The coronavirus pandemic was the real trigger to rethink the world of work. The issue of four-day pay cuts is coming back to the fore, with several countries and companies experimenting with whether it could be applied more widely. Tests are done or discussed by companies in the UK, Spain, USA, Japan, or even New Zealand, among others. Fewer working days and hours due to the changes brought about by the pandemic in labor return to the table after the trend of the so-called Great Resignation. Many employees quit their jobs because they feel they are not getting paid enough or do not have enough time available.
This is a global phenomenon that has become more noticeable in the US, where a record number of workers left their jobs in November, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor in the country. There is an ever-increasing amount of internet mobility around the world and not just for a four-day work week. Such movements are reflected in new Internet forums, such as Antiwork on Reddit, which encourage employees to prioritize their free time, according to Fortune magazine. Antiwork has seen its membership rise from 180,000 in October 2020 to 1.7 million in January as the coronavirus crisis has led many to reevaluate their careers.
After two years of quarantine with obstacles for the Covid-19, the move to a shorter working week comes as no surprise. A recent survey by Eagle Hill Consulting Research found that of the 1,000 people surveyed, 53% said they experienced work-related fatigue, while 83% of U.S. workers said a four-day work week would make it easier for them. Fortune. In Britain, a pilot program will start in June with thirty companies participating, allowing employees to work 32 instead of 40 hours a week without a change in pay and other benefits. The companies will be able to ask the staff, however, to share these working hours in five days.
The results of the experiment-project
The pilot project involves 4 Day Week Global, the Autonomy think tank, and researchers from Oxford University, Boston College, and Cambridge University. The program will last for six months, until December 2022 when the basic conclusions will be drawn.
The mobility in this direction is already great. Just a few days ago, Landmark London, a hotel in Marylebone, UK, announced that it was offering its chefs a four-day week with no pay cut. A British subsidiary of the Japanese camera company Canon also said it was considering a four-day pilot work per week for 140 people.
In Japan, the government is considering a proposal to prevent workers from going to work for an extra day a week in order to protect their physical and mental health.
The degree of productivity
In the US, fast food chain Shake Shack has also begun testing this internship in less than a few days from 2020 to see its effectiveness and attract more employees. Microsoft has announced an increase in productivity when it adopted a four-day week in August for its employees in Japan.
In Spain, the government wanted to pilot a four-day working week, after the government agreed to implement a pilot project for companies interested in the idea, as reported in the spring of 2021 by the “Guardian”. At the time, the Left Party of Mas Pais had proposed a three-year plan that would allow companies to try working less days with a state subsidy initially estimated at around 50m euros. In Spain in 2020 the software company Delsol became the first in the country to implement a four-day working week with the aim of increasing productivity and improving the daily lives of employees.
