Sweden introduces six-hour work day

Sweden is moving to a six-hour working day in a bid to increase productivity and make people happier.

Employers across the country have already made the change, according to the Science Alert website, which said the aim was to get more done in a shorter amount of time and ensure people had the energy to enjoy their private lives.

Toyota centres in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, made the switch 13 years ago, with the company reporting happier staff, a lower turnover rate, and an increase in profits in that time.

You Could Be Happier If Your Boss Were Forced To Make You Work Less

When labor laws reduce the hours that people have to be at work, their life satisfaction increases, as indicated by new research from Daniel S. Hamermesh, Daiji Kawaguchi, and Jungmin Lee published in the NBER.

The researchers examined two examples in Japan and Korea where the government sought to shorten the workweek by imposing overtime penalties at a lower threshold of hours. In Japan, the standard workweek was reduced from 48 hours to 40 between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s by imposing a 25 percent overtime penalty after 40 hours of work. Korea also reduced its workweek that way, from 44 hours to 40, between 1999 and 2009 by extending its 50 percent overtime penalty. Both were responses to those countries experiencing some of the longest workweeks around the globe and high levels of overwork-related deaths. The laws had the intended impact of reducing hours across their economies but particularly for those who were putting in the most hours.