What really happened in Iceland’s four-day week trial

Those caveats aside, what can we take away from Iceland’s experience? Regardless of the type of work – and the trials included schools, city maintenance, police stations, care homes and even the Reykjavík mayor’s office, among others – productivity doesn’t slip if we cut hours.

The evidence of that was found by tracking various government services. The number of active cases at Child Protection Services didn’t change, the study reports, while a government call centre showed 93 per cent of calls answered despite shorter shifts, versus 85 per cent at a “control” workplace. At the Department of Accountancy in Reykjavik, there was a 6.5 per cent increase in invoices entered.

For police, average cases per month closed climbed from 7.8 before the trial to 8.8 during the project, while the immigration department showed no increase in processing time. At the registry office, the time to process applications fell from six days to two; that office also tracked the wait time for visitors, showing an increase as the trial started that fell back to pre-trial averages after a few months.

The two trials covered both office work and shift workers – and the latter benefited the most from fewer hours. “For shift workers, there was more benefit in terms of work-life balance,” Haraldsson says. Interviews from the trials suggested men took on more domestic responsibilities, and people had more time with friends and family. “The lesson should be clear: workers are healthier and more productive when they work less,” says Will Stronge, director of research at Autonomy.

WiredUK Was this article approved by the workers, or just management?

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