The four-day work week is gaining momentum across Central and Eastern Europe
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After the Covid-19 pandemic shattered the status quo in the planet of work, Central and Jap Europe is a lot more open up than ever to the notion of a 4-working day perform week.
The Czech promoting business bnt.agency has been on a four-working day routine for more than two decades, and has reported increased efficiency throughout the board.
This is in line with the conclusions of numerous organisations close to the environment – as perfectly as some governments – which have preferred to chop a workday from the calendar but retain the very same workload and the same pay back.
Proponents of the plan claim that a shortened doing the job week leads to better worker productivity, greater overall morale and a much healthier do the job-lifetime stability.
A immediate improve in remote get the job done during the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a society shift towards versatile preparations, in the approach also reigniting the dialogue all over compressing the operating week to just four times.
And however, there are some who think that the remedy performs to the aggressive drawback of organizations, which grow to be considerably less offered for their consumers. Some workers may also sense compelled to cram more work into a tighter plan, which can be specially nerve-racking if they are currently working at complete tilt.
Smarter function
According to Jan Jelínek, founder and imaginative director at the Prague-centered advertisement agency bnt.agency, the company’s all round productivity has risen by 60 for each cent subsequent the introduction of the four-day plan, though earnings for each personnel has improved by 18 per cent.
At the identical time, the charge of operating the company has dropped by 14 for each cent and the time used in meetings has diminished by 17 for each cent.
“We are super content about the 4-day week,” Jelínek tells Emerging Europe. “On major of all the business enterprise matters, it has experienced a positive effects on our mental wellbeing as very well as our lives in general.”
“We released the shortened performing week due to the fact we thought that if we experienced additional time for ourselves and for our beloved types, we would be happier and hence extra successful.”
Jelínek, however, is also rapid to stage out that it’s not all roses, and that the compressed week leaves employees with no space for excuses or missed deadlines.
“We have to be incredibly disciplined throughout the 7 days in order to deliver our do the job on time. This increases the pressure on everyone in the company,” Jelínek claims, incorporating that it all comes down to placing in the hard work where by it counts.
“The entire point is to perform smarter, not significantly less. If you get the job done smarter, you can finally operate less. And if you just work less, you simply do much less get the job done,” Jelínek points out.
In accordance to Jeremie Bertolino, bnt.agency’s CEO, the company also released the four-day get the job done 7 days to motivate other companies to do likewise.
“We wanted to inspire other companies to challenge the century-outdated operating sample. The world now has obtain to enough understanding and systems to function in accordance to a distinct, extra up-to-day rhythm,” Bertolino tells us.
Authorised by the trade unions
In other places in emerging Europe, providers switching to a 4-working day 7 days are even now several and considerably between, but trade unions from throughout the area have been advocating a extra widespread implementation of the concept.
“The Polish workforce is 1 of the most overworked between all OECD member states, and so naturally we aid all trends that would result in reducing the performing time in Poland,” suggests Piotr Ostrowski, vice-chairman of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions.
“A shorter performing 7 days does not lessen efficiency. On the opposite, a nicely-rested worker is considerably much more artistic and inspired. He or she is also a great deal a lot less probable to have an incident at function,” Ostrowski tells us.
Marek Lewandowski, push secretary at Solidarity, Poland’s best-recognised trade union, statements that technological development is an additional argument in favour of the four-day week.
“Given our ageing societies as perfectly as our growing reliance on technologies these as artificial intelligence or robots in production, the have to have for human function is extra than most likely to minimize over time,” Lewandowski says.
“But somewhat than vacation resort to any blanket methods, we should to think about every and each and every marketplace independently. The very best way to influence a beneficial transform in this regard is by a mutual dialogue amongst staff and businesses,” Lewandowski tells Rising Europe.
However do the job to be performed
According to Karolina Jurczak, occupation current market pro at HR consulting organization Sedlak & Sedlak, the key matter is to equilibrium the trend with the requirements of nearby economies.
“In spite of all the rewards of the scheme, a shortened doing the job week could have adverse consequences on the effectiveness of operate in some places, and that could guide to a fall in GDP,” Jurczak tells Emerging Europe. “It’s absolutely essential that we strike the appropriate harmony concerning this initiative and the properly-getting of our financial state.”
In a the latest report on the 4-working day perform week agenda, British multinational HR firm Hays Poland stated that broad-scale acceptance of the compressed operate 7 days in Poland was even now a somewhat distant prospect.
“A shorter get the job done 7 days could carry about greater worker productivity,” Aleksandra Tyszkiewicz, govt director at Hays Poland, states in the report. “And but, it is nonetheless not doable for all organizations in Poland to implement a 4-working day perform 7 days in the foreseeable potential.”
“This pertains specially to all workplaces where by continuity is paramount, these as healthcare facilities or logistics. Extra often than not, to be capable to shorten the function 7 days in these sites, companies would want to make profound organisational improvements and retain the services of extra men and women,” Tyszkiewicz concludes.
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