HERE'S an appropriate story for the weekend:
The dream of a four day work week could be reality if companies follow the example of a New Zealand business.
Perpetual Guardian manages estates, trusts and wills. They gave their 240 employees four-day work weeks in March and April. They only worked 32 hours but were paid for 40.
Researchers studied the results. They said the workers were more productive, more creative and work attendance was better. There were no long breaks. The employees also came back from their time off more refreshed.
Part of the findings discovered that the employees weren't working efficiently before the cut in hours. 2 hour meetings were shortened to 30 minutes and employees created signals to notify fellow workers that they needed to focus on a current task.
Do you know someone currently working four-10 hour shifts for their four-day work week? Do they like it? Would you relish a four-day work week? Do you think you would be as productive in 32 hours?
Of course, this study wouldn't apply to me: when you host a LIVE radio show five-days-a-week, a Friday off is NOT AN OPTION. However, I could definitely see it working in many professions. If the expected outcomes were the same, but the hours were shorter - people would be filling their work day WITH ACTUAL WORK and time would fly!