In a recent article by Ananya Bhattacharya, the concept of a 6 hour work day in Sweden is brought up. I found this is a fascinating idea from both an employee prospective, and a managerial one as well. For managers, this can be thought of as a negative because it means getting less production out of their workers. It may in fact have the opposite effect, as employees will feel less fatigued at work and thus improving their productivity.
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Knowing that their work day isn’t as long and daunting can boost the morale of individual employees and have a great effect on a company’s performance overall. For fulltime employees, reducing the work from 40 hours to 30 would be desirable because it means they get to go home to their personal lives sooner and have more time to take care of themselves. In theory this means an employee can be productive in their time at the office. It extends beyond more personal time however, as a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found longer work weeks were linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease.
It seems like changing to a shorter work week would have great benefits for a while, but in my opinion these benefits would not last long. Once an employee became accustom to a 6 hour work day it loses its novelty. Then it becomes just like any other day and an employee is likely to lose that efficiency gained from a shorter work day. It might be worth trying 3 to 4 days of the week as a typical 8 hour day, with the rest being shortened and see how productivity changes over time.
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