Can someone change the misleading title to part of the subtitle? It is "Less work, same money, more happiness and productivity. As of February 1, 45 companies in Germany are testing a 4-day workweek.", which is much more meaningful.<p>Title makes it sound like there is anything like a concerted effort, whereas these are just 45 random companies. No details on size of those companies, no data on number of employees or fields. I would expect that in particular the traditonal German "backbone" of the economy is not the kind of company amenable to this work week model or even participating in such a study. Example, classic automative supplier with more "blue collar" style work.<p>The source seems to be <a href="https://www.intraprenoer.de/4tagewoche" rel="nofollow">https://www.intraprenoer.de/4tagewoche</a> but this is equally opaque.<p>Overall a weird article with not a lot of original research.<p>To not have this comment only be a rant, here is some data [1]: There are 3.4 Million companies (definition at link, they need to have employees and taxable turnover) in Germany, with 35 Million employees. That includes small 1-person shops as well as Fortune 500 companies.<p>Anyone seems to be able to sign up for that study, and without any further details this seems hardly representative. I am very much interested in the outcome of these studies and would probably for myself assume that I can be productive in 4 days as well, but I'm not sure how this gives us usable data.<p>1: <a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economic-Sectors-Enterprises/Enterprises/Business-Register/Tables/business-register.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economic-Sectors-Enterpris...</a>
I spent the summer in Berlin and, as an American, was a bit culture shocked by how little time people worked, and how so many people I met bragged about collecting paid time off for reasons they admitted to making up, which the government enforced all employers must allow. As an employer, I'd be afraid of hiring in countries like Germany for an international workforce if that meant I have to have a patchwork of special policies to treat those workers differently, and I would not be excited about the unambitious "antiwork" ethos
The question I think needs answering is why we wouldn't do it. Obviously most people would love to have an extra 52 days a year to themselves to spend with family, do hobbies, handle personal business. Outside of greed or operational commitments, why aren't we doing this?
Feel like the real question is what is the purpose of work, if not to feed the all powerful need to consume. Perhaps we need to look at the consumption end of things. Consume less. Work less.
I wish someone would investigate what a 6 day week would look like(4 work, 2 off). This article was always a fun exercise what if scenario and if world wide agreement could come to be, would be an innovation on par with the 40 hour work week.
<a href="https://calendars.fandom.com/wiki/6-Day_Week_Solar_Calendar_with_common_Muslim/Christian_weekend" rel="nofollow">https://calendars.fandom.com/wiki/6-Day_Week_Solar_Calendar_...</a>
All employees in Germany(except in very small companies) have the right to request a reduction in their working hours, and the employer must allow it. The employee does not need to provide any justification for the request, and the employer must accept it unless they can show it would cause significant disruption to the business. That said, I can imagine in some companies there might be informal and social consequences to doing so.
Instead of a 4-day workweek how about setting reasonable hiring standards so that hundreds of thousands of people out of work, especially non-native German speakers, have a chance of getting past the job application screen.<p>Most jobs, even in tech, in DE currently require good knowledge of German, and "good" is being interpreted as near-native.
Wait... There's a shortage of labor so the solution is to restrict the supply of labor? Simply from a math perspective (not political) wouldn't going to a 6 day workweek do more to solve the problem?
Q: How do they define a 'labor shortage'? A: Companies hiring less.<p>Hmmm... real earnings are down 4-6% every year, so... no.<p><a href="https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Labour/Earnings/Real-Earnings-Net-Earnings/_node.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Labour/Earnings/Real-Earni...</a>
I once brought up the idea of a 4-day work week to a PM I worked with, and her immediate reaction was very defensive, as she could not understand why would anyone want to work less, and who then would get all the work done. It made me realize that not all people actually want more freedom, some are most likely stockholm syndrom-ed to their job, and these are the people the rest of us are up against trying make positive change happen.<p>Explain to me how we haven't had a significant change in the amount of days per week or hours per week we work in about 100 years, and yet the amount of things we can get done now in that same amount of time is orders of magnitude more? Tell me we're not part of an ant colony with a injected idea of freedom to strive for, that we'll never really get, but that serves as a motivator so that we keep on grinding, oiling that capitalistic system for the benefactors of the few.<p>I swear it's like a sci-fi film plot.