One of the first reactions from many employers when confronted with various work-life-balance proposals is a fear of lost productivity. “If we let people work remotely, they’ll slack off,” employers worry. “If we implement a right-to-disconnect policy, we’ll start falling behind.”
These apprehensions are understandable, but they tend to take an overly simplistic view of the relationship between time worked and productivity. It’s not necessarily the case that working less means less productivity, because working too much can make employees burnt out, disengaged and actually less productive. And recent, real-world data seems to bear that out.
“Iceland’s economy is outperforming most European peers after the nationwide introduction of a shorter working week with no loss in pay, according to research released Friday,” reports Olesya Dmitracova in an article for CNN. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of workers in Iceland had opted for fewer work hours, including four-day work weeks. That number is likely to be even higher today.
“Last year, Iceland logged faster economic growth than most European countries and its unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Europe, noted the Autonomy Institute in the United Kingdom and Iceland’s Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Alda),” Dmitracova writes.
Of course, it’s impossible to say whether and to what extent Iceland’s four-day workweek experiment led to its impressive economic performance. But the fact that the country’s economy outpaced those of similar nations without a short work week at least provides evidence contradicting those who would argue such a plan would reduce overall productivity.
Iceland’s experiment with a four-day work week is still in its early years, and more time (and data) are needed to get a fuller picture of the impacts of the policy. However, the initial results provide additional support to the notion that less time working doesn’t necessarily equate to less work or worse work.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Adivsor.
The post Iceland Sees Success with Four-Day Workweek appeared first on HR Daily Advisor.
