The study shows your boss to convince him to adopt four days a week

You can’t take it anymore. One day is too much. You have children to take to the doctor. Or your washing machine to be repaired. Urgent tasks to do. But you’re stuck behind your desk, glued to your position, your head is in another place but your body is at work, productivity is at zero despite the gift colleagues attest to you as bloodless.

In short: you dream four days a week. This is good, because we have the study to show your boss to convince him that such a revolution is not only painful for his company, but on the contrary can be beneficial for him, including purely finances, as well as for society as a whole.

As Bloomberg explainsNew Zealand organisation 4 days of the global week Published at the end of November the first results of a pilot study described as follows. “The Pilot is a six-month formatted test run four days a week, with no staff pay cuts. The program is coordinated by 4 Day Week Global, in partnership with researchers from Cambridge University and Boston College, and supported by researchers in each region.”

“It’s important because a two-day weekend doesn’t work for people”Lead researcher Juliette Shore, Boston College, says of this proposed four-day-a-week revolution.

“In many countries we have a working week that was established in 1938, and is no longer compatible with contemporary lifestyles.”and adds. “For the well-being of workers, it is crucial that we take care of the structure of the work week.”

The first results seem to prove him right — and not just a little bit. While the second batch of the study is underway in the United States and Canada and the third wave will focus on South African and European structures, and each new step makes it possible to modify the data obtained, the primary results concern Americans, Irish and Australians. companies.

A total of 969 employees were followed over ten months as they reduced their workweek by an average of six hours, with no pay cut. As Bloomberg points out, the companies studied ranged from a Dublin NGO, to a restaurant chain in the southern US, to a mobile construction company in Ohio.

All pink and green

And all around, the same joy and efficiency: Dozens of indicators, from productivity to employee fatigue, were all in the green at the end of the testing period. Even better, if the data can be manipulated in the post-Covid period, the sales volume of the companies studied increased by 8% during the study, and was 38% higher than the previous year. Favorable economic climate or not, the reduction in working time has by no means put companies in the red, quite the opposite.

Bloomberg notes that measuring productivity can be complex when it comes to structures that work in completely different fields, but the organizations themselves found that the effect of reducing working hours without cutting wages was positive. Absenteeism decreased from 0.6 to 0.4 days per month.

By participating in one of these pilot studies, the crowdfunding company Kickstarter doesn’t seem to want to go back to the previous formula. “We have clearly seen a much higher level of commitment from our employees – higher than we have ever seen.”explains John Leland, who also cites easier recruitment, and employees are less motivated to look elsewhere.

“The benefits are significant and go beyond the marginal efforts required to make the transition.”Leland notes. However, there are some limitations to this study, Bloomberg notes. The first is that the companies that participated in the study chose to do so, which tends to demonstrate that their leaders have a somewhat positive pre-conceived view of the principle. It’s also fairly small in size, but another, larger one may be involved in the study in the coming months.

The site notes above all that this week is for four days Or their cousins, unlimited vacation. It can be deceiving for employees, who should be authorized and authorize themselves to really cut out their effort when they are supposed to be absent.

The benefits went far beyond the business economy. Employees reported less stress, anxiety and burnout, plus an extra 24 minutes of exercise per week brought them closer to the goal recommended by international health authorities such as the World Health Organization.

The icing on the cake, and not the least: The team behind the study notes that it is very likely that reducing work time will be beneficial to the environment and greenhouse gas emissions, in particular thanks to the mechanical reduction of work-domestic trips (and vice versa), and not necessarily their replacement by other leisure trips. In short: what are we waiting for to try?