While in Italy, as every year when summer arrives, we talk about too low wages and the tax wedge to be cut, in the United Kingdom the largest experiment ever made for the four-day working week has started. We have been talking about it for a while, some comforting tests have been done, but what is striking in this case is the size: starting from last Monday and until the end of the year, seventy companies employing a total of three thousand and three hundred workers, started the very short working week with the same salary.
I thought it was Elon and instead it was Brunetta
by Riccardo Luna
The bet, the hypothesis to be proved, is that with three days off a week, instead of just the weekend, workers will be happier – and this is obvious – but also more productive. That is, they will be able to do in four days what they have done so far in five, because they are more motivated and fulfilled even in private and family life. If the productivity is the same why should a company do it? In fact, employee happiness is unfortunately not one of the missions of an economic enterprise.
Smart working and war
by Riccardo Luna
The answer is: to attract talent. If it is really shown that with four days of work a week productivity remains unchanged, companies that want to employ the best talents will be able to offer this mode and at that point, yes, they will also have an economic advantage. It is a test and like all tests the result is not obvious. But it is interesting that without waiting for a law, a decree, or a trade union agreement, a group of companies of various types decided to go and see what happens. The future is like this: you have to go and look for it if one day you don’t want it to knock on your door and warn you that you are the past.