The employees in the study had their pay maintained at five-day work-week levels.
As Dolly Parton once wisely said, "Workin' 9 to 5, What a way to make a livin', Barely gettin' by, It's all takin' and no givin'."
Released in 1980, but more relevant today than ever, the difficulty of striking a proper work/life balance has become next to impossible, especially for those of us in Ireland, where 99.999999999% of your wages goes towards putting a roof over your head and keeping it in place with bills and stuff.
However, the study of a
new trial (via
The Guardian) that took place in a high-profile New Zealand company showed some fantastically positive results from those who had their rota changed to four-days-a-week.
While their levels of pay remained the same, the 240 staff at financial services company Perpetual Guardian had their work week reduced by 20%.
At the end of the study, the company had found that overall productivity was up 20% on when the staff were working five days, which appeared to result in an increase in profits for the company overall.
Additionally, with the work-week hours cut down from 37.5 to 30, they discovered that staff stress levels were down from 45% to 38%, while the staff themselves noted an increase in the scores for the work-life balance, from 54% to 78%.
Since then, Perpetual Guardian have received over 350 requests for more information from companies in 28 countries around the world.
