Making a six-hour workday work for your company

I don\\\’t know about you, but I haven\\\’t been able to escape the news of Sweden moving to a six-hour work day. Is it even true? Well, kind of.

There are a number of companies in the country who are giving a six-hour routine a go, but it isn\\\’t yet standard practice and not all employees are jumping on the bandwagon.

Sweden, and let\\\’s face it most European countries, are better than the UK at having a good work-life balance. Take a look at Spain with their famous siestas. Workers may still be at the grind for at least eight hours a day, but they are having around a three-hour lunch break. But will us lot in the UK, plodding along to work every day for another long day, ever be fortunate enough to have a six-hour day?

At a previous workplace of mine, there was an unwritten rule which took place every day. Nobody ever discussed it, but we all knew. The person to pack up first in the afternoon was weak. They clearly weren\\\’t as hard-working as others in the office and you felt the tension and anger towards the person waving goodbye first each day. How dare they have a life when we are all still working. It sounds petty and quite frankly ridiculous, but this fear of being the first one to leave work does exist. But is it fair to feel this way towards the person who would rather be out and about seeing family and friends than work, when let\\\’s face it, wouldn\\\’t we all?

A marketing agency in Liverpool decided to trial a six-hour day to find if it made any difference to their office.

Paul Corcoran, managing director at Agent Marketing, said: “We trialled the six-hour day for two months. Initially, we had a strict cut-off point: no more work after 4pm. However, some of the team at times, found this to be a little restrictive, and it could sometimes feel like an unnecessary deadline.

“The shorter days forced everyone to take a step back, evaluate their habits, and find more productive ways of working. We all found new ways of streamlining our working habits to become better, quicker and more efficient at what we do. For example, team meetings that would last an hour before the trial could be honed down to just ten minutes, whilst still achieving the same results.”

But would a six-hour day help us become better workers? “Everyone said that having more time for their families or their own pursuits helped them to feel healthier and more fulfilled,” Paul said, “Which in turn helped them focus more intently at work and become more productive, despite the reduced hours.”

Based on that, we should all convince our boss to knock our work hours to six hours, right? Well, Agent Marketing have since attempted to trial a new model instead. Paul said: “We work regular 8:30-5:30 days three times a week with a compulsory one-hour lunch break. On Fridays, however, we only work from 9-4, and each member of the team can pick one additional day a week to finish at 4pm. So far, it\\\’s working really well, wellbeing and productivity are definitely up.”

By bringing a six-hour work day into UK companies, it wouldn\\\’t be as simple as just a slight change to the day. We would all have to reconsider how we approach work, our routines and if businesses could even afford to have their workers in for less hours but for the same amount of pay. Are we ever going to be the type of workers who swap a Tesco meal deal with a three course dinner and a nap? Will we ever be the type of workers who happily pack up and leave after six hours, despite not getting the majority of our work done?

Although it would be great for us all to spend more time out of the office, our work ethic in this country is much more in line with the USA than those just a short flight away, where employees work 40 hours per week on average but are expected to work more the higher they move up the career ladder. The truth is, although a handful of companies across the UK are attempting a shorter day in order to make their employees more productive and give them a better work-life balance, the chances of us all joining in are very slim. 

If your boss doesn\\\’t seem overly pleased with the idea of six-hour work days, it could always be worth asking for a few compromises instead, which will still mean you have a good work-life balance. Explain to them how you would prefer more flexible working hours or suggest that there should be a mandatory lunch hour that everyone has to take. That way, you are still having time to be away from the office and can remain productive without having to change the whole way the company operates.