Britain is testing a work week of 3 days off
An extra day off allows people to spend more time with their families (Getty)
Briton Louis Bloomsfield has more time to spend with his family, and is considering doing volunteer work, or acquiring new skills, after the factory where he works in north London decided to participate in a large-scale test to adopt a four-day work week .
Starting in June, the factory will participate in the large-scale test in Britain, which includes 3,000 workers in 60 institutions, and the experiment, which is the largest ever in the world, aims to help companies reduce working times without reducing salaries or slowing the production cycle.
Countries such as Spain, Iceland, the United States and Canada have had similar experiences, and Australia and New Zealand are expected to join the group in August.
Alex Sojong-Kim Pang, project manager at the organization organizing the trials 4DayWeek Global, stresses that the six-month test in Britain will give companies enough time to test the system and collect data, and explains that small and medium-sized companies adapt more easily as they can make big changes dramatically. faster.
The Royal Biology Foundation, which is participating in the test, stresses that it aims to give its employees more independence, and hopes that reducing the weekly working days will contribute to attracting new workers and retaining the best employees in its ranks, especially in a stressful labor market in the United Kingdom.
Unemployment reached a nearly 50-year low of 3.7 percent, and job offers reached a record 1.3 million jobs.
The founder of the Preacher Drop plant, Sam Smith, admits that the three-day-a-week shutdown has no difficulties. Smith is studying the possibility of giving employees different days off, dividing them into two teams, allowing the plant to run uninterrupted.
In contrast, it remains easier to adopt a shorter working week in the service sector, which represents 80 per cent of the UK economy. But the issue is more complex for distribution services and food and beverages.
Jonathan Boyce, an economist at the Institute for Personal Development, a federation of human resource workers, explains: “If we cut the days from five to four, we would lose a working day, and therefore lost production. And here is the question, will the supposed increase in productivity compensate for this loss? It wasn't, it's very difficult to adopt the four days without sacrificing growth."
For Aiden Harper, co-author of a book promoting The Case for a Four Day Week, countries with this system are more productive, and he explains that Greece is one of the European countries with the longest working hours versus low productivity.
Phil McBerlin, founder of 4dayweek.io, which specializes in flexi- and 4-day-weekly jobs, says a shorter work week is a profitable option for businesses and workers alike, and talks about "super employability."
This platform confirms that the number of companies wishing to hire on a four-day basis has quadrupled over the past two years, which reflects the increasing adoption of the hybrid work system and the quest to improve the quality of life two years after the Covid-19 epidemic.
(AFP)
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