will take care of the necessary chores on the extra day off and be able to take care of the children-which is especially important when the children are on a long vacation. When the real weekend comes, he will have time to play golf or go to a football game with friends. "I know that the key housework has been done, which will make me feel less guilty in my leisure time." Owen said.

Photo Source: Pixabay Irving's description represents the experience of many beating workers in the experiment. When asked about their feelings about the four-day system, a common feedback is "better balance between life and work". On this extra day of the week, most people choose to do some "life management", such as shopping in the supermarket, seeing a doctor, car washing, cleaning and so on. In this way, when the weekend comes, you can do the leisure projects that you really like. One participant even said that the four-day work week had relieved his "weekend phobia"-he was now able to face Sunday nights with a stable mind.

This kind of rest experience has significantly improved the life satisfaction of employees, and really extended to their work. Participants' job stress and burnout were significantly reduced, with 54% of migrant workers saying they no longer felt too tired to do housework after work. Even more surprising was the improvement in physical health, with 46 per cent of subjects reporting a decrease in fatigue (only 14 per cent reported an increase), while 40 per cent reported a significant decline in the incidence of insomnia and general sleep problems.

However, one interviewee was worried about the impact of the four-day system on personal development and therefore did not like the four-day system so much. She says she is excited by challenges at work, so she prefers "soft four-day work", which is to spend the fifth day working on personal projects in the office.

ChatGPT may not be able to understand where the workers' inner work has gone. How can the company be willing to accept such a loss by letting its employees lose a day's work?

In fact, according to the feedback from the trial, the company can also benefit from the four-day work system. Of the 61 companies that participated in the trial, 56 decided to continue to implement the four-day working day after the trial, and 18 of them said the decision was "permanent".

If you look at the data, the decision may not be difficult to understand. In terms of the most basic corporate revenue alone, in the six months from the beginning of the experiment to the end of the experiment, the average company revenue (weighted by company size) increased by 1.4%, an increase of 35% over the same period last year. At the same time, the company's personnel stability has also improved significantly-the employee turnover rate has been significantly reduced, and the rate of absenteeism caused by sick leave and personal leave has also been reduced by 65%. Some company managers also find that "sometimes four-day work is more attractive to talent than salary."

Such a seemingly win-win result is bound to lead to confusion, where is the less-done work? This may also be the most important issue for all people, both company managers and workers.

Some related reports often refer to some research conclusions about the job edge effect. Many studies have shown that through the four-day work system, employees can get better rest and finish their work more efficiently, completing the same amount of tasks in four days.

The results of the experiment seem to support this theory. 62% of employees think that the pace of work under the four-day system has accelerated. Some respondents said that an extra day off "like a carrot in front of a donkey can motivate you to finish your work faster."

However, for the companies that took part in the trial, no company would make the transition from a five-day to a four-day system based solely on the desire to "want employees to be more productive." Most companies choose to take specific measures to help their employees improve their work efficiency.

Sometimes, such measures are initiated by the company. For example, change the meeting process, hold only those meetings that are clear and necessary, and prohibit meetings after 3pm (so as not to miss work time), or introduce some auxiliary email templates or automatic reporting software. Some companies have introduced a "bow" time to ensure that employees can work independently without interference.

There are also many employees who spontaneously look for ways to improve their work efficiency under the encouragement of the company. For example, in a craft brewery participating in this experiment, before officially switching to a four-day working day, the brewers in the factory carefully studied their brewing process and designed a new production plan in order to reduce working hours.

As the report says, "the goal of shortening working hours is to help employees work smarter, not harder." This is perhaps the brightest part of the experiment-perhaps working with workers and companies to find a more comfortable way to live and work. This is cooperation, not competition.

Reference link:

Https://autonomy.work/portfolio/icelandsww/

Https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/flexible-working/four-day-week#gref

Https://www.businessinsider.com/4-day-work-week-employees-report-decrease-insomnia-sleep-problems-2023-2

Https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/feb/21/four-day-week-uk-trial-success-pattern

Https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/255689

Https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-results-are-in-The-UKs-four-day-week-pilot.pdf

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: global Science (ID:huanqiukexue)

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.