Episode 36: Four days a week

00:00:00: It is January, nineteen fourteen, Detroit, Michigan, in the US.

00:00:05: Two sharply dressed men are holding a press conference.

00:00:09: They are in a huge complex of buildings containing offices and production halls.

00:00:14: One of the men, who is slim, with grey streaked hair parted in the middle, takes the stage.

00:00:21: He announces that he will be paying his employees bonuses worth a total of ten million US dollars this year.

00:00:28: Around thirty thousand workers will benefit from this, but that's not all.

00:00:33: He will also raise the minimum wage to five dollars per hour, which is double what was customary at the time.

00:00:41: These two announcements alone would make national headlines.

00:00:45: However, it is the third announcement that will go down in history.

00:00:49: He is limiting shifts in his factory to eight hours.

00:00:54: At that time, working ten to twelve hours a day was normal.

00:00:58: and for less pay.

00:01:00: While this may sound like a socialist measure for the benefit of the workers, it was in fact a calculated move by Henry Ford, head of the world's largest automobile company at the time.

00:01:14: His idea, if people had more spare time and money, they would spend more, ideally on Ford cars.

00:01:22: Ford also becomes one of the first companies to introduce a five-day working week to his employees.

00:01:29: The rest is history.

00:01:30: The eight-hour model spread worldwide in the following decades, shaping our imagination of what work time should look like until today.

00:01:40: But this model is not set in stone.

00:01:43: Actually, it has started to show some cracks.

00:01:46: This is episode two of a three-part series about working time models.

00:01:52: Hello and welcome to WeWork

00:02:00: Europe, the podcast of the European

00:02:05: Centre

00:02:18: for Worker's Questions.

00:02:19: I work on a rotating shift basis.

00:02:22: This is Jorgos Valases.

00:02:25: He drives a trolleybus through Athens, six days a week, eight hours a day.

00:02:31: Eight hours are already too much, at least in our job.

00:02:35: He has spent many years transporting people through the traffic of Greece's capital.

00:02:41: He claims that he does not take the mandatory twenty to thirty minute break.

00:02:46: The traffic jams and associated delays leave him with no opportunity to do so.

00:02:51: Yorgos Valasis has resigned himself to coming home exhausted.

00:02:56: However, a new law in Greece is worrying him.

00:03:00: Called Fair Work for All, it allows employers in consultation with their employees to impose thirteen-hour working shifts.

00:03:09: The incentive to work longer hours is supposed to come from an increase in the hourly wage.

00:03:14: For the bus driver, however, this is not appealing.

00:03:20: What's the point in having higher income if I can't really enjoy it if I run the risks of accidents?

00:03:26: One aim of the law, which was introduced in October, is to curb undeclared work.

00:03:31: Anyone who had previously been working more than eight hours and risked being caught or fined can now do so legally and pay tax on part of their earnings.

00:03:42: Another aim is to combat labour shortages.

00:03:45: Like many EU countries, Greece faces a demographic challenge and does not have enough skilled workers.

00:03:52: Its response has been to increase working hours.

00:03:55: More money in exchange for more time.

00:03:58: Henry Ford's eight hours don't seem to be enough anymore, at least not in Greece.

00:04:04: Other countries are taking different approaches to a similar problem.

00:04:08: Belgium introduced the legal right to a four-day working week in twenty-twenty-two, making it the first EU country to implement this model in law.

00:04:18: Former Prime Minister Alexander Dekhor had the following intention.

00:04:23: Full-time employees should be allowed to work longer hours per day, so that all the required hours can be worked in four days.

00:04:30: So, in this model, the same weekly working hours were spread over four days instead of five.

00:04:37: Based on the standard forty-hour working week, the daily working time therefore increases to ten hours.

00:04:44: At the time, the law sparked a wave of discussion in Belgium and other EU countries.

00:04:52: More than two years after the law came into force, the results are sobering.

00:04:57: Only naught point eight percent of workers are taking advantage of the model.

00:05:02: And those who are using it tend to work at larger companies with more than two hundred employees.

00:05:08: The reasons for this.

00:05:09: First of all, there is little interest in society.

00:05:12: A company specializing in human resources evaluated the trends.

00:05:17: Almost sixty percent of Belgians disapprove of this model.

00:05:22: Trade unions suggest that childcare is impossible, where this model is used.

00:05:26: There are no nurseries that stay open for twelve hours, which is how long a worker might need to work their shift and commute.

