No.There is no doubt now that the world of work is evolving towards alternative methods tested during Covid. Now, however, the demand for flexibility it has now become too much felt by the workers and the discussion is becoming stronger than ever.
Short week: the request is pressing
The need for employees to have greater hourly autonomy is revolutionizing the concept of employment as it was conceived until before the pandemic.
Unfortunately, not all governments are ready to regulate the issue and not all companies are keen to allow work from home. It must be said, however, that where it has been tested, the results have been very good.
And the satisfaction did not emerge only from employees, as was foreseeable, moreover. But also by companies.
The pilot project in the UK works
Not only workers like the short week, but companies like it too. For now, however, only to that of the United Kingdom (Getty Photo)
We are talking about the UK where, in June, 73 companies tried to introduce the reduction of the working week to four dayswithout a decrease in salary.
And the real news, like written by The Economic Times, is that most businesses are considering the idea of extend the experiment for another six months, not having found any drop in productivity. For some it was even the opposite, or they reported improved results.
The future looks to the short week
The reduced working week is not a new topic, it’s new only because it’s being talked about a little more seriously nowwhereas before it remained confined to the dreams of the workers.
The pandemic has forcibly changed customs and habits and brought it smartworking, agile work, work from homeor as you prefer, to materialize on a large scale.
The quality of work is not measured in hours
As he explains to the NYT Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, a non-profit group that is conducting the study, this happened because the pandemic began to make it clear that the quality of work is not measured solely by the number of hours spent at the desk.
With remote work, in fact, you can get the same quality thanks to greater employee peace of mind. Which, finally, with the short week can spend more time with their family or to your own interests.
Satisfied companies want to continue the experiment
Among the testimonies of the companies that participated in the pilot program, many admit that it is still early days to say whether or not the shortened workweek is actually affecting the productivity or profits of the company. It is certain, however, that several are thinking of extending the experiment.
But there is no shortage of skeptics
The pilot project in Great Britain is one of the largest studies conducted to date in the country and the workers who are participating are more than 3,300.
Clearly not everyone agrees and there are those who believe that this way of working cannot work for long. In Europe, and in Italy, there are many skeptics and in fact smartworking continues groping and very slowly.
That said, there is no doubt that the pandemic has changed work priorities forever, just look at the phenomenon of mass resignationsand this is a fact that sooner or later all companies will have to deal with and to which they will have to give adequate answers.
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