Document: WM-005 P. Webb Category: Life 2017.01.25 The appeal of the Swiss and Swedish work life Abstract Living to work versus working to live. Body I recently read an article[1] about Sweden's six-hour work day and was fascinated by it because here in the States, it's more about the *quantity* of hours you put in, it's not about the *quality* of the work you put in (FWIW, that seems to be changing in start-up land). Henry Ford famously tested the eight-hour work day with his factory employees, but it's 2017 now. Do we *really* need to continue the trend? To quote[2] Magnus Bråth of Brath, a tech company in Sweden (emphasis mine): > We also believe that once you've gotten used to having time for > the family, picking up the kids at day care, spending time training > for a race or simply just cooking good food at home, you don't want > to lose that again. We believe that this is a good reason to stay > with us and not only because of the actual impact longer hours > would make in your life but for the reason behind our shorter days. > That we have shorter days is not the main reason people stay with > us, they are the symptom of the reason. The reason is that we > actually care about our employees, *we care enough to prioritize > their time with the family, cooking or doing something else they > love doing*. > > A third huge reason for shorter days is that we all feel more > rested. Obviously we too have to stay late at times, obviously we > too are stressed at times but it's from a better base line. Working > late at our two offices often mean staying for 8 hours, or 7. > *Think about it, when mom comes home late, she comes home at 5.* In the linked article at the top of this post, the six-hour work day experiment ended because it was too expensive for the nursing home it was tested in. Nurses were more alert and as a result, *care and happiness amongst those being cared for increased* drastically. *However*, more nurses were hired to provide overlap for shifts. As countries become more wealthy, I think the benefits will outweigh the costs. I look forward to implementing a similar system when I am able to hire people for Ideas Never Cease[3]. Better maternity / paternity / grief leave as well! A previous employer didn't seem to give a damn while I was grieving over my miscarried daughter Zoe Elise and that added to the hurt, immensely. I don't *ever* want to make someone else feel the way I felt, it sucked. My grief was getting in the way of your *false deadline* on a project for your *still breathing* family member? Whoops, *my bad*. 🙄 But I digress. Chantal Panozzo wrote a great article for Vox[4] detailing her life in Switzerland and the amazing adjustment from American work life. Here are a few choice quotes: > In Switzerland, you don't arrive to a meeting late, but you also > don't leave for your lunch break a second past noon. If it's > summer, jumping into the lake to swim with the swans is an > acceptable way to spend your lunch hour. If you eat a sandwich at > your desk, people will scold you. > > Lunchtime is sacred time in Switzerland. When I was on maternity > leave, my husband came home for lunch to help me care for our > daughter. This strengthened our marriage. Many families still > reunite during weekdays over the lunch hour. > > Swiss law mandates a 14-week maternity leave at a minimum of 80 > percent pay. > > People in Europe took vacation seriously. Once, when I only took > 10 days for a trip to Spain, my colleagues chastised me for taking > so little time off. I learned to take vacation chunks in two-week > intervals. Well rested, I noticed that I felt more productive and > creative when I returned to work. Recent American research[5] > confirms what I was feeling: Relaxing can make you > more productive[6]. I could continue, but you get the gist. With self-imposed deadlines, I find that I am more creative in my problem-solving and often find better solutions than if I was working on problems without a time-sensitive goal attached. I believe the same thing would be applied to a shorter work day. A six-hour work day would also discourage long meetings without focus (well, long meetings *period*). I don't see big American companies making these quote drastic changes but startups? Hell yeah, definitely. Instead of focusing on "perks" like beer on tap, foosball tables, and game systems, &c, why not focus on improving the lives of your employees so they can make dope shit? Happy employees will reward you with their absolute best work. Simple. 🕸 References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]