What if you could work for four days instead of five for the same pay? Just a dream or a feasible idea? A pilot study with 45 companies in Germany has put it to the test, and the results are surprising.
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00:00A four-day working week makes it possible to own a dog and spend time with it.
00:06Yasmin Moradi-Gohar has been working four days a week instead of five for a year now.
00:12Her salary is the same, but she now has Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays off.
00:18Her employer wants to be more attractive to employees.
00:22And it's working.
00:23I've always wanted to have a dog, but thought, okay, can I manage that alongside my job?
00:29But the four-day week has encouraged me to take the risk and give it a go.
00:34Yasmin works for an IT company in Munich.
00:37To ensure that everything is done in four days, Managing Director Martin Farmer has
00:42cut meeting times and introduced so-called focus times, among other things.
00:48These are times when the work should not be disturbed by phone calls, emails or text messages.
00:57The focus time lets you say I'm going to take a two-hour session and concentrate fully
01:02and switch off all other media.
01:04I get almost as much done as I usually do in a whole day when I'm being disturbed all
01:08the time.
01:11Yasmin is responsible for the staff.
01:14The four-day week is also intended to attract skilled workers.
01:18She advertises the shorter working hours on social media and has seen applications increase.
01:25They find it very exciting that we really want to get involved and that we're trying
01:30it out and also open to these new working models.
01:34The feedback is always positive.
01:36Of course, some people are still a little sceptical as to whether it will really work
01:40for them.
01:41But they're actually pleased that we want to go down this path.
01:47About 400 kilometers further north of the central German city of Weimar, window manufacturer
01:52Eurolarm also tried out a four-day week.
01:56Unlike in Munich, the daily working hours were increased from eight to nine.
02:01The trial was not a success.
02:03The company is now working five days again.
02:06Window manufacturer Christ Westphal is disappointed.
02:09He would have liked to keep his Fridays off work.
02:15I could just do things with my family on that day or I could do household chores and I also
02:20scheduled all my appointments like doctor's appointments on Fridays.
02:26A survey showed that one third of employees were dissatisfied with the four-day week.
02:32Family reasons were cited more than any other.
02:34For Sandra Luzios, head of marketing, the nine-hour working day was too long.
02:42I just don't want to be picking up my children from kindergarten or school at four o'clock.
02:48So I'm glad that we're back to the five-day week.
02:51I finish work here at 2 p.m. again now and have more time with my kids.
02:58Managing director Henning Röper hoped to attract skilled workers for the four-day week.
03:03But customer contact has suffered as a result, partly because the company found it difficult
03:08to respond to spontaneous customer requests.
03:17We've lost flexibility and the flexibility is actually the biggest advantage that small
03:22and medium-sized businesses have.
03:28The Berlin-based management consultancy Intrepreneur teamed up with the University of Münster
03:34to trial the four-day week in 45 companies.
03:39The results were largely positive.
03:4173% of the companies kept the four-day week after the trial ended.
03:49Some companies that are advertising the four-day week are receiving three times as many applications.
03:55That's a large number, especially when there's a shortage of skilled workers.
03:58But there are also other effects.
04:00Employee retention, higher productivity, fewer meetings, more focus on the core business.
04:06All very positive effects.
04:08Employee health and satisfaction have also increased, as in Jasmin's case.
04:13She has more time for her dog and sports.
04:16And with that, one of her employer's goals of retaining skilled workers with the four-day
04:21week has been achieved.