<
https://theconversation.com/15-australian-companies-switched-to-a-four-day-work-week-it-went-surprisingly-well-283361>
"In a 1930 essay, British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that in 100
years time, technological advances would have displaced so much human labour
that people would be working 15-hour weeks – if they worked at all.
Today, 96 years later, that vision hasn’t exactly materialised. In Australia,
research actually suggests we’re regularly doing more than we’re being paid for
– performing an extra 3.6 hours of unpaid work each week on average.
The practical reality of a four-day work week first emerged during the energy
crisis of the 1970s. But the idea gained momentum again when COVID forced a
global rethink of how and where we work.
Now, interest in the idea is growing for other reasons. There have been calls
for people to travel less as the Iran war disrupts fuel supplies. Unions are
pushing for shorter working hours. And just last month, artificial intelligence
(AI) giant OpenAI called for employers to experiment with a four-day work week
as a way to equitably redistribute the productivity gains firms are predicted
to get from AI.
Our new research, published in
Nature’s
Humanities and Social Sciences
Communications journal, explores the practical experiences of 15 Australian
firms that have tried switching to this model.
All but one of them decided to continue with the four-day work week. And none
reported a loss of productivity."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
