This innovation consists in reducing the working week from five to four working days, maintaining or slightly reducing the number of working hours per week, in order to improve employee health, increase flexibility and productivity, with the consequence of a higher profit for the company. Some countries are experimenting with this practice to try to introduce it officially, for example Spain, Scotland, Portugal, and many others.

The short week seems to be a fresh topic, but some countries had started experimenting it years ago, like Iceland which started experimenting with it in 2015, and after three years of a shorter working week (only four days), with the same salary, employees of the municipality of Reykjavik and of the Icelandic government, have not decreased their productivity, which in some cases has even increased.

But they say they feel better, are less stressed, and are able to find time for their hobbies and balance work and home commitments more compatible. In some countries it is not a matter of experimentation, but of a real reality, as in Japan. A paradigmatic case is that of Microsoft Japan. The company has decided to shorten the working week to 4 days, announcing the decision as a test. With surprising results.

Productivity has shot up by 40 percent (benefit for the company), energy consumption has decreased by 23 percent as has paper consumption (other benefits for the company), while worker satisfaction has almost doubled (+ 92 percent). With the effect of higher earnings, more space for new hires and with positive benefits, in general, for the entire working environment in the company. Here is an interesting website that describes this procedure in some countries: https://4dayweek.io/countries