介绍:
(today/ou)0609
Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, is to begin trials for a year-long, six-hour working day experiment in the civil service, in order to find out if shorter working hours can increase efficiency at the workplace.
In an international productivity ranking by the Conference Board, a non-profit business research organisation, Sweden currently ranks 11th out of 61 countries.
If it proves to be successful with better productivity and fewer sick days for staff, the experiment is set to be repeated across the country.
Comments:
(QD) From The Local - an English-language publication for expats in Sweden, here's Adam,
6-hour workdays for who?? Must be government workers only. This is the reason why business is not attractive in Sweden. Why would I open a business in Sweden when I must have lazy people working for me for only 6 hours for a full day's pay? No wonder so many Swedish companies are going out of business or being bought by US or China firms.
(BL) Replying to Adam, here's Desdemona's bane in The Local.se
Swedes have a reputation for showing up right on time, leaving the moment the clock strikes 4.30pm….and getting every task done well during that time. They know how to focus on work during working hours and how to focus on family the rest of the time. Theoretically, a good work-life balance would result in higher quality results in a six-hour day than the traditional eight-hour day - leaving time for the family. I feel rather confident that Scandinavian workers can pull this off.
(ZL) on Facebook, here's Annabelle Aispuro
I WISH I could only work for 6 hours. Even with the "flex hours" I am privileged to utilise, I still have to fit in 40 hours a week, somewhere. I think that's too much.
My work does not take 40 hours to complete. In a day, I usually get my stuff done in about 4 hours, but it depends on how much work is given to me.
(BL) From an American perspective, here's a commenter in yahoo:
Industrial engineers have known for 70 years that in a production environment, a six-hour day with one 15 minute break is just as efficient as an 8 hour day with a morning break, lunch break and an afternoon break.
The worker has to be trained well and the workstation has to designed for efficiency. But as far as production and quality, it is the same. The problem is that people want to work per hour, so more hours equal more pay. If a person's pay was a set amount...like per week or month then I would bet that most manufacturing plants would see no change in output for a six hour day.
The American work force is stuck with 1950s thinking and management is too lazy to change.
Notes:
City councillor Mats Pilhem of the Left Party is convinced that all of Sweden is headed towards a shorter work day.
"People have long work lives, and it's necessary to think of ways to create a more humane environment for them in the workplace," he said.
Critics like Timbro's Sahlen warn the maths do not add up in terms of the wider economy, saying it would be far too expensive to make a large part of the labour force work 25 percent less -- for the same pay.
"I think it's a crazy idea and I don't think it's going to be reality either," she said.
Opponents say shorter workweeks have been experimented across Europe -- 35 hours in France and Germany, an average of 30 hours in the Netherlands -- to mixed economic results.
"It's the kind of populist and socialist policy that's very dangerous for the economy, and we shouldn't go through with it," warned Maria Ryden, a member of Gothenburg city council for the centre-right Moderates, which oppose the plans.
"We're capable of working more."
But proponents of cutting the workday point at short term benefits in the form of fewer sick days, and greater efficiency at work due to fewer breaks.
And they argue greater savings will come in the long run, with a workforce that is less exhausted and therefore more productive as it approaches retirement.
Toyota's Gothenburg branch introduced the six-hour day in 2002 to make its facilities more efficient by having two shifts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, instead of a single, longer one.
Nilsson confirms that in his experience a six-hour day -- paid as much as eight -- is more efficient because it requires fewer breaks.
"Every time you have a break, it takes 10 to 15 minutes to get back to work, because you have to see where you were when you left off," he said.
That efficiency is reflected in the salary, as the Toyota workshop pays technicians like Nilsson 29,700 Swedish kronor (3,300 euro, $4,510) a month, well above the 25,100 kronor (2,790 euro, $3,810) national average for workers in the private sector.
"It was a huge success straight away," said Toyota service centre manager Elisabeth Jonsson.
"We saw the results, and everything was working for the staff, for the company, for the customers, so I don't think we ever had any discussion about putting an end to it."
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(QD) Gregg Weiss on fastcompany.com thinks the internet age is to blame for all the trouble:
In the connected age, it is more about work/life integration than work/life balance. For example, I am home for dinner with my kids every night. That means I turn my laptop on at 9pm after they are in bed, so I can do what I would have done if I stayed later in the office. Balance is difficult when you're always connected. Integration is ok!
(BL) Here's another comment from Yahoo thinks this is all civil service non-sense,
Buried in the proposal is the real reason for this "experiment". The plan is a way to give government workers a 6-hour day for the same pay, the net result of which is a 25% hourly pay increase. The 6 hour day has another problem, the only way to get the same amount of work done (in essential government services like police, emergency services, water and sewer, road maintenance and health care)
