The Icelandic government drew a line under the largest experiment on the planet to introduce a four-day working week. They came to the conclusion that reducing the amount of time at work does not lead to a loss of productivity, but, on the contrary, contributes to an increase in returns and makes workers happier.
The results of two tests, during which working hours were reduced, did not cause a decrease in productivity or quality of service, and workers noted a balance between work and recreational activities, according to the authors of the report of the English analytics center "Autonomy" and the Association for Sustainable Democracy of Iceland.
Other approaches
Reducing the number of hours while maintaining the same efficiency and quality required a change in the approaches and methodology of work - meetings were reduced and replaced by correspondence by e-mail or communication via video link, for example.
A number of employees started working earlier or later, as needed. In kindergartens, for example, some employees went home before the children - this was done on a first-come, first-served basis. In office buildings, coffee breaks were canceled, because they were no longer necessary.
In total, this study took five years. As a result, it was possible to reduce the number of hours in the working week from 40 to 35. More than 2500 employees participated in this. Surveys of the subjects showed that their well-being has increased.
At the same time, everything was not limited to the experiment - more than 85% of the workers of this Scandinavian republic have either already transferred to short days or are negotiating about it. And the reduction of the shift encourages to optimize the labor process. All this happened not without the help of trade union organizations, which achieved better conditions or the right to reduce hours for most sectors of the economy.
The subjects are engaged in various fields - from orphanages and schools to the police and state authorities and local self-government. True, unevenly - most of them are still employees or service workers.
True, they have much to strive for - the mandatory number of hours in the working week remains at the same level - 40. While in the Danish kingdom there are three fewer, and in Finland and Norway - by two and a half, that is, 37 hours and thirty minutes a week.
First there was a word
The experience was a consequence of a massive socio-political campaign carried out by trade union organizations, liberal and pirate political parties: they conducted mass agitation, noting that Iceland lags behind its neighbors in Scandinavia in terms of balancing the interests of the employer and the employee.
According to the organizers, such results indicate the incorrectness of the stereotype that the reduction of hours only entails an increase in the burden on workers and overtime - if only not to reduce productivity.
European specialists working under the Socialist International agree that a long working week does not equal high-performance labor. In the XIX century, the "day" of the worker lasted for 50-60 hours (per week, of course), but this was accompanied by low mechanization, high injuries in the workplace and a number of other misfortunes - and as the number and quality of the machines used increased, the day decreased, and the effectiveness only grew.
In fact, this is not a Labour or socialist issue – it is, as Yabloko founder Grigory Yavlinsky said during his election campaign in 2018, a question of respect for a person. It's time to stop considering the employee as a ploughing living machine or combine harvester - everyone has desires and aspirations, hobbies and dreams, family and friends.
According to the BBC, the Icelandic experiment is not unique, this kind of trend is taking place in other countries – the Spaniards, for example, transferred a certain part of state-owned companies and enterprises with the participation of the government for a four-day week in the face of a new coronavirus infection, and the New Zealand divisions of the company "Mars" give employees to reduce time at work by 20% on the previous terms of payment.
