Currently, there are already 30 companies that have joined the initiative, resulting in more productivity and happiness for the workers.
Between 2015 and 2019, the Municipality of Reykjavik and the Icelandic government teamed up with labor unions to test work weeks with fewer hours (and days) and the success was really resounding. The mental sanity of the employees improved and the productivity of the companies increased. Other countries, such as Spain and Scotland, are starting to do the same in January. According to NiT, the latest to join the initiative, however, is the UK, where 30 companies have implemented these shorter work weeks.
The trial, which will last six months, will split the 35 hours of mandatory work over four days instead of five. Participants claim that it will enable a better work-life balance. On the other hand, critics of the study say that the fact that the work is more condensed may cause a greater amount of stress.
One of the main goals of the experiment - organized by the 4 Day Week Campaign, the British think tank Autonomy, and researchers from Oxford, Boston, and Cambridge Universities - is to find out whether it is possible for employees to operate at 100 percent with less time on their hands.
Joe O'Connor, the manager of this pilot program, says in a British press release that 2022 "will be the year that travels into a bold working future." He adds, "More and more businesses are betting on productivity-focused strategies that allow them to reduce workers' hours without lowering their pay."
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, tells Bloomberg that "companies moving to four-day weeks is a win-win situation. He adds that "studies have already proven that productivity increases according to employee well-being."
The first country to create headlines around the world for implementing shorter work weeks was Iceland. "The results are immensely positive. Workers in different areas of the public sector are very happy with the new work-life balance, spending more time with their families, doing more extracurricular activities - like cycling, having new hobbies, and so on," reveals researcher Will Stronge, the co-director of Autonomy, to media such as the "BBC" and "CBC".
The improvements were not only felt by the workers. The bosses have also benefited, as they claim to have higher productivity. According to Stronge, this is because employees were less susceptible to having work-related problems such as stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression.
Similar trials will begin this year in Canada and Australia. The United States, too, has already put this proposal on the table.
In December, a group of Democrats sitting in Congress introduced a bill that aimed to lower the weekly 40-hour work week to 32 - that is, one less day. If the measure is passed, employers would have to pay overtime to anyone who exceeded this mandatory schedule.
"It is past time that we finally put people and communities above corporations and their profits - prioritizing health, welfare, and basic human dignity for the entire working class," said Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, in Congress.
In fact, there is already one US company where smaller weeks have been normalized since the fall of 2021. It's called Bolt, and it works with online commerce. Ryan Breslow, the CEO, told "CNBC" that his employees are happier, more efficient and more productive. "I couldn't see myself running a firm any other way," he says.
The benefits of this work approach are beginning to accrue, with a report by a British platform, published in May last year, stating that four-day work weeks could reduce the territory's carbon footprint.
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