発展ビジネス・経済

Rethinking the Working Week

📄 本文

下線の語句をクリックすると意味が表示され、収録語はワンクリックでマイ単語帳に登録できます。

The idea that people should work five days and for two is more than many . In the nineteenth century, six-day weeks were normal in factories, and Sunday was the only day off. Owners generally believed that longer hours meant more . In 1926, the Ford Motor Company in the United States moved to five days without cutting pay, arguing that rested workers made fewer mistakes and that people with free time would buy more . Other companies followed, and within a few decades the five-day week had become in much of the world. , some governments and companies have begun asking whether four days might work just as well. Between 2015 and 2019, a large number of employees in Iceland worked shorter hours for the same pay while researchers watched. In 2022, about sixty British companies ran a for six months. In both cases, most workplaces reported that the amount of work completed stayed the same or rose , and all of the British companies decided to afterward. Researchers several explanations. When time is short, meetings are cut or made shorter, and tasks that bring little are dropped. Workers who know they have a free day plan their week more carefully. Sleep improves, and fewer people take days off because of . Some managers also noticed that it became easier to people, since a shorter week attracted applicants who would otherwise have chosen a company offering higher pay. In the Icelandic study, workers reported that they had more time for housework and for their families. Not every job suits this . In hospitals, shops, and factories, the work does not when the office lights go out, and covering four-day weeks may mean hiring more . Critics also that some employees end up doing five days of work in four and taking the home with them. Others out that most trials have been short and voluntary, and that companies willing to test the idea may not be of employers in . A few workplaces have already gone back to five days after finding the change harder than they expected.