FOUR-DAY WEEK

摘要

"FOUR-day week trial achieves "incredible" 92 per cent success rate, official report shows', ran the headline in People Management.'Major four-day week trial shows most companies see massive staff mental health benefits and profit sic increase', said The Independent newspaper. The full report on the six-month UK trial, run by the UK 4 Day Week Campaign, New Zealand-based 4 Day Week Global and Autonomy Research, gives credence to the headlines: 56 of the 61 firms that took part will maintain a four-day week; revenues were up by 35 on a 'comparable' six-month period; staff turnover fell by 57 and sickness absence dropped by 65, it said. Employees reported fewer sleep difficulties, lower burnout scores, improved job satisfaction, less work-family conflict and higher work ability. The trial, in which workers got an extra day off but received the same pay, was discussed in the UK Parliament even before the results were in. But before you follow the trial organiser's advice to write to your MP - using its template letter - demanding a cut in the working week with no loss of pay, or 'persuade your bosses to launch a trial' some scrutiny is advised. The 61 participating employers had to maintain staff pay at 100, but could use different formulae for reducing working time - eg some closed for one day a week, some staggered the employees' days off across a five-day week, while others reduced hours conditional on meeting performance targets. The employers were not recruited randomly, there were no control groups and participant employees were not representative of the UK workforce (68 had degrees, compared with 42 of the UK labour force, and 62 were female). Employers also paid to take part in the trial; Autonomy confirmed to this journal that participants'paid a suggested donation ranging from ￡3,000-￡10,000, depending on the size of their organisation'. (Organisations participating in 4 Day Week Global trials pay a 'donation' to cover the cost of the programmes, ranging from ￡1,700 for small employers to ￡16,700 for large ones.)