4 days a week tempts the world

When he announced to his employees that they would switch to a 4-day, 32-hour work week, it made some people surprised but also happy. A year later, Laurent de la Clergerie, President of LDLC’s IT Business Group, is proud to be Measurement with Obs : “Over the past year, we have achieved 47% growth,” while the number of employees is still around 1,000. In France, the idea may not have been easy to force because only a minority of presidential candidates were clearly in favor of reducing working time.

However, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries around the world are concerned about this problem, notably Spain, which is launching a trial in 2022.

In Spain, we’re trying

Everything is new: Spain’s leftist Mas Pais party on Monday received public funding from Pedro Sanchez’s government to launch an experiment. The employees of 200 volunteer companies will work 32 paid hours 40 hours, 4 days instead of 5. Clothing store Unequal It has already begun, and the measure was adopted by staff on October 7 with 86% of the vote. Working hours will drop from 39.5 hours per week to 34.5 hours, but with a 6.5% pay cut in return. A drastic measure, dissenting employees will have to leave their jobs in exchange for monetary compensation. The 4-day week is in fashion in the country, as Delsol first created it in 2020 – without a pay cut.

It is also a request from the tourism sector that it should make up for losses linked to Covid.

in Iceland

The idea of ​​creating Spain dates back a few months already, but Iceland’s success may have propelled the country forward. This country was unveiled in July The results of his study over 4 days a week, implemented on 2500 employees for a period of 4 years (2015 to 2019), then from 2017 to 2021 on 440 government employees. The goal was to reduce working time from 40 to 35 hours over 4 days with the same salary. Verdict: ‘A landslide success’, as cited by Icelandic researchers independent, according to those who have not noticed any real drop in productivity. Workers notice less stress and fatigue and feel more optimistic. Today, 90% of the country’s workers have flexible working times due to this success.

in New Zealand

In 2018, Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand company, launched the 4-day workweek. At the end of the test, 240 employees had done as much work in four days as in five, and had reduced their stress: Weekly productivity did not decrease, meaning daily productivity increased. Andrew Barnes, the company’s CEO, later founded “4 day week global,” an organization that wants to get governments to pay attention to four days a week.

in Belgium

Turns out it’s hotter in Belgium. And for good reason: in the state budget presented on Tuesday, it’s not really about 4 days a week that includes a reduction in working time, but rather a reduction of 38 hours a week over 4 days. So the days can increase to 9:30 AM. This measure clarifies that it remains to be discussed with the social partners bio.

Other companies around the world

Other companies around the world are starting to do this: Microsoft went 4 days in Japan in 2019, the cybersecurity company TAC and Inde . Security An animation studio has also been launched Eidos Montreal in Canada did the same on October 7.. Congressman Mark Takano, the US representative for California’s 41st congressional district, introduced a bill in late August to say, in his view, that 32 hours a week “is the future of work, and we have to adopt it.”

In France at the moment, few companies have chosen the 4-day work week. This is the case with LDLC or Welcome to the Jungle. Pierre Larrotoro has always advocated this measure A majority of French (60%) would support, according to a study published in 2019.