For many of us, it seems that the 40-hour workweek is inevitable. The standard eight-hour workday is so ingrained in our culture that we have developed a “nine-to-five” mentality. However, is 40 hours truly the magic number for optimal productivity in the workplace?
The government of Gothenburg, Sweden is challenging the idea of the standard 40-hour workweek. In an ongoing study, researchers selected a retirement home to test-drive a new six-hour workday/30-hour workweek. For the duration of the study, the nursing staff switched to a six-hour day while maintaining their full-time salary. From an employee perspective, the results may be as you expected: so far, the nurses have reported feeling more alert and having more energy for both their work and personal lives. In turn, residents have reported a better quality of care.
For the employer, however, the six-hour workday didn’t come cheap. Since patients require round-the-clock care, cutting the standard nursing shift to six hours involved hiring a full shift of new workers to cover the remaining six hours in the day. What the researchers are hoping, however, is that the company will actually save money in the long run by reducing sick days. This factor is particularly relevant for the argument towards shorter workdays in fields like nursing, where physical and mental burnout are statistically high. With regards to other sectors, proponents of a shorter workday argue that decreasing working hours increases employee productivity, thus increasing the company’s revenue in the long-term. The idea of shorter workdays makes sense on paper, but it’s difficult for researchers to quantify productivity. Observing an increased output in a manufacturing facility is relatively easy to measure, while measuring the quality of work in a service environment is more difficult to quantify. From a purely economic viewpoint, the employer needs to know if the increase in productivity offsets the increased cost of labour.
On the other hand, certain cities already implement a novel work schedule: the 10-hour, four-day workweek. In 2008, Utah became the first state to actually mandate this schedule for all government employees. Originally, the change in schedule was intended to reduce energy consumption in office buildings by only using them four days per week. Eventually, the plan was scrapped when the new schedule did not save as much energy as expected; however, the change did produce unexpected benefits, most notably, a significant decrease in an employee’s leave time.
If I’ve learned anything in university, it’s that the amount of time I spend studying is not nearly as important as the quality of my study time. And yet, we live in a culture where the value of our work ethic is measured by the amount of time we spend studying or working. I think it’s time to remind ourselves of the old adage “quality over quantity” and push for a healthier work-life balance.
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The Ontarion publishes independent, student-produced news, opinion, and commentary for University of Guelph students so that they can make informed decisions in their lives. To do this, The Ontarion provides learning opportunities and training in journalism, media production, leadership, board governance, and other aspects of nonprofit news.
The Ontarion is the University of Guelph’s independent student newspaper. It began in 1951 as part of the Ontario Agricultural College and then began to represent the entire University of Guelph once it amalgamated in 1964. The Ontarion incorporated in May 1970 as The Ontarion, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation registered with the province of Ontario.