Until less than a century ago, the working day in Great Britain ended on Saturday and that is why football matches were played on that day at three in the afternoon, just in time for the workers to come home to eat something and pick up their children to go to the stadium together. Later, the schedule from nine to five (Monday to Friday) became so common in the Anglo-Saxon world that even Dolly Parton starred in a movie with that title and dedicated a song to it (9 to 5).
Has the time come to change the formula? Britain has just completed the biggest experiment to date of a four-day work week, with a maximum of 32 hours instead of 40, organized by the group 4 Day Work Global , with the voluntary participation of 61 companies from software, contracting and manufacturing (plus a few NGOs), and over 3,000 employees who have continued to be paid exactly the same as before.
What is the balance? Eighteen of the companies involved have decided to make the four-day work day permanent, another 38 to extend the experiment indefinitely, and only five to return to the typical Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. The organizers’ report mentions “enormous benefits in all areas”, such as reduced absenteeism and sick leave, improved mental health, hours of sleep, family life and worker fitness, less stress and even greater gender equality, because fathers have been able to spend much more time with and care for their children (although their role in household chores has not increased).
From the point of view of the workers, it is clear that it is better to work four days than five (in some cases they have had a day off in the middle of the week, in others they have enjoyed a weekend from Friday to Monday). The vast majority say that they would not want to return to the traditional system, and that they would only do so with a salary increase of between 25% and 50%. But what about from the entrepreneur’s point of view? Is it also a success?
Only a third of the companies participating in the experiment have provided economic results, which show that their income has been practically the same as before, in some cases higher by 1 or 2%. And the advantages of having happy employees, who call less in the morning to say they are sick (absenteeism has decreased by 66%), and who are not hunting for a better paying job with the competition, are evident. The costs of recruiting and training staff have come down substantially.
The British government, however, is not enthusiastic about the idea of ??a four-day working day, and dismisses the experiment as saying that the participating firms were already prone to change, and, with a few exceptions, are of sectors such as accounting and high technology that can easily adapt to more flexible hours.
Entrepreneurs have, however, been intrigued, and they wonder if it is not a possible solution to the problem that has been dubbed “the great resignation”, the disappearance of a million people from the labor market as a result of the pandemic, either due to long-term covid, the desire to spend more time with family or early retirement (many over 55 have not returned to work). In sectors such as banking, it is still common to go to the office voluntarily, or just from time to time to maintain the relationship with colleagues and a certain team spirit.
The Sainsbury’s supermarket chain, the second largest in the country, has decided to run its own experiment by offering some employees the opportunity to work four days a week, but concentrating the working hours on them, so that they end up doing the same as the rest of the template. One of the results of the test is that by reducing the work week, the staff is better organized and much less time is wasted on travel, bureaucracy, conferences and unnecessary meetings.