Swedish companies are gradually moving to a 6-hour working day

They also would like to work 6 hours a day.

More and more companies in Sweden are switching from a standard 8-hour working day to a 6-hour one. At the same time, employees and company management do not observe a decrease in work efficiency. In some cases, the company's performance even increases.

An eight-hour working day began to be applied in developed countries at the beginning of the 20th century. In Russia, it was introduced by one of its first decrees by the Bolshevik government:

The working time determined by the internal rules of the enterprise ... must not exceed 8 working hours per day and 48 hours a week, including here the time used to clean the machines and to put the workroom in order.

Now in our country, an 8-hour working day and a 40-hour week are legislatively enshrined in the Labor Code. In the USA, the country of merciless capitalism, there are no such restrictions - at the moment, according to statistics, the average working day is 8.7 hours. Historically, one of the first 8-hour working days was introduced at his enterprises as part of an experiment by Henry Ford .

In Sweden, it is increasingly becoming possible to work for 6 hours.

“It seems to me that an 8-hour work day is not as effective as many people think,” says Linus Feldt, CEO of Filimundus, a mobile app development company. - Focusing on work for eight hours is extremely difficult. I have to interleave the work with something for a change. It becomes difficult to deal with personal life, spend time with family. ”

Filimundus has been working in this mode for a year now. The company only recommends employees not to get involved in social networks and reduce the number of workshops. According to the director, it’s easier for people to work, focus on work in the office, and they still have strength when they go home.

According to the director, the fears about loss of work efficiency with a reduced working day are connected with the erroneous idea that people are able to give all the best for 100% within eight hours.

Moreover, the employees are growing enthusiasm - they do not feel squeezed out by the end of the day, so they are more willing to return to work the next day. They have less conflict at work and generally feel more satisfied with life.

Another tech startup, Brath, has been operating in this mode for three years now. They use this as a competitive advantage for hiring employees. The management is confident that having got a taste and sensing an increase in free time, the employee will no longer be able to exchange work in the company for another.

A similar experiment was carried out even in one of the Swedish state nursing care clinics. The nurses were able to work 6 hours a day, and although salary costs increased, the quality of services improved because they were already not so tired.

“We started to value time more than money,” says the director of Filimundus. - I am sure that a lot of people would choose more free time to the detriment of their salaries. We believe that happy employees are the main thing for the company. If employees are happy, then the company is happy. ”