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marmar

(76,985 posts)
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 07:06 AM Oct 2015

Sweden Is Moving Toward the 6-hour Workday — and It’s Turning Out Great


http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/swedens_moving_towards_implementing_6-hour_workday_its_turning_out_20151006


via truthdig:





Sweden’s experiment aimed at transforming the workday is having unexpected results.

From The Independent:

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. ... According to Science Alert, doctors and nurses in some hospitals in the country have even made the move to the six-hour day.

A retirement home in Gothenburg made the six-hour switch earlier this year and is conducting an experiment, until the end of 2016, to determine whether the cost of hiring new staff members to cover the hours lost is worth the improvements to patient care and boosting of employees’ morale.

Read more.


—Posted by Natasha Hakimi Zapata



5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Sweden Is Moving Toward the 6-hour Workday — and It’s Turning Out Great (Original Post) marmar Oct 2015 OP
Unfortunately its not really true Travis_0004 Oct 2015 #1
So I should take your I know someone in Sweden who... malaise Oct 2015 #2
What you wrote doesn't make sense to me. marmar Oct 2015 #4
Do you mean 10 hours less, or Darb Oct 2015 #5
Here is more from the Guardian. pampango Oct 2015 #3
 

Travis_0004

(5,417 posts)
1. Unfortunately its not really true
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 07:38 AM
Oct 2015

I know somebody in sweeden and there is not much truth to it.

It would be similar to me posting an article " Walmart to only work people 32 hours a week.

Some could view it as a good thing, but the reality os somebody struggling to get by is getting 8 hours less pay.

 

Darb

(2,807 posts)
5. Do you mean 10 hours less, or
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:16 AM
Oct 2015

are you pulling things out of your behind? Firstly, if you work a 5 day week at only 6 hours per, that's 30 hours a week, not 32. So your comparison to Walmart becomes curious. Also, are we talking about hourly pay as opposed to salary? I am not sure, are you?

Don't poo poo something unless you are armed with all the facts. Not just "I know somebody".

Sorry, everything is suspect to me in this day and age, and rightfully so.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
3. Here is more from the Guardian.
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 08:52 AM
Oct 2015
The 1990s saw several experiments with the six-hour day for a full wage in Sweden. In Kiruna, a mining town in the far north, home care for the elderly moved to a six-hour day in 1989 so the working lives of female carers would better correlate with those of their husbands in the mines. Stockholm city council conducted a major trial of a six-hour day in care centres for children, older people and those with disabilities from 1996 to 1998.

But when power passed from left to right in Kiruna in 2005, the reform was reversed and staff went back to eight hours. Similarly, with a change of administration in Stockholm the trial came to an end. “It was a political decision to end it, they said it was too expensive,” says Prof Birgitta Olsson of Lund University, who was involved in research to evaluate the Stockholm experiment. “But it was a good investment in improved wellbeing for the community. More people were in jobs, they were in better health and enjoyed better working conditions.”

Despite the positive signs, the experiment is likely to end next year – the centre-left coalition on Gothenburg council has lost its majority, and the Conservatives are firmly opposed to reduced working hours. The trial is costing about 8m Swedish krona (£630,000) a year, according to the Liberal party. “It’s like living in a world where it is raining money from the sky,” according to one Conservative councillor.

Daniel Bernmar, leader of the Left party group on Gothenburg city council, which pushed for the trial at Svartedalens, admits a six-hour day costs more money, but insists it is a matter of quality of life for public sector workers and for residents in elderly care. “Not everything is about making things cheaper and more efficient, but about making them better,” he says.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/efficiency-up-turnover-down-sweden-experiments-with-six-hour-working-day

It is great to see a progressive country experimenting with ways to make life better for its people.
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