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Burnout, Stress Lead More Companies To Try a Four-Day Work Week (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Work four days a week, but get paid for five? It sounds too good to be true, but companies around the world that have cut their work week have found that it leads to higher productivity, more motivated staff and less burnout. "It is much healthier and we do a better job if we're not working crazy hours," said Jan Schulz-Hofen, founder of Berlin-based project management software company Planio, who introduced a four-day week to the company's 10-member staff earlier this year.
In New Zealand, trust company Perpetual Guardian reported a fall in stress and a jump in staff engagement after it tested a 32-hour week earlier this year. Even in Japan, the government is encouraging companies to allow Monday mornings off, although other schemes in the workaholic country to persuade employees to take it easy have had little effect. Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) is pushing for the whole country to move to a four-day week by the end of the century, a drive supported by the opposition Labour party. The TUC argues that a shorter week is a way for workers to share in the wealth generated by new technologies like machine learning and robotics, just as they won the right to the weekend off during the industrial revolution.
In New Zealand, trust company Perpetual Guardian reported a fall in stress and a jump in staff engagement after it tested a 32-hour week earlier this year. Even in Japan, the government is encouraging companies to allow Monday mornings off, although other schemes in the workaholic country to persuade employees to take it easy have had little effect. Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) is pushing for the whole country to move to a four-day week by the end of the century, a drive supported by the opposition Labour party. The TUC argues that a shorter week is a way for workers to share in the wealth generated by new technologies like machine learning and robotics, just as they won the right to the weekend off during the industrial revolution.
...whether they want it or not -- so they can still be considered "part time," with no benefits.
The 4x10 work week is great for people with low to moderate stress desk jobs. It's awesome because they work the same cycle of 1.5-3 high productivity hours each day and the rest filler, faffing, and socializing. The huge WLB benefit is having a weekday to deal with all the bullshit personal business which is not available after hours or on the weekend (e.g. every interaction with state and similar -- all the shit businesses working banker's hours).
It's an awful idea in healthcare, emergency services, and law enforcement; the same applies to 3x12/4x12 cycling hot in healthcare specifically. The only reason it's being pushed in those fields successfully is each one of those lacks oversight, accounting, and personal responsibility for mistakes up to and including death of those being served. And it's just piles of additional days off for those people who corner themselves (accident I swear) into as much overtime as the bosses will let them get away with.
Side note: these remarks apply to the US. I've heard the rest of the world is mostly more reasonable and people who work public service jobs are actually interested in public service rather than Cadillac pension plans.
We have several people working four 10s and taking off Fridays, so I took Mondays and worked four 10s t be sure we always had coverage. Suddenly I didn't hate Mondays anymore. Plus having a specific workday off every week allowed me better plan medical appointments, vehicle maintenance, deliveries, etc. while still providing a three day weekend which could be use to do home projects while still getting a day of actual rest, or short trips to refresh and recharge that allowed a full day at the wherever, and didn't include driving to a place on Saturday and back straightaway the next day.