CHEMNITZ In the ten-person architectural office of Hirsack & Co. in Chemnitz, eastern Germany, a four-day work week has been implemented since the beginning of February. First, working hours were cut by two hours last summer and another two hours at the end of the year.
Construction designer To Toni Winkler new routines of only a four-day work week have already formed. He is convinced that the five-day work week is a thing of the past and that working hours will be shortened elsewhere in the future.
– When there is more free time, I am able to make better use of it, and I am also more efficient in my work, Winkler explains.
– Some things at work had to be changed and I had to get used to a new kind of rhythm, but overall this is a great thing.
Also Winkler’s boss, CEO of the Hirsack architectural firm Jan Hirsack seems very satisfied.
– We managed to keep all key figures as before during the change, says Hirsack.
The meetings were abandoned
According to Hirsack, mild stress was caused by learning new ways of working and having to give up some things that were previously considered important, such as meetings.
– But productivity has not decreased at all when they were given up, says Hirsack.
According to Hirsack, the four-day work week is best suited to offices and work that is not done in shifts.
– I think that many of our customers have not even noticed that we have switched to shorter working hours.
Like other German companies, Hirsack & Co suffers from a labor shortage. The biggest surprise for Hirsack has been that the shorter work week has not brought more job applications.
The reason for that might be that Chemnitz is an area with a loss of migration, and architects have good negotiating positions at their workplaces in other parts of Germany as well.
A Berliner Jan Bühren is one of the fathers of the German four-day working week experiment. He is responsible for research at the Intraprenör startup, which is running an experiment in cooperation with the University of Münster.
The four-day work week is expected to help, among other things, with Germany’s labor shortage.
– But whether it helps, it will become clear at the end of the experiment.
According to Bühren, shortened working weeks in, for example, the United States, Australia, Great Britain and Iceland have produced promising results. In general, companies have received more job seekers and the well-being of employees has improved, while productivity has remained at least the same.
– More and more people are burning out in working life in Germany as well. This can be a way to keep people working longer, and thereby ease the labor shortage.
Working hours shorter than the traditional 40-hour or five-day work week are already in use in several countries in Europe.
Suitable for modern work
– We have a big shortage of skilled labor in Germany. Due to the age structure, it only gets worse. With modern means, the problem cannot be solved, so a four-day work week can be one solution, says Bühren.
Even the transition from a six-day work week to a five-day one improved productivity in the 1960s. That’s why, in Bühren’s opinion, a four-day work week can be well suited to the modern work of some workplaces, which has already changed due to the corona pandemic.
– The companies participating in the experiment can compare their operations with others and find out where there is still room for improvement in productivity. Paradoxically, such productivity pits can be overcome precisely by shortening working hours.
Bühren believes that shortened working hours are also suitable for other than office work.
– The experiment includes, among others, a bakery and a company that manufactures slats for windows. Everyone should at least think about what the effects could be.
Results at the end of the year
The results of the German experiment will be available at the end of the year – but already many participating companies say they intend to continue the four-day work week.
According to Bühren, the effects and consequences are thoroughly investigated at the University of Münster, and the results are also reported honestly.
– If the reduced working time does not work somewhere, it is important to communicate about it so that ideas can be further developed.
Bühren emphasizes that even the organizers of the experiment consider the four-day week to be only one of the options available in the reorganization of working life.
– We are not saying that the four-day week is the solution to everything, it is just one option. But it’s not worth knocking the idea out of feeling dumb or out of old habit, says Bühren.
In Finland, the political decision-makers have reacted to the 4-day work week in a cautious manner.
When the recent Minister of Transport and Communications Sanna Marin (sd.) proposed it five years ago, the current Minister of Labour Arto Satonen (co.) found the idea completely unrealistic In the evening newspaper.
Finnish financial experts also rejected the idea when it was fresh.