Four-day work week becomes trend!
Working four days a week without a reduced salary might be the new trend in the job market. What is the reason? It offers well-being, quality of life and improves employee productivity. There are already companies - in Brazil and in other countries - that have adopted the work model. More and more people choose to work for companies that offer flexibility.
Being a workaholic is a thing of the past. There was a study conducted with 2,500 employees between 2015 and 2019 and was conducted by Reykjavik City Council and the national government. The result is in line with the global survey carried out by the WHO (World Health Organization) in partnership with the ILO (International Labor Organization) in which it shows that excessive working hours are killing thousands of people a year.
Indeed, according to Marta Pimenta de Brito, professor and clinical and work specialist psychologist, there are other advantages such as the reduction of stress, lower risk of burnout and more time to spend with family. ?It also improves sleep patterns and has more time to exercise.
WHAT ABOUT THE DISADVANTAGES?
There is a risk of accumulating hours on working days. For example, if the employee has a high demand for work, it will be very difficult for him/her to adjust to the four-day week. Therefore, it is important to align the professional's workload with the benefit offered. Another point is trying to avoid using the day off to use electronics.
HOW DOES IT WORK IN COMPANIES THAT HAVE ALREADY ADOPTED?
Countries such as New Zealand and Japan study the four-day work week. At Microsoft Japan, the tests were carried out in August 2019. For a month, the company did not work on Fridays. In order not to overload the other days of the week, the meetings were restricted to a maximum duration of 30 minutes. As a result, employee productivity has increased by nearly 40%.
The move took place within a scenario in which Japan has one of the longest working hours in the world. ?By implementing new internal practices to promote professional life choice, we challenge all employees to work in a short time, rest and learn well to further improve productivity and creativity,? the company said in a statement.
In Brazil, the startup Crawly, founded in 2017, was born with a four-day working week. ?When we started, we could not compete in terms of salary with large corporations. So, Friday is a day off and people can deal with personal activities without pressure. Employee feedback has been positive. They say they have a better quality of life.? To avoid the accumulation of work on other days, the teams have daily and weekly meetings in which together they establish demands and priorities.
WHAT DOES BRAZILIAN LEGISLATION SAY?
?According to the legislation, the rule is that the journey is 8 hours a day and 44 hours a week. But nothing prevents it from being smaller than that. The legislation only prevents what is greater, not less?, says Lucas Camargo, senior labor lawyer at Pinheiro Neto.
CAN THEY REDUCE YOUR SALARY?
If the company wants to reduce the salary proportional to the working hours, Camargo says it needs to negotiate with the trade union. ?It is neither advisable nor safe to make individual negotiations?, says the expert.
SHOULD THE REDUCTION BE MADE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES?
No. The company does not need to adopt a four-day work week for all employees. Nothing prevents the company from having specific work rules for different positions. The company just need to be careful since if the employees perform the same function, it cannot release the four-day working week for some of them, and not others. But for different areas and functions it is possible.?
The expert advises that ?the company needs to evaluate well before implementing the benefit, because, if done, it cannot be changed later?. HR has always been an important area in companies. From now on, with people's behavior changing, the introduction of new technologies and the creation of new professions, their role becomes even more relevant.
