Lithuania considers a shorter work week
As discussions about shortening the working week take hold in Lithuania, firms in different fields and various countries take diverging stances. Among workers themselves, however, the idea is gaining in popularity, according to trade unions.
Social democratic MP’s have proposed a 4-day working week scheme to initially be implemented for professions that work under huge psychological stress, such as medical staff and social workers. Some businesses have been experimenting on their own. Lašų duona, a bakery based in Rokiškis, implemented the four-day working week two years ago. Their employees work eight hours a day, four days a week, with no decrease in pay. The company was looking for a way to increase efficiency, while also ensuring that their employees had more free time.
Businesses in other fields express scepticism about shortening the work week. Work is intense for accountants, according to Šarūnas Brazdžius, head of Financial and Business Advisory at Grant Thornton Baltic, and they barely manage to complete their tasks during regular working hours. For those in consulting, being close to clients is extremely important, so a four-day work week is more difficult to imagine.
Five years ago, only about one in ten workers said they favoured shortening the working week, while one in four disapproved of it. Today, moods may be different, say trade unions. People need more time to rest after work that seems to be getting more and more intense. Inga Ruginienė, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation says research shows that an employee with more time to rest is more efficient, can complete more tasks. Psychologist Visvaldas Legkauskas believes that longer weekends would even help the economy. Shorter work weeks lead to longer life expectancy, because lighter workloads mean less stress. It is also good for the economy, as people have more time to spend money.
According to the CBC, while the compressed work week is not a new concept, it has been given some renewed attention since COVID-19 changed the way people work. For many, that includes more flexible hours and working from home.
The idea of a four-day work week gained traction after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern commented that it certainly would help domestic tourism, as more flexible working arrangements could allow New Zealanders to travel more within their own country.
However, some experts and researchers suggest employers should consider another type of four-day work week, one that allows employees to work fewer hours and get paid their same weekly salary. That structure, they said, would not only improve a work-life balance, but boost productivity among employees. The happy, productive worker hypothesis states that the happier people are, the more productive they are.
But paying workers the same amount for fewer hours could be a difficult and counterintuitive concept for employers to embrace. The benefits an employer would see from such a work structure, including a boost in employees’ health and well-being, wouldn’t be immediate.
Some companies have implemented this type of work structure and say they have recorded some positive results. Last year, Microsoft Japan went to a four-day work week, closing its offices every Friday in August, while paying their employees the same as if they had worked the full five days. The company said that as a result, labour productivity rose by nearly 40% compared to August 2018.
Last year, the U.K.-based University of Readings Henley Business School surveyed 505 business leaders and more than 2,000 employees across the country, including over 250 businesses that currently operate with a four-day working week. The results were preliminary, but they did reveal some interesting trends.
Of those businesses that adopted a four-day working week, nearly two-thirds reported improvements in staff productivity. And more than three quarters of staff working in that environment reported they were happier, less stressed and took fewer days off.
Researcher Thomas Roulet notes that the main fallacy on longer work week is to assume a linear relationship between the amount of time worked and the productivity of an employee. In his opinion, an employee can do more in four days than in five, if she/he is more focused, in better shape mentally and physically. He said it’s very likely that the COVID-19 crisis will accelerate the move to a shorter or more flexible work week, enabled by more people working remotely.
Whether it be a compressed work week or a work week with fewer hours, experts agree that both have potential drawbacks. Chris Higgins, professor emeritus at Western University’s Ivey Business School, said studies have shown that a compressed four-day work week, while popular with employees, leads to a decrease in productivity when it comes to blue-collar jobs. Also, longer shifts could negatively impact an employee’s time after work, leaving them less time to engage in extracurricular activities or spend time with their families.
As for the four-day work week with fewer hours, the Henley Business School survey found that staffing and scheduling could be a major issue, particularly if an employer needs something from an employee on a Friday and that employee doesn’t work that day.
London-based Wellcome Trust, the world’s second-biggest research donor, ended a four-day week for 800 of its head office staff, finding it was “too operationally complex to implement.” In the U.S., Treehouse, a large tech HR firm that implemented a four-day week in 2016, reverted back to five days, saying it felt it had failed to keep up with competition, the research found. Some business groups have warned such a structure could increase the cost of labour.
“The move from five to four days a week is not adapted to all occupations, tasks and jobs — it’s basically useful to non-routine, social and high-value tasks that will benefit from healthier, more balanced and more focused employees,” Roulet said.
With news from LRT.lt and CBC
