It became clear what Lithuanian employers think about the 4-day work week | Business

Almost a hundred years ago, Henry Ford saw the benefits of reducing his workers’ work week from 48 to 40 hours, but only 8 percent employers in our country would currently support such changes, according to a survey of employers conducted by the Employment Service.

“Discussions regarding the 4-day work week are not only fueled by technological progress. After the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic, most people have rethought the importance of work-life balance, their career path and the place of commitment to the employer in their lives. However, such an innovation does not seem attractive to employers yet,” said Inga Balnanosienė, director of the Employment Service.

In the survey, more than half (54%) of employers said they did not support the idea of ​​a shorter working week. Most of them are in the transport and storage, accommodation and catering services, construction and agriculture sectors. Here, two-thirds of employers would not approve of a shorter working week.

Employers who are not in favor of a shorter work week see more disadvantages than advantages of such work organization. A larger part of them believe that shortening the working week would make it more difficult to organize work (60% of employers agree with this statement), and a 4-day week is not suitable for their activities (77%). Such employers do not agree that a shorter week leads to higher productivity or helps to reduce operating costs (every second employer disagrees with such possible benefits of a shorter work week).

I.Balnanosienė pointed out that the topic of these changes in the world has entered the stage of active experiments: “4-day week in the United Kingdom” is the best-known initiative so far, following which 86 percent of employers considered the possibility of applying this model in practice. In Lithuania, we are talking regarding isolated experiments for now, but we are watching the stage of discussions becoming more active.”

Electricity, gas and steam supply, information and communications, financial and insurance activities, real estate operations companies and public management institutions would support or partially support the legalization of a 4-day work week. Almost a quarter (24%) of the survey respondents said so.

Such employers believe that shortening the working week would increase employee job satisfaction (75 percent of employers agree with this statement), increase employee productivity (60 percent), and make it easier to attract talent to the company or institution (51 percent).

The largest number of employers who believe that a shorter working week would make it easier to attract talent are in the finance and insurance, electricity, gas and steam supply, public administration and professional, scientific and technical sectors.

However, almost half (48%) agree that this way of organizing work would not suit and appeal to every employee. A third (29%) believe that difficulties might arise due to the organization of work.

The annual survey of employers’ opinion was held in 2023. in October-November. During it, 2.5 thousand people were interviewed. of the country’s companies and institutions, which employ 158.5 thousand. workers.