New Zealand PM says 4-day workweeks could help rebuild country's economy post covid19

Spaceman Spiff

Well-known member
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-zealand-four-day-workweek-jacinda-ardern/

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a four-day workweek could help rebuild the nation's economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. Ardern floated the idea during a Facebook Live earlier this week.

Speaking Tuesday from Rotorua, a tourist hub in New Zealand, Ardern brought up a flurry of suggestions that could help jumpstart the country's vital tourism industry, including the shorter workweek, which could encourage citizens to travel more.

"I hear lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day week," Ardern said. "Ultimately that really sits between employers and employees. But as I've said there's just so much we've learnt about COVID and that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of that."

"I'd really encourage people to think about that if you're an employer and in a position to do so to think about whether or not that is something that would work for your workplace because it certainly would help tourism all around the country," she added.

Ardern has been praised for her response to the pandemic. New Zealand has had just over 1,500 confirmed cases and 21 deaths in a population of about 5 million. In late April, she announced the country has "won" the battle against widespread community transmission of the coronavirus for the time being.

"There is no widespread, undetected community transmission in New Zealand. We have won that battle," Ardern said on April 27. "But we must remain vigilant if we are to keep it that way."

Microsoft tried the idea of four-day work week last year, before the coronavirus pandemic, with promising results. Productivity rose 40%, according to the software maker. A June 2019 report from the Society for Human Resource Management said 15% of more than 2,700 American companies and organizations surveyed now offer a four-day work week option to employees, up from 12% in 2017.

"While four-day workweeks are still relatively uncommon, organizations that have implemented them report no decreases to productivity or revenue as a result," the report stated.
 
42h9lm.jpg
 
4 jours de 10 heures par semaines
ou 3 jour s de 12 heures une semaines et lautre semaine dapres 4 jours de 12 heures. Moins de traffic, plus de off moins de temps de voyagement par semaines win win
 
4 jours de 10 heures par semaines
ou 3 jour s de 12 heures une semaines et lautre semaine dapres 4 jours de 12 heures. Moins de traffic, plus de off moins de temps de voyagement par semaines win win

J'ai fais des 8h, 10h et 12h. IMO 10 c'est le sweet spot. 12 un moment donné tu check l'horloge et ça feel comme si t'étire l'élastique. Ça dépends du domaine, mais j'serais pas supris que la productivité de plusieurs pique du nez pas mal avant 12h.

8h/5 jours c'est de loin le pire. Quand t'offre pas directement un service au public qui walk in, on s'en contre calisse tu de matcher les heures d'ouverture traditionnelle d'une banque... C'est rendu qu'on le fais par tradtion / just because. Et meme la, moyen de scheduler ton monde pour le coverage si c'est le cas.
 
It's easy to do if you're salaried, just be more productive with fewer hours. But if you're an hourly wage-earner then it's very difficult to find an up-side, businesses have generally squeezed as much productivity as they can from those jobs. It's going to be very hard to cut their wages from 40 to 32 hours, even if you bump their salary by 20% you're very unlikely to see a 20% increase in productivity for hourly positions.

My ideal world = 4 day work-week with 1 wfh day. That's where you'd start seeing some real quality of life improvements and much better family life and societal benefits.
 
It's easy to do if you're salaried, just be more productive with fewer hours. But if you're an hourly wage-earner then it's very difficult to find an up-side, businesses have generally squeezed as much productivity as they can from those jobs. It's going to be very hard to cut their wages from 40 to 32 hours, even if you bump their salary by 20% you're very unlikely to see a 20% increase in productivity for hourly positions.

My ideal world = 4 day work-week with 1 wfh day. That's where you'd start seeing some real quality of life improvements and much better family life and societal benefits.

I think the idea that a "full time" employee is entitled to 40 hours work week is going to go off to the wayside. I'm not entirely sure that the move to 4 work days automatically means the other days ought to be longer to make up for it. It might just go down to 32hrs.

Part of the appeal of the shorter work week would be "job sharing" in a way. With automation making more and more people redundant, people might need to settle for less "hours" for the sake of remaining employed. If you traditionally needed 3 employees for "120" hours worth of work/ week and you now split that among 4, you're keeping unemployment down.

In the U.S it would be a piss off for employers to be on the hook for the health insurance / coverage and benefits of additional employees, but in societies where healthcare entitlement and employment have been separate for a while it wouldn't be as stark of a contrast.

It's sort of what people were expecting a few decades ago. La "société des loisirs" were people worked less and enjoyed themselves more w/ the extra time they had.
 
4 jours de 10 heures par semaines
ou 3 jour s de 12 heures une semaines et lautre semaine dapres 4 jours de 12 heures. Moins de traffic, plus de off moins de temps de voyagement par semaines win win

Il y a 20 ans, j’ai fais du 3 jours semaines de 12 heures et l’employeur payait 40heures. J’ai adoré! C’était toujours un horaire fixe donc pas de rotation. Je retournerais à cette horaire anytime même avec des enfants maintenant.

