Several healthcare institutions in Sweden have begun to implement six-hour work days for their employees. The experiment launched in February was aimed at reducing the average work day from eight to six hours in an effort to improve employee morale, productivity and overall well-being.
Early reports from the time change are positive. In an interview with the Guardian, Lise-Lotte Pettersson, an assistant nurse at Svartedalens care home in Gothenburg said, “I used to be exhausted all the time, I would come home from work and pass out on the sofa. But not now. I am much more alert. I have much more energy for my work and also for family life.”
Shorter work days might be ahead for other industries as well. Some private businesses have already adopted the fewer hours concept, with much success.
Martin Banck, Managing Director at Toyota Services in Gothenburg, said that the shorter work day has really provided employees and customers with solutions to common problems they frequently dealt with. “Staff feel better, there is low turnover and it is easier to recruit new people. They have a shorter travel time to work, there is more efficient use of the machines and lower capital costs – everyone is happy. Profits have risen by 25%.”
Do U.S. workers need a change?
In the United States, long hours have typically been thought to go hand-in-hand with success. However, a common side effect of increased time commitment is often low productivity, poor job satisfaction rates and more employee sick days.
Longer work hours have also shown to produce lower efficiency levels as employees may be tired, irritable and unfocused. Long periods of time at work without efficient breaks can also be negative. Exhaustion can be mental, physical and cumulative.
Working long hours can also lead to depression and health issues as immune systems falter over time. Severe lapses in judgement can occur as well, with the pressure of massive workloads always looming.
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Less can be more
Fewer hours doesn’t necessarily have to mean less efficiency. In the case of healthcare employees in Sweden, the change from eight hours to six has increased productivity and energy. Perhaps most importantly, nurses said that the quality they have been able to provide has improved, along with employee morale. Additionally, the decrease in hours has created 14 new jobs at the nursing home in Svartedalens, and several other hospitals in Sweden appear to be following suit.
According to Ann-Charlotte Dahlbom Larsson, a senior staff member at the Svartedalens nursing home, the old system of working long hours with a small number of employees wasn’t benefitting anyone.
In her interview with the Guardian, Larsson said, “Since the 1990s, we have had more work and fewer people – we can’t do it anymore. There is a lot of illness and depression among staff in the care sector because of exhaustion – the lack of balance between work and life is not good for anyone.”
With the possibility of extending the six-hour work day to other industries, it important to remember the goal of the process. This is all about improving efficiency. The same amount of work can often get done in a shorter time period, but that can only happen if breaks and down time are managed carefully. With fewer hours on the clock, idle time must be minimized to achieve the same results.
But, if Sweden’s experiment is any indication, less work, when managed properly, can lead to better productivity, energy and quality of care.
