Even though 2023 started two months ago, March looks to be the start of the year where we continue with schedules and organizations start working hard to achieve their annual goals. For this, teamwork and performance are very important, but how productive are people who are stressed, with weak mental health or simply with a poor quality of life? Does working eight hours a day for five hours ensure that these hours are really efficient and the goals set are achieved?

A few days ago, the results of a study conducted in the UK with 61 organizations were released, which sought to reduce their working hours by 20% without reducing their wages for six months. The largest test conducted to propose a four-day workday showed significant reductions in stress, anxiety, fatigue and illness indices, while physical and mental health improved.

The numbers are stark: 71% of workers say they feel less tired and 39% less stressed than before exams starting in June 2022. Likewise, sick leave was reduced by 65% ​​compared to the previous year and 57% resigned. The results resulted in 92% of the companies participating in the study stating that they intend to continue this way of working and 18 of them affirming that they will make the change forever.

Indeed, with one study it is impossible to produce absolute truths, but it seems necessary to start contemplating the possibility of making changes in the way we set working hours and the real need to improve our quality of life which, of course, is deteriorating.

Perhaps we are facing a new paradigm in our organization that invites us to act more confidently, less fearfully, and more aware of all the actors involved in the common good.

As medical leave for mental health continues to be a problem for both workers and companies, it seems important to open up and consider new alternatives that improve people’s quality of life and impact people’s physical and emotional health after building healthier societies.

Today with a new generation in the workforce committed to work, but especially to their own lives, it is important to reevaluate the beliefs we have about the work day and the productivity these hours bring, and the relevance to which we currently provide them. to schedule adherence to achievement of set objectives.

Jorge Fuentes,

Psychologist and Director of Pranavida