Working time is less?

There are two types to get out of the economic crisis Roads. The first is to work harder to make companies big or small. Thousands of people are waiting for businesses to revitalize getting a job Official.

The second way is to work less, because if the pandemic leads us to something, it’s to think about Camino The world the world is following, focuses heavily on consumption Production On a large scale, in planet looting and its consequences for climate change. Confinement and remote work helped estimate time with family and friends, which should ultimately matter.

The convenience of working more or less hours has generated controversy in the world Politician s Action For several years, but now it’s critical because of the pandemic’s effects at work.

Since the end of last year, in Political agenda In European countries, the task of rethinking work patterns has been included. United kingdomFormer British Foreign Secretary John McDonnell and a group of left-wing politicians and union leaders from Europe said Germany, Spain and other countries should adopt a four-day week to help their economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

A four-day week would help deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic, according to a letter sent to Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and other leaders, according to Diario GuardianLast November.

This document highlights the long history of workers agreeing to cut hours to save jobs, but also the “opportunity” to rethink work patterns and help reduce energy use, which could help address the current climate crisis.

John McDonnell This proposal was previously launched in September 2019, at the annual conference of labor Party. We must work to live, not to live to work. As society gets richer, we can spend fewer hours working. ”

In addition, “shorter working hours have been used in times of economic crises and recessions as a way to more equitably share work across the economy between the unemployed and increased employment,” the group writes.

Proponents believe it is time to seize the opportunity and “move towards shorter working hours without lost wages.”

The proposed four-day week has sparked interest in a small but growing number of companies, who believe it increases productivity and improves employee mental health. Workers.

This has been proven by the tech giant Microsoft in JapanHe launched a project called Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019. In August of that year, his 2,300 employees gave five consecutive Fridays without cutting their salaries. The company has also placed a limit on the length of meetings – a maximum of 30 minutes – and employees are encouraged to take it “online” rather than in person. The result was a sales increase of nearly 40% that month.

Previous experiment was done by a New Zealand company Permanent guardianA consultant for family wealth regulation and financial investment issues that implemented the four-day work week in 2018. I got Three positive results: the number of employees satisfied with work-life balance increased by 24%, job stress decreased by 7%, and job satisfaction increased by 5%.

Encouraged by this background, the multinational company Unilever stated last December that it has started a project in New Zealand Reducing the work week to four days without cutting employee salaries. The plan will last for one year, with 81 employees in the company. “Old business methods are out of date,” said Nick Bangs, managing director of the company Unilever New Zealand. In this country, Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern is pressing for more flexible ways to act in this pandemic.

One skeptic of these proposals is economic historian Robert Skidelsky, who believes that imposing a four-day work week is “neither realistic nor desirable”. In a report published in September 2020 on Britain’s Labor proposal, Skidelsky indicated that such policies would not be successful. He cited the example of France, which introduced a weekly work limit of 35 hours in 1998. “The evidence is that after a brief effect, French legislation has become largely ineffective through the accumulation of exceptions and loopholes.

David Spencer Economics professor At the University of Leeds in England, it is believed that the proposed four-day work week could work across sectors. However, it does require workers to have the necessary bargaining power, which means strengthening unions. It is also essential to convince companies of the economic benefits of a shorter week and stop accepting that longer working hours are normal.

In the end, what is being discussed is a new economy and a new way of living.