Sweden to work 6 hours – hopes to make people happy
Sweden will soon have a 6-hour workday in the hope to make people happier as well as to increase productivity.
The aim is to get more work done in a shorter amount of time and ensure people had the energy to enjoy their private lives.
Toyota centres in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city, had made the switch 13 years ago, with the company reporting happier staff, a lower turnover rate, and an increase in profits at that time.
Filimundus, an app developer based in the capital Stockholm, introduced the six-hour work day last year. ‘To stay focused on a specific task for eight hours is a challenge. In order to cope, we mix in things and pauses to make the day more endurable. At the same time, we are having it hard to manage our private life outside of work,’ said Linus Feldt, CEO, Filimundus.
Feldt further said the staff are not allowed on social media, meetings are kept to a minimum and other distractions during the day are eliminated – but the aim is that the staff will be more motivated to work more intensely while in the office.
‘It will be easier to focus more intensely on the work that needs to be done and you have the stamina to do it and still have the energy left when leaving office,’ Feldt said.
Doctors and nurses in some hospitals have also switched over to the six-hour day schedule.
Meanwhile, a retirement home in Gothenburg that made the six-hour switch this year and is conducting an experiment to determine if the cost of hiring new staff to cover the hours lost is worth the improvements to patient care and boosting of employees’ morale.