L’an dernier, j’ai appliqué chez Hydro-Québec pour justement travailler 4 jours de 10 heures. C’était un bonne drop de salaire pour moi sur la paye chaque semaine vs mon employeur actuel mais ça me dérangait pas pour travailler un jour de moins par semaine. Et anyway avec leur fond de pension vs le mien, ça revenait au même.

Je veux encore changer d’emploi, je pensais faire le switch cette été mais avec la situation économique actuelle, pas certain que je vais faire le move...
 
I think the idea that a "full time" employee is entitled to 40 hours work week is going to go off to the wayside. I'm not entirely sure that the move to 4 work days automatically means the other days ought to be longer to make up for it. It might just go down to 32hrs.

Part of the appeal of the shorter work week would be "job sharing" in a way. With automation making more and more people redundant, people might need to settle for less "hours" for the sake of remaining employed. If you traditionally needed 3 employees for "120" hours worth of work/ week and you now split that among 4, you're keeping unemployment down.

In the U.S it would be a piss off for employers to be on the hook for the health insurance / coverage and benefits of additional employees, but in societies where healthcare entitlement and employment have been separate for a while it wouldn't be as stark of a contrast.

It's sort of what people were expecting a few decades ago. La "société des loisirs" were people worked less and enjoyed themselves more w/ the extra time they had.

Totally agreed, but it requires a reshaping of our society as a whole. It will require more flexibility and fluidity.
I've had the same thought about employing 4 people instead of 3 to handle the same workload but I think the biggest potential positive is if people actually use that extra time for their personal wellbeing and as a side effect reduce government spending.

With an extra 10 hours a week that's a lot of people that could be in much better health through exercise. That's a lot of children that could be doing much better in school because their parents are helping with homework. etc
 
J'ai fais des 8h, 10h et 12h. IMO 10 c'est le sweet spot. 12 un moment donné tu check l'horloge et ça feel comme si t'étire l'élastique. Ça dépends du domaine, mais j'serais pas supris que la productivité de plusieurs pique du nez pas mal avant 12h.

8h/5 jours c'est de loin le pire. Quand t'offre pas directement un service au public qui walk in, on s'en contre calisse tu de matcher les heures d'ouverture traditionnelle d'une banque... C'est rendu qu'on le fais par tradtion / just because. Et meme la, moyen de scheduler ton monde pour le coverage si c'est le cas.


daccord avec toi.

7 a 5 deja plin monde qui fais deja et il sont payer a l annee.
 
6-3 Monday to Thursday, 6-12 on Friday.

I like leaving work before traffic is bad, and I can get my kid at 330 from daycare. Fridays are easy anyway, usually finishing touches on a project.

10 hour days +lunch +commute make it a little bit to "living for the weekend".
 
It's easy to do if you're salaried, just be more productive with fewer hours. But if you're an hourly wage-earner then it's very difficult to find an up-side, businesses have generally squeezed as much productivity as they can from those jobs. It's going to be very hard to cut their wages from 40 to 32 hours, even if you bump their salary by 20% you're very unlikely to see a 20% increase in productivity for hourly positions.

My ideal world = 4 day work-week with 1 wfh day. That's where you'd start seeing some real quality of life improvements and much better family life and societal benefits.

Tu as déjà pas mal de business qui offrent ca, par exemple banque nationale ils ont carrément 3 jours remote par semaine s'ils veulent, ca c'est assez insane.
 
We have 2 wfh days per week since 3 years now. It's very appreciated by everyone

With Covid I think this will increase to 3 days
 
Je travail du mardi au vendredi de 6:30 à 4:30 depuis 5 ans,

Je souhaite ca à tout le monde!


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Il y a 20 ans, j’ai fais du 3 jours semaines de 12 heures et l’employeur payait 40heures. J’ai adoré! C’était toujours un horaire fixe donc pas de rotation. Je retournerais à cette horaire anytime même avec des enfants maintenant.

L’an dernier, j’ai appliqué chez Hydro-Québec pour justement travailler 4 jours de 10 heures. C’était un bonne drop de salaire pour moi sur la paye chaque semaine vs mon employeur actuel mais ça me dérangait pas pour travailler un jour de moins par semaine. Et anyway avec leur fond de pension vs le mien, ça revenait au même.

Je veux encore changer d’emploi, je pensais faire le switch cette été mais avec la situation économique actuelle, pas certain que je vais faire le move...

Tu est electricien?si oui au bout de 3-4 ans tu vas récupérer ton salaire


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Je travail du mardi au vendredi de 6:30 à 4:30 depuis 5 ans,

Je souhaite ca à tout le monde!


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk
Fuck non... Je me lève a cette heure là pis j'ai de la misère... Va faloir je me lève a 6h après mon déménagement pis je suis pas prêt encore

Envoyé de mon CLT-L04 en utilisant Tapatalk
 
Totally agreed, but it requires a reshaping of our society as a whole. It will require more flexibility and fluidity.
I've had the same thought about employing 4 people instead of 3 to handle the same workload but I think the biggest potential positive is if people actually use that extra time for their personal wellbeing and as a side effect reduce government spending.

With an extra 10 hours a week that's a lot of people that could be in much better health through exercise. That's a lot of children that could be doing much better in school because their parents are helping with homework. etc
Or more 6 pack nights.
 
Back
Top