Work just four days and still receive full wages: What sounds like a nice dream is already partly a reality.
It is a highly controversial model among economists: the four-day week. Elektro Oberland GmbH, a Zurich-based SME from Bauma, dared the experiment anyway – and doesn’t want to go back.
René Schmid, Managing Director of Elektro Oberland, implemented the switch to a four-day week spontaneously: “I had read about a company that had introduced the four-day week and then I went out to eat with the boss of this company.” Back in his shop, Schmid said to his employees: “People, next week we have a four-day week.”
Savings by efficiency
Since then, the employees have been working nine hours a day, four days a week. However, there is only overtime from 40 hours. René Schmid counts on the flexibility of his people: if an order has to be completed, it means “working half an hour longer”. However, this is rare and has never been a problem.
Legend:
The maximum weekly working time in Switzerland is 45 hours in industrial companies, for office staff, technical and other employees, sales staff in large retail companies and 50 hours for all other employees. (icon picture)
Getty Images/Jetta Productions Inc
Since then, no one has regretted the decision. The company has also become more efficient as a result: “We do it by omitting. We don’t drive to the construction site again on the fifth day, if we don’t clear everything out of the car again, that’s how we make up for it,” says Schmid with conviction.
The end of the Swiss success model?
But the model of the four-day week not only has supporters: the economic umbrella organization Economiesuisse admits that a reduction in working hours can make sense for a company in individual cases. But you definitely don’t want a state-mandated four-day week. This would be “bad for the Swiss economy and wages,” warns its chief economist Rudolf Minsch.
Think of a hairdresser or a bus driver, it is difficult to increase productivity in shorter working hours.
Because by no means all companies could simply become as efficient: “Think of a hairdresser or a bus driver, it’s difficult to increase productivity in shorter working hours,” says Minsch.
Four-day week as an opportunity
Christoph Bader from the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Bern is of the opposite opinion. The four-day week is an important step towards a more sustainable economy.
Our economy wants more and more growth and consumption. And at the same time we see the negative environmental and social consequences.
«Our economy wants more and more growth and consumption. And at the same time we see the negative environmental and social consequences. We see the chance of a four-day week, »says Bader. For example, commuting less often and people behaving more ecologically, such as cooking more at home. According to Bader, this effect would be proven by studies.
Managing director René Schmid does not care about these theoretical discussions. The bottom line is that other things count for him: “The employees are more rested, they were able to air their brains, which means they are probably more committed,” says Schmid. And he wanted his people to do well – and that they felt comfortable in his company and with his corporate culture.