The city of Gothenburg is the second largest and most important city in Sweden. In it and its surroundings, almost a million people live. In other words, Gothenburg is a large city with weight within its country; not a town or a village. However, half of its inhabitants have lived differently for two years than in most cities in the world, because their working hours were reduced to only 6 hours a day, without changing their salary.
The reduction of the working day in Gothenburg was an experiment started by the government in 2014, since they had a hypothesis and wanted to test it: they believed that their workers could perform the same or better if they worked less, because they would be more focused, motivated and happy.
The city state workers were divided into two groups; one continued to work 8 hours per day and the other began to work 6 hours per day, 5 days per week, for a total of 30 hours per week. Two years later, the first results of the experiment were presented, and they are very satisfactory.
According to an audit published in mid-April 2016, the program was successfully implemented, significantly reducing absenteeism and improving worker productivity and health. Beyond the data, it is the testimonials of the workers that make the difference.
One of them is Arturo Perez, who worked eight-hour shifts in a nursing home in charge of inmates with dementia and Alzheimer’s. After spending a third of the day doing such hard work, Arturo had no energy to dedicate to his three children. However, he explains that when the residence where he worked, Svartedalens, was selected to participate in the experiment, his quality of life improved in a very short time.
After just one week, Perez stated that he had much more energy, and in addition, the interns agreed that the quality of care was higher. This was maintained over time. “We are all happier” and “A happy worker works better,” Arturo told The New York Times.
Something very similar told Lise-Lotte Pettersson, a 41-year-old nurse, to The Guardian: “I used to be exhausted all the time, when I came home from work I would throw myself on the sofa.” “Now, on the other hand, I have much more energy to dedicate to my work, to my life and to my family.”
Although this experiment in Gothenburg started in the state sector, thanks to its success it has slowly become a trend that many private companies are adopting. Some had even done it long before, such as Toyota, which has been working 6-hour days in that city since 2003.
Although it seems that working less time for the same salary can be less productive, the figures from different cases around the world show that this is not the case. Despite the fact that many say that the 6-hour day can be crazy, the same was said about the 8-hour day when it began to be claimed. Back then, after the industrial revolution, most workers worked between 14 and 18 hours, 7 days a week.
The traditional claim of 8 hours of work, 8 hours of leisure and 8 hours of sleep, formulated by Robert Owen in 1817, was only achieved in many countries in the 1970s and 1980s; that is to say that it is still almost a novelty. This is without counting the cases in which it is not fulfilled and in which slave labor exists, something that perhaps seems distant but is hidden behind many of the objects that each one of us is using at this very moment.
Can a shorter workday be financially sustained?
If we look at how the figures for the employed population, weekly and daily working hours, and GDP in Great Britain have evolved between the years 1785 and 2000, it can be clearly seen how, despite the reduction in the daily working hours, daily productivity and GDP have increased.
This can be explained by a larger number of active population, by a greater specialization of work and studies achieved, and by technologies that simplify some tasks, making it possible to do the same in less time.
These data, as well as the evaluation of the Gothenburg case, are examples that can be used to reflect on these issues and to consciously ask ourselves if we are organizing work and our lives in the best way, or if there are issues that can be adjusted so that all people enjoy a higher quality of life.