‘Heck it was productive’: New Zealand company trials four-day work week .... but will it stick?
Trustee company Perpetual Guardian is halfway through a six-week trial that could have profound implications for the future of labour in the country – with 200 staff given a third day off every week
On the first long weekend of her employer’s experiment with a four-day working week, Kirsten Taylor freaked out a little bit. Like a housework hurricane, she got through mounds of clothes-washing, weeded the garden, cleaned the windows and mowed the lawn.
It had been lovely to spend extra time with her 21-month-old son, but by the end of the third day off she was shattered.
“I actually found that day really hard. I ran myself ragged,” laughs Taylor, who is a solo mother. “I hadn’t yet programmed that routine into my life. I thought: I don’t know when the next one of these is coming, I better get everything done. I don’t think I did it well, but heck it was a productive day!”
Taylor is one of 200 employees at New Zealand trustee company Perpetual Guardian, which is halfway through a six-week trial that could have profound implications for the future of labour. Staff are working four days a week but getting paid for five.
The experiment began in early March and will conclude in mid-April, after which productivity data will be collated and analysed. Employees will find out if the new routine will be adopted full-time in July.
People have been thinking quite hard about that third day off and how best to use it so it can change their life
New Zealanders work an average of 1,752 hours a year, making them close to average compared with their OECD peers. Germans spend the least amount of time working annually, closely followed by Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, while Mexicans, Koreans and Costa Ricans clock the most.
