The experiment works. At least in Iceland.
The tests with the four-day work week in the small European country were “a resounding success,” researchers said Monday, and is already producing a change in work patterns.
In the experiment, conducted from 2015 to 2019, workers were paid the same for working fewer hours. Y productivity was maintained or improved in most workplaces, the researchers noted.
Other similar experiments are being done in other parts of the world, such as Spain and New Zealand.
In Iceland the pilot was carried out at the City Hall of the capital, Reykjavik, and in positions of the national government, and had the participation of some 2,500 workers, about 1% of the country’s workforce.
Many of them went from a 40-hour week to a 35- or 36-hour week, the British think tank researchers explained. Autonomy and of the Icelandic Association for Sustainable Democracy (Alda).
The experiments led the unions to negotiate new work patterns, and now 86% of the Icelandic workforce has either already decided to work fewer hours for the same pay or will soon have the right to do so.
Workers reported feeling less stressed and with less risk of burnout syndrome O burnout, and indicated that the balance between their private and work life had improved.
Will Stronge, research director at Autonomy, noted that “this study shows that the world’s largest experiment in reducing working hours in the public sector it was, by all parameters, a resounding success. “