00:05:35: But, according to the study, half of those aged twenty to thirty can imagine working this way.

00:05:42: After that feedback, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, the then Minister of Economy, enabled a pilot study to be conducted at Ghent University.

00:05:51: They were looking for companies who wanted to test the new four-day workweek.

00:05:56: Of the eighteen companies that were initially interested, all but one have dropped out.

00:06:01: As reasons, they stated a lack of support from decision makers within their own companies, concerns about costs, and a very short preparation period.

00:06:11: While interest in the four-day week remains subdued in Belgium, companies in other countries are already reporting back with their initial experiences.

00:06:25: I'm not a missionary.

00:06:28: I can't tell you that you have to do this.

00:06:30: If everyone does it, I won't have any advantage left.

00:06:34: This is Karsten Graf.

00:06:36: He is the CEO of PSD Bank in Germany, where he is responsible for three branches.

00:06:43: Around two years ago, he introduced the four-day week.

00:06:47: Unlike in the Belgian model, his employees work eight hours and forty-five minutes per day.

00:06:58: The trigger was an idea that emerged during our management retreat in December, as we were addressing this issue.

00:07:04: We were looking for solutions to counteract the shortage of skilled workers further down the line, but also to fill long-standing vacancies.

00:07:12: We asked ourselves, what attractive changes can we implement to increase our attractiveness as an employer?

00:07:20: They quickly decide on a four-day week as their working-time model.

00:07:24: After discussing the framework conditions, they came to the conclusion that the four-day week would be mandatory for almost all employees.

00:07:33: The bank will be closed on Fridays, as these days are not busy for customers or sales anyway.

00:07:38: For customers who still need to contact PSD Bank on this day, there will be a call centre available.

00:07:45: Working hours are between six am and ten pm.

00:07:48: holiday entitlement has been adjusted to the new model so that employees are still entitled to six weeks per year.

00:07:56: However, for Castingraph and his team, the transformation also includes offers outside of working hours.

00:08:08: We have developed a completely new approach to leadership.

00:08:12: We have introduced a range of new initiatives for our employees, including health and well-being programs.

00:08:18: These include resilience workshops, stress management techniques and access to gyms at a very reasonable price.

00:08:26: These are just some of the things we have implemented.

00:08:28: In other words, I need an attractive, comprehensive package that encourages employees to perform well while staying healthy.

00:08:39: The employees at Carsten Graf's branches were involved in the transition to the four-day week.

00:08:45: After its introduction, they provided feedback on how it was going.

00:08:49: According to Carsten Graf, the feedback was consistently positive.

00:08:54: This was also true for revenue.

00:08:59: Since then we have had virtually no staff turnover.

00:09:02: The evaluation showed that employees themselves say they feel more productive.

00:09:07: We have also received performance bonuses in areas where we had never received them before.

00:09:12: This also demonstrates the increase in productivity and of course the accompanying halving of sick days.

00:09:19: There is enormous demand for our newly created positions as part of our expansion.

00:09:24: We no longer have any difficulty filling positions.

00:09:27: We now receive five to six times as many applications as before.

00:09:31: We had a record number of applicants for apprenticeships this year.

00:09:35: Receiving over two hundred applications is unprecedented for us.

00:09:40: According to the survey, eighty-five percent of the workforce said they would choose a four-day week again.

00:09:47: Two-thirds said that the model improved their work-life balance and boosted their motivation at work.

00:09:53: However, fifty-seven percent also said that their workload had increased slightly.

00:09:59: Despite the success of the PST Bank model, some politicians in Germany are still calling for longer working hours.

00:10:10: This assumes that work and performance are solely dependent on the amount of time available.

00:10:15: However, there are completely different scientific findings.

00:10:18: These have been around for thirty years.

00:10:21: If you give people work to do and a set amount of time, they will complete it within that time.

00:10:27: Is that really the case?

00:10:28: Is science clear about the impact of working hours on the workers and also on revenue?

00:10:35: Is there a one-for-all solution?

00:10:38: We'll find out in the next episode.

00:10:42: If you like WeWork Europe, do give us a five-star rating and don't forget to subscribe.

00:10:48: Also, If you have any interesting topics or feedback for us, just contact isa.org.

00:10:56: WeWorkEurope is the podcast from Isa, the European Centre for Workers' Questions, which receives financial support from the European Union.

00:11:05: This podcast was narrated by me, Rebecca Sharpe, script and production by Escucha Audio Identity.