Brazil will conduct an experiment on the effect of a four-day work week, between June and December this year. The initiative is the result of a partnership between a non-profit organization 4 days a weekwhich conducts global treatises on reducing workload, and brazilian to reconnect with happiness at work.
In June and July, Reconnect will provide information about the program to any company that shows interest in participating in Brazil. There are no prerequisites, such as a minimum number of employees. Just answer the form available on the site https://www.4dayweek.com/contact to access the routing.
In some countries, companies have rethought the traditional business model. Shorter weeks – with four-day working days – and no pay cut is already a reality in Iceland, Belgium, New Zealand, Spain and Japan.
In Iceland, research by Autonomy (a study group on the future of work in the UK) and the Icelandic Society for Sustainability and Democracy has shown that reducing working hours can improve the well-being and productivity of employees, as well as lower levels of stress and burnout.
In the study, which was supported by the country’s government, the work week of about 2,500 people in 100 companies was reduced from 40 to 35 hours, without any pay cut. Testing showed no real loss in productivity or quality of services.
In Brazil, three-day rest weeks are becoming a reality for some startups. Recruitment manager Andrea Deiss, who is also a professor and specialist in neuroscience with a focus on organizational and human development, emphasizes that this work dynamic offers a series of benefits to the worker.
“Greater opportunity to balance personal and professional life. Space (of time) to relieve stress,” he lists. An extra day of rest, also according to Andrea, also gives the employee an opportunity to seek knowledge. “This space favors waking up to new things, capable of making you more creative, innovative, and productive,” he notes.
The benefits of shortening the workday aren’t just for employees. On the contrary, it also provides advantages to the construction company.
“More creative, less stressed workers who will focus more on the quality of their deliveries. Better use of costs (If implemented well, reduce re-worko), greater integration of people and greater satisfaction of workers” Andrea Lists.
If done well and aligned, warns the professional, this reduction in man-hours “will have a positive return not only in profit, but also in process innovation. If done poorly, it will have a higher cost for a smaller operation.”
Andrea explains that for this way of working to work, people need to change their habits and behaviors. “It will be necessary to do a better job in less time, which will require more awareness about the use of time and resources,” he says.
In order to satisfactorily implement this business model, she adds, “a change must occur in the culture of communication, evaluation, performance, monitoring and especially leadership.”
In Brazil, for a four-day work week to work in more companies, the hiring manager believes that some mental changes are necessary.
He adds, “There is a lack of availability and willingness to change, believe and make things happen, as well as (willingness) to break some of the taboos of hierarchical and procedural control and authoritarianism.”
Legally, there is nothing to prevent the reduction of the weekly working day to four days in Brazil. “The Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) sets a maximum of one working day for an employee – 44 hours per week,” explains Employment Law Attorney Fabiana Truffaut of Morad Advocacia Empresarial.
The professional also points out that “insofar as an employee works fewer hours, the hourly rate of labor must be equivalent to what is worked in the normal hours, so long as they perform the same functions.”
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