If in July Telefónica workers began to voluntarily test the four-day workday, thus becoming the first large Spanish company to decide to experiment with a program of this type, now Desigual is the one that dares. The firm has presented its workers with a proposal to implement this model in which, in addition, one of those days is teleworking, and has opened a voting process among its employees to decide if it is approved.
If approved, the measure will affect 502 employees of the central offices, who their weekly working hours will be reduced by five hours. In this way, they will pass from the current 39.5 hours per week to 34.5 hours. Of course, this new format will imply a salary reduction of 13%, although Desigual has offered to assume half of this cost and the salary of employees would only be affected by a decrease of 6.5%. Which, in turn, results in the company increases the cost per hour by 6%.
As stated by the CEO of Desigual, Alberto Ojinaga, the objective is not to reduce costs but rather favor conciliation and gain efficiency, as well as “investing in talent through wellness.” All central equipment, except commercial and platform personnel, will be able to take advantage of the measure).
To cover the day on Fridays, the company will organize shifts. Now Desigual has opened a consultation period prior to the vote that will take place on October 7. The proposal must have 66% or more favorable votes to be accepted. If that is the case, it will begin to be implemented in mid-October.
Is the four-hour workday the future?
With the proposed four-day working day, Desigual not only becomes a pioneer in this field in Spain, it also does so in the fashion industry. More and more studies show that the human cost of working longer hours is not only noticeable in our social and family life, also in physical and mental health. Working long hours has been found to increase the risk of having a stroke, coronary heart disease, or developing type 2 diabetes.
Denmark has the shortest working day in the entire European Union with 37.5 hours per week. In addition, in September last year, the Odsherred city council launched a trial in which they have dispensed with Friday as a working day for their 300 employees. The good results of the first year have made the city council consider extending it to municipal nurseries as well.
Another example of positive results is that of Microsoft’s Japanese subsidiary, which applied the four-day workday in the summer of last year. Thus, throughout the month of August, employees had Fridays off. What happened was that, even reducing workdays by 25%, the company increase its productivity 40% compared to the same period the previous year. In addition, it reduced electricity consumption by 23%, paper consumption by 58% and 92% of its employees claimed to be satisfied with this initiative.
However, experts also point out that we should be cautious with the results of these isolated and specific tests of a single company, since these types of experiments are usually carried out in organizations with a work and leadership culture open to this type of philosophy. But, when companies that do not share it try to change, the same thing can happen as in Uniqlo Japan where, to work four days a week, workers have to do 10-hour shifts during business days, as the 40 hour work week is simply compressed into 4 days.
Photos | @unequal