縮短工作時間，究竟對誰更有利？

Dreaming of a shorter workday? It might be good for you, and, according to a story published in The Guardian detailing an experiment with a six-hour workday, cutting back may be good for your company, too.

你是否夢想每天都少工作幾個小時?《衛(wèi)報》在一篇報道中詳細(xì)闡述了一項針對6小時工作制展開的試驗，結(jié)果表明，縮短工作時間不僅對你有好處，對你所在的企業(yè)或許也很有利。

Swedish nursing home Svartedalens has been trialling shorter days, without reducing salaries. The premise: people everywhere are working even longer hours, but that’s not necessarily a guarantee of happier customers or satisfied, productive employees.

瑞典療養(yǎng)院Svartedalens一直在嘗試縮短工作時間，但并沒有減少員工的薪水。他們的假設(shè)是：世界各地的人都在不斷延長工作時間，但這卻未必能確保更好的用戶體驗，也未必能夠確保員工滿意度和效率得到提升。

 

 

After six months of the six-hour day (versus the usual eight hours), the nurses at the home felt less stressed and more energised. That in turn increased their quality of care, according to The Guardian. While researchers said it was too early to fully quantify the results, signs show that productivity improved and staff turnover decreased. There was one financial drawback. Fourteen new employees had to be hired to accommodate the extra shifts.

在嘗試了6個月的6小時工作日(而非常規(guī)的8小時工作日)后，該療養(yǎng)院的護士感覺壓力降低了不少，但精力卻更加充沛。《衛(wèi)報》稱，這反而提高了他們的護理質(zhì)量。雖然研究人員表示，目前就對最終結(jié)果下判斷還為時尚早，但這項嘗試的確表明，這家療養(yǎng)院的工作效率提升了，員工離職率也下降了。但這種方式的確對財務(wù)狀況產(chǎn)生了一些不利影響。為了滿足人手需求，這家療養(yǎng)院不得不招募了14名新員工。

Other companies — Toyota service centres in Gothenburg, internet start-up Brath and app developer Filimundus — cut hours and haven’t looked back since, The Guardian reported. Staff said they felt better and were now able to better balance work with family. The change also increased efficiency and productivity, and the companies found it easier to recruit top-tier staff. Martin Banck, managing director at Toyota service centres in Gothenburg, told the Guardian that profits have grown by 25% since the shift to the shortened workday.

據(jù)《衛(wèi)報》報道，包括豐田哥德堡服務(wù)中心、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司Brath和應(yīng)用開發(fā)商Filimundus在內(nèi)的其他企業(yè)，也都縮短了工作時間，而且沿用至今。員工表示，他們的感覺更好了，而且可以更好地平衡工作與家庭之間的關(guān)系。這種變化還提升了工作效率，企業(yè)發(fā)現(xiàn)更容易招到頂尖人才。豐田哥德堡服務(wù)中心總經(jīng)理馬汀·班克(Martin Banck)對《衛(wèi)報》表示，自從縮短工作時間以來，該公司的利潤已經(jīng)增長了25%。

But don’t shorter workdays mean cramming the same amount of work into fewer hours and even more stress? Researchers in South Korea found that reducing work weeks from 44 hours to 40 hours, and promising Saturdays off, only increased workload strain instead of fostering happiness. The key to making a shorter workday successful is to understand that the change in hours might not be best for everyone or every company — such options need to be altered to meet the specific job and workplace needs, according to Cali Williams Yost, a workplace strategist based in New Jersey.

可是，縮短工作時間難道不是要把相同的工作量壓縮到更少的時間內(nèi)完成嗎?這樣難道不會增加壓力嗎?韓國研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，將每周工作時間從44小時縮短到40小時，并承諾周六放假，只會增加員工的工作壓力，不會增強幸福感。新澤西職場戰(zhàn)略師卡利·威廉姆斯·尤斯特(Cali Williams Yost)認(rèn)為，成功實施這種方法的關(guān)鍵是要明白，縮短工作時間并不適用于所有人或所有公司——必須針對具體的職位和工作需求對這種模式進行調(diào)整。