For those who don’t decide their own working hours, a trial of four-day workweeks of 35-hour work weekly without a drop in pay among 2500 workers in Iceland has shown the old schedule may truly not be the most productive form of labor (劳动). The report, conducted by the research organization Autonomy and the Association for Sustainability and Democracy, found that negative markers like burnout (过度劳累), stress, necessary overtime, and disconnection with friends and family all went down, as would be expected, but that productivity remained at worst unchanged, and often improved in those working shorter hours.
The trials were such a success that following their conclusion in 2019,Mass renegotiation (重新协商)by labor unions means that 86% of Icelanders are now working non-traditional workweeks which could include 5-to-6-hour working days or four-day working weeks.
“This study shows that the world’s largest-ever trial of a shorter working week was a success,” said Will Stronge, director of Autonomy.
The main argument is that “burnout” depletes the ability of workers to be productive. A lack of production will sometimes result in a demand for overtime, especially by managers, further increasing burnout and decreasing productivity. In those who cannot afford to be less productive, like nurses for example, burnout simply results in negative health outcomes.
Hoping to see if they could replicate (复制)the productivity gains in other countries, the Reykjavid City Council started this trial, mostly at public offices, but also in private firms, to measure performance and worker well-being for four years.
Compared with non-participating firms or offices, productivity remained the same or increased in those participating, but it wasn’t free. Instead, as necessity is the mother of invention, a sort of mass re-imagining of operations was needed to achieve production or service goals with the reduced hours. This involved,as the report details, the shortening or early ending of meetings, and often a total reorganization of work processes to find where problems could be removed.
【小题1】What does Autonomy’s report show?| A．Four-day workweeks are most productive. |
| B．Reducing regular work hours has many benefits. |
| C．Stress has no connection with working hours. |
| D．Workers should be flexible about their working hours. |
| A．They felt sad for most Icelanders. |
| B．They became worried about workers’ productivity. |
| C．They knew it was time for a change. |
| D．They decided to encourage hard work. |
| A．reduces | B．shows | C．loses | D．approves |
| A．it’s not really worth trying for many companies. |
| B．It is necessary to make some changes to ensure productivity. |
| C．It costs a lot to re-imagine operations. |
| D．It is very difficult for most companies to change their routine. |
