The Greek phrase which means “slowly, slowly” refers back to the relaxed tempo of life within the nation well-known for its tradition, historical past, and clear Mediterranean waters.
It could possibly be more durable for some staff to embrace that philosophy because the nation prepares to shift to a six-day workweek for some industries.
The Greek authorities says the transfer to a 48-hour workweek, which is about to start out Monday, may enhance productiveness amid a declining inhabitants and a dearth of expert staff. The shift is notable as a result of it runs counter to the businesses and international locations which are experimenting with a four-day workweek.
Working longer hours might help individuals additional refine their expertise, however it will possibly additionally result in decreased productiveness due to fatigue and burnout, analysis exhibits.
The additional hours will include a 40% leap in pay for Greek staff who add two hours to their day or tackle an additional eight-hour workday. The change, which gained approval in September, applies to staff in industries like agriculture, retail, and numerous service industries, as BI beforehand reported. It additionally applies to personal companies that function 24 hours a day.
Even with the bump in pay for the additional time, some union officers are decrying the shift.
“It is senseless in anyway,” Akis Sotiropoulos, from the civil servants’ union Adedy, advised The Guardian. “When virtually each different civilized nation is enacting a four-day week, Greece decides to go the opposite approach.”
Doing extra with much less
Experiments with the four-day workweek have typically proven being on the job for much less time makes staff extra productive as a result of they’re higher rested, extra targeted, and have extra time to take care of wants that come up of their private lives exterior work.
One examine that examined manufacturing within the US discovered that when time beyond regulation elevated by 10%, productiveness dropped by 2% to 4%.
One other evaluate examined the output of greater than 10,000 expert staff at a big tech firm in India working from residence. When time on the clock went up — together with a leap of 18% exterior regular work hours — output slipped, and productiveness dropped between 8% and 19%. The most important perpetrator: extra time spent speaking and coordinating and fewer time participating in uninterrupted work.
Analysis exhibits staff typically profit once they have time away from their jobs to get well.
Having extra free time may also enhance gratitude amongst workers. Zachary Toth runs a small manufacturing firm in Toronto. He beforehand advised BI that he and his administration colleagues started trying right into a four-day workweek after seeing profitable pilots in Japan and different international locations.
Toth did not count on the additional time away from the manufacturing facility would encourage staff to present up with out being requested.
“They only got here in as a result of they knew there was a undertaking that needed to be completed, they usually did not need productiveness to fall. They wished to verify we maintain doing the four-day workweek,” he stated.
Toth, the proprietor and president of Metex Company, stated productiveness has elevated “in each single approach.”
Foundation Applied sciences, an promoting software program firm, shifted its workweek to 4 and a half days after years of experiments with a four-day workweek and different approaches. For 2024, it settled on making Fridays a half day.
Emily Barron, the corporate’s government vp of expertise and improvement, beforehand advised BI that the corporate had been in search of methods to present staff extra time to decompress whereas nonetheless assembly the enterprise’s wants. For now, the half-day method is finest, she stated.
“It actually is meant for individuals to take a psychological break, to get caught up, to, you already know, go to that exercise class that they could not get to at 7:30 within the morning,” Barron stated.
The top of the 5-day week
In Greece, the longer workweek is designed to handle altering demographics, which the nation’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has known as a “ticking timebomb,” based on the Guardian. Some 500,000 largely younger and educated Greek residents have left the nation following a debt disaster that started greater than a decade in the past, the newspaper reported.
The brand new rule is voluntary, however some critics say it’s going to successfully mark the tip of a five-day workweek.
Aris Kazakos, an emeritus labor regulation professor on the Aristotle College of Thessaloniki, just lately advised Germany’s DW information outlet that bosses can require staff to work a sixth day, and staff cannot say no.
The transfer to 6 days “will kill off the five-day workweek for good,” he stated.
