Research suggests that reducing working hours actually boosted Iceland’s productivity.

The concern with shorter working weeks is naturally a reduction in productivity, but Iceland has reported the opposite. Researchers at The Autonomy Institute in the UK and the Association for Sustainability and Democracy (Alda) in Iceland noted that Iceland’s GDP has grown above the European and OECD average, with a growth rate of 4.1% in 2023.

“This study shows a real success story: shorter working hours have become widespread in Iceland since the successful pilot schemes and the economy is strong across a number of indicators,” said Gudmundur D. Haraldsson, a researcher at Alda.

Iceland’s shift to a shorter working week has coincided with its economy outperforming most of Europe, according to research from organizations backing four-day working weeks.

The trials saw a reduction in hours to 35 per week — losing about half a day of work — but with no reduction in pay. Since then, Iceland has seen widespread adoption of four-day weeks, with 59% of workers offered reduced hours by 2022 — a figure the researchers expect is even higher today.

Source: IT Pro

https://www.itpro.com/business/business-strategy/how-can-compressed-hours-benefit-tech-companies