“The idea that you can succeed as a company by working fewer hours sounds like you’re reading druidic runes or something.”
And it would reignite an essential but long-forgotten moral project: making American life less about work.
But their experiences suggest that when done right, reducing workers’ hours doesn’t necessarily hurt profitability.
It worked: Perpetual Guardian’s business didn’t suffer, and the four-day workweek is still in place three years later.
When employees are given a good reason to work harder, they often focus more ruthlessly on their most important tasks.
Barnes found that even though weekly working hours were cut by 20 percent, employees’ time spent on nonwork websites fell by 35 percent.
It might not pay, but they find other pursuits in their nonwork time, and they don’t want to go back.”. »
